Course description

The ocean is intrinsically connected to our lives, our coast, our heritage, architecture, and to how our cities are planned. Ocean Literacy (OL) is the understanding of human influence on the ocean and the ocean’s influence on people. This course will provide architects, urban planners, marine planners, and designers with an overview of the importance of the ocean and how to consider it when planning and designing. It will showcase examples of how the ocean can be considered in diverse scales, from the design of a small product that can later connect to the ocean with its materials, the design of buildings and infrastructure that interact with the architecture and infrastructure and the overall planning of our cities, which have a deep interaction with our oceanic common systems. This training aims to provide professionals with diverse tools so they can consider sustainable ways to consider the ocean in their decision-making process.

Learning outcomes

Participants will: 

1. Understand the concept and principles of ocean literacy and how the ocean is connected to their professional fields
2. Understand the public benefits of the ocean and ecosystems provided by the ocean
3. Learn about the marine impacts and how they are connected to their areas of expertise
4. Understand solutions to overcome potential challenges they might encounter on their professions related to the ocean
5. Understand the UN Decade framework and the Agenda 2030 and explore how they can act during the Decade
6. Explore tools and approaches for ocean literacy and and how it could be implemented in their design and planning work
7. Students will be in touch with possible solutions and new approaches for the ocean

Target audience and prerequisites

This course is targeted for architects, urban planners, marine planners, designers. This course does not require prerequisite knowledge.

Course content

The course will be divided into 4 modules, with each module having different lessons. The modules will include:

Module 1: What is Ocean Literacy?

• Ocean Literacy background and Ocean literacy principles

Module 2: New paradigms for Coastal Cities

• Public benefits of the ocean
• Mangrove planning
• Coastal erosion
• Nature-based solutions and urban planning
• Urban seascapes concept

Module 3: Introduction of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the Ocean Literacy Framework

• The UN Decade and the OL Framework
• Ocean and cities - the Brazilian Alliance for Ocean Literacy How cities, planners, architects can contribute to the alliance and the Decade
• Animation Framework for the Decade
• Animations on Decade Challenges

Module 4: Ocean & People

• Sustainability challenges
• Climate adaptation: the case of Venice
• Lifecycle of the products
• Tools, resources and methodologies to assess the impact
• Ocean therapeutic services
• Inspiration and ocean
• Heritage, people and the ocean

Instructors

• • Francesca Santoro (IOC-UNESCO)
  • Ana Vitória Tereza de Magalhães, IOC-UNESCO
  • Paula Barbeito Morandeira, IOC-UNESCO
  • Adriana Olaya (Quantis)
  • Tim Beatley (School of Architecture University of Virginia)
  • Tatiana Guimarães (Ciclus Design)
  • Nadia Pinardi (Bologna University, Italy)
  • Soo Jung Ryu (Aarhus School of Architecture)
  • Ronaldo Christofoletti (Federal University of de São Paulo UNIFESP)
  • Julia Lohmann (Professor or Contemporary Design at Aalto University, Finland)
  • Hanne Strager (The Whale)
  • Francesco Musco (Università Iuav di Venezia)
  • Edem Mahu (University of Ghana)
  • Luís Pedro Almeida (CollabAtlantic, Portugal)
  • Michael Palmgren (Founder / manager at Marine Education Center in Malmö, Sweden)
  • Laurent Bopp and Joachim Claudet
  • Federico Girotto (Digital & Interaction Designer)
  • Jenny Bischoff
  • Angels Fernández (SOCIB, Spain)
    
  • Wallace J. Nichols (Author of Blue Mind, United States)
    
  • Joanne Clarke

Language of instruction

English

Learner assessment

The course will include quizzes. 

certificate

A course certificate will be provided to participants completing all quizzes.

Technology requirements/computer skills

 To complete this course, you should have access to:

• A laptop or desktop available to be used throughout the duration of the course
• Latest version of either Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari web browsers
• Access to stable internet

Course Duration and Format

The course will take place online in self paced mode and is available until 31st July 2023, with an estimated duration of 5 hours.

Application Process

For details on how to enrol in this course please send an email to ioc.training@unesco.org or oceanliteracy@unesco.org with Ocean Literacy self paced course in the subject. 

The deadline to enroll is 30 July (23:59 CEST: Central European Time). There are no tuition fees. 

UNESCO is committed to promote equal access principles. Applications from minority or underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged.

For any questions please contact the OTGA Secretariat (ioc.training@unesco.org) or the Ocean Literacy secretariat (oceanliteracy@unesco.org) always using the name of the course as email subject.

Feedback survey

At the end of the course, you will be asked to fill out a feedback survey. This information will be used to improve future courses.