Instituto Metropolitano de Urbanismo & Center for the Study of the Environment

The Instituto Metropolitano de Urbanismo (IMU) is a decentralized entity of the Metropolitan District of Caracas with specific mission on land use management. Due to its mandate the IMU maintains close relation with universities, technical and scientific institutions in Caracas. The Universidad Central de Venezuela is a public university with eleven departments or schools, including a medical school. The university has various centers and institutes. One of them is the Center for the Study of the Environment (CENAMB), with which the project will be connected. The Center offers undergraduate and graduate courses in connections with other units of the university. The Center is also linked with other centers and institutes, such as the IMU. The Center offers its own masters degree in Environmental Planning. It has six faculty members and nine researchers.

Objectives

  1. To identify study cases geographically defined and studied by research centers specialized in territorial planning from the perspective of environmental risks.
  2. To determine in an exposed zone a Unit of Vulnerability Analyzed.
  3. To establish strategic alliances with the research centers, local authorities and communities in the exposed vulnerability zones.
  4. To develop a Diagnosis of Vulnerability in the high-risk zones between an undergraduate course like “Environmental Risks and Urban Vulnerability,” and the communities.
  5. To characterize the Human Vulnerability and the Socionatural Risks between the graduate course Human Vulnerability and Environmental Risks and an undergraduate course like Conditioning Land Resources.
  6. To produce plans for local territorial organization environmentally sustainable and risk management between the course “Environmental Management, Territorial Organization, and Reduction of Socionatural Risks,” the extension course, “Reduction of Vulnerability and Management of Environmental Hazards,” and the Community Workshops on “Management of Local Risks,” “Diagnosis of Local Vulnerability,” and “Urban Design Environmentally Sustainable.”