Dr. Samuel Jonson Sutanto

Disaster Risk Management and Nature Based Solution course (WSG52306) had the last lecture today on Thursday 19 June 2025. This course is a bachelor minor course with participants coming from different study programs, study levels, and from abroad as exchange students. In general, the course is divided into 2 main topics, which is disaster and natural hazards, and nature based solutions (NBS). This course is an interdisciplinary course offering topics consisting both technical and social perspectives of disaster and NBS.

This year, we offered serious gaming for flood and drought management in our course and excursion to Dordrecht, Maeslantkering, and crisis and disaster management center in port of Rotterdam. With around 40 students, we first went to Dordrecht, where the students learnt about flood management. We visited an old shipyard where the municipality build a training center for children to becoming a flood agent. They learnt on how to make a boat using the available material, how to act during flood, and what to observed. After, we did city walking tour to see some measures in place to reduce the impact of flood, such as flood barrier for houses, flood barrier for road, and stairs with a function as additional dike. In the afternoon, we went to Maeslantkering, the famous flood gate in Rotterdam. The students saw the exhibition and got field lecture by one of the guides. It is an impressive structure. In the end of the excursion, we went to Maximakazeme fire rescue in Rotterdam to learn about disaster crisis management around port of Rotterdam. There we split into 2 groups to do exercise on disaster management and practical actions to be a firefighter. We arrived back to Wageningen around 19.30 in the evening.

The final of the course will be exam on 30 June 2025. Me, as one of the coordinators of the course, hopes that the student can enjoy the course and learn many new knowledge. I wish a lot of success for the exam.