Establishing a Social Research Infrastructure for Hazards and Disaster Studies – Alberta, Canada

Establishing a Social Research Infrastructure for Hazards and Disaster Studies in Canada, funded by the Canada Research Chairs Program (Award # CRC-2020-00128). This project aims to comprehensively asset map the existing hazards and disaster scholars, educational courses, modules, and programs at designated post-secondary education organizations in Alberta, Canada (https://www.alberta.ca/designated-post-secondary-institutions-alberta.aspx). Accordingly, data were collected from the official institution websites of twelve publicly funded universities, thirteen publicly funded colleges, 56 private career colleges, eleven private faith based institutions, fifteen flight schools and two professional schools. These data include the information of (1) courses that focus on climate change, hazards, risks, and disasters, and (2) academic programs that are related to the topic of climate change, disasters, and other crises. The original data also indicate faculty members who have expertise in conducting hazard and disaster research. However, faculty members’ data (e.g., names, email addresses, and office telephone numbers) cannot be shared publicly due to privacy and ethical concerns. The users may use the courses and programs information included in this dataset to identify related faculty members. These data illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of hazards-and-disaster-specific post-secondary education resources in Alberta which might encourage hazards and disaster educators to understand the existing gaps and explore possible solutions. Researchers in Canada and internationally could use these data to navigate their potential research collaborators through related educational programs. Future students could use these data to search for hazards-and-disaster-related programs and courses, as well as contact potential faculty members in related departments. The general public could use the data to further search detailed information associated with the courses and programs they might be interested in as well as identify their community-based scholars through the courses and programs.

本数据集依托加拿大研究主席计划（Canada Research Chairs Program，资助编号：CRC-2020-00128）资助的「加拿大灾害与风险研究社会研究基础设施」建设项目而成。本项目旨在全面清查加拿大阿尔伯塔省指定高等教育机构中现有的灾害与风险研究学者、教育课程、模块及项目资源（指定高等教育机构详情参见：https://www.alberta.ca/designated-post-secondary-institutions-alberta.aspx）。据此，研究团队从该省12所公立大学、13所公立学院、56所私立职业学院、11所私立宗教院校、15所飞行学校及2所专业院校的官方网站采集相关数据。采集的数据涵盖两类信息：(1) 聚焦气候变化、灾害、风险议题的课程信息；(2) 与气候变化、灾害及其他危机主题相关的学术项目信息。此外，原始数据还收录了具备灾害与风险研究专长的教职人员信息，但出于隐私与伦理合规考量，教职人员的个人敏感数据（如姓名、电子邮箱、办公电话号码等）无法公开共享。使用者可通过本数据集收录的课程与项目信息，关联查找相关领域的教职人员。本数据集清晰呈现了阿尔伯塔省灾害与风险领域高等教育资源的优势与短板，可为灾害与风险教育工作者梳理现存缺口、探索解决方案提供依据。加拿大及全球范围内的研究者可借助本数据集，通过相关教育项目对接潜在研究合作者；未来的学生可通过本数据集检索灾害与风险相关的项目与课程，并联系相关院系的潜在指导教师；普通公众则可利用本数据集进一步查询感兴趣的课程与项目的详细信息，并通过课程与项目识别所在社区的相关研究学者。