Climatic hazards COPY Flashcards
What are the economic impacts of tornadoes?
Economic
- Infrastructure (schools, roads, power)
- Agriculture – cash and food crops lost, pollution)
- Transport – bridges destroyed, road and rail damage, loss of aeroplanes
- Cost of aid
- Industrial capacity reduced (damaged buildings, loss of power etc)
Waht economic hazards are caused by depressions?
- Transport disruption: cars aquaplaning on wet surfaces, cancelled flights, bridges shut
- Industry: power lines, gales and flooding
- Agriculture: lack of sun, waterlogging of crops, wind damage
- Forestry: waterlogging and gales
(How impacts can vary over short (immediate) and long time periods (2 contrasting climatic hazards) – related to economic and technological development and population density)
Describe the European drought 2003/ 2005
- Agriculture: crop failure - Ukraine and Moldova had 80% of their annual wheat harvest lost. EU production declined by 10% (=£13bn losses) (chickens, pigs and cows died) à limited exports
- Transport: railway tracks buckled in the heat, London Underground unbearably hot, road surfaces melted (Essex). Danube – low rivers meant transport was inhibited
- Tourism: London Eye closed for one day
- Building subsidence as ground dried up and shrank
- Energy: Widespread power outage (as energy was in extreme demand for cooling). 2 nuclear power plants closed in Germany
- Loss of work days - £10m cost per day
- Benefit for UK tourism (especially after the 9/11 terrorist attack and the foot & mouth disease epidemic of 2001). Expansion of 4%
- 35,000 to 50,000 estimated deaths (elderly and young most vulnerable)
- Bodies unclaimed for weeks – Paris mortuaries overfilled, so stored in refrigerated warehouses.
- Health impacts – heat-stroke, dehydration, sunburn. Drowning after people tried to cool. Collapse of the French health sector. High pollen count (hayfever)
- Air pollution (1/3 of UK deaths associated with air pollution)
Water supplies affected à hose pipe ban (reservoirs dried up 50% below capacity)
- Alps = glacial Meltwater = flash flood (3m loss from Alpine glaciers)
- Portugal – wildfires (4000km2 of forest and countryside which is 15 of the country). Wilted trees
- High levels of pollution (900 deaths from high ozone levels)
- Fires – rare birds severely affected on the Dorset heaths
Increased eutrophication – East Anglia
(How impacts can vary over short (immediate) and long time periods (2 contrasting climatic hazards) – related to economic and technological development and population density)
Sub-Saharan African drought (Chad) – permanent and greater effects (fewer resources and economic entitlements to cope with hazards)
High pressure in Sahel region
- Heavy reliance on subsistence farming – animals die and crops fail (southern Niger- drought reduced grain harvest by a quarter = famine to 3 million)
- Land degradation
- Loss of water (water holes dried up)
- Soil erosion (loss of resources) – exploited unsustainably (over-grazing by goats and bush felling = desertification)
- Loss of sustainability in communities – abandonment of land and lifestyles from rural to urban migration
- International relief aid reliance: thousands still died from starvation (Niger – food, aid, clean water and medical supplies). Long-term aid: tube wells to guarantee water supplies, irrigation schemes and education on sustainable methods of farming)
How do impacts vary with location?
- Coastal and inland
- Ability to predict and forecast (level of technological development)
- Population density and distribution (level of perception and education)
- Urban/ rural
- Level of communication (mobility and warning systems)
- Highland and lowland
- Level of development (building type, ability to warn and evacuate)
- Remoteness
- Type and size (power) of hazard/ mix of hazards (e.g. series of blocking anticyclones)
- West/ east (depressions move west to east in the northern hemisphere) or north/ south (hurricanes diminish as they move north of the equator and cool)
Time of day, (night-time warnings are less effective)
Areal extent of the storm (wider area affected = greater potential damage)
Time of year (trees in leaf may intercept rain – not deciduous in winter)
Awareness of event (precautionary measures)
Duration (longer = greater risk of damage)
Strength of storm/ hazard
Recurrence interval and frequency of event
The extent to which climatic hazards can be predicted (GIS – tracking and forecasting, statistical analysis (plotting changes in weather observations over time)
Describe the methods of prediction for a Hurricane/ cyclone/typhoon, with examples.
Difficult – erratic path and establishment is not fully understood
Katrina – National Hurricane Centre accurately plotted the hurricane’s track and expected landfall
More weather buoys are being added in the Gulf of Mexico,
- USA National Hurricane Centre (Miami) detects potential juvenile hurricanes and tracks their movement and development
- Satellites: detect hurricanes in early stages of development and provide early warning of imminent hurricanes (info about location and movement and vertical structure and composition of the atmosphere)
- Doppler radar system – senses movement within weather systems (detects rotation) à reduced fatalities by 50%
- Visible and infrared imaging
- Reinforced aircraft fly through and over hurricanes fitted with instruments
- Weather radar can detect storms within 200 miles of the radar station
No known atmospheric conditions that automatically lead to their formation
The extent to which climatic hazards can be predicted (GIS – tracking and forecasting, statistical analysis (plotting changes in weather observations over time)
Describe the methods of prediction for a Tornado, with examples.
Difficult – erratic path and establishment is not fully understood
- Identification of unstable atmospheric conditions with scientific information – heavy research into the genesis of tornadoes (understanding of system allows better prediction)
- Forecasting
- Understanding of their formation (where cold air from Canada converges with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico), time of day and peak season
- Follow certain routes (tornado alley in Kansas)
- Tornado watches at the start of the day
- Hazard mapping
- Pressure monitoring
- Satellites
- Weather balloons
The extent to which climatic hazards can be predicted (GIS – tracking and forecasting, statistical analysis (plotting changes in weather observations over time)
Describe the methods of prediction for an Anticyclone.
- Forecasting
- Satellites
- Weather balloons
- Pressure monitoring
- Neighbourhood watches of weather
The extent to which climatic hazards can be predicted (GIS – tracking and forecasting, statistical analysis (plotting changes in weather observations over time)
Describe the methods of prediction for a depression, with examples.
23% of properties did not receive a flood warning in time
2007 depression – heavy rains predicted by the MET office
- National Flood Forecasting System
- Forecasting
- Satellites
- Weather balloons
- Pressure monitoring
Neighbourhood watches of weather
Describe some mitigation methods for a Hurricane/ cyclone/typhoon.
- Rescue services (professional rescue personnel)
- Emergency aid
- Sea defences to resist storm surges (Ivan)
- Afforestation programme – conservation of vegetation belts (mangroves) along coasts (Bangladesh following the 1991 cyclone). Complete cover of coastal forest (Dover Beach, Barbados) – reduces strength of wind and dissipates the force and height of storm surges
- Hurricane shelters (withstand hazards)
- Planning of human settlement (avoid risk areas)
Hurricane seeding (sea spray) to suppress precipitation and reduce temperatures à reduce energy
Give some mitigation methods for examples of a Hurricane/ cyclone/typhoon.
- Katrina – 58,000 National Guard personnel (from all 50 states). Typhoon Haiyan – only 70 workers were employed in the city after the disaster = slow response (hunger and thirst)
- Katrina - FEMA supplied refrigerated trucks for the mortuary team. Kuwait made a $500m pledge, India sent tarps, blankets and hygiene kits. NGOs – American Red Cross
Give some mitigation methods for a tornado.
- Long-term grants for buildings
- Tornado warnings
- Education and advice to people in prone areas (take shelter (reinforced building), go to a basement/ small room at centre of a house/, lie flat and protect your head)
- Houses built with safe rooms
- State aid (Indiana tornado 2005 - $2.4m made available) à housing
- Rescue services (Indiana – on site very quickly)
Give some examples of mitigation methods for a tornado.
- Siren went off 10 minutes before the Indiana Nov 2005 tornado
- The NOAA issue severe storm and tornado alerts (coordinates with the National Weather Service). The weather channel issue live radar reports for local areas and the development and movement of storms can be observed (television). Makes use of observations, quantitative forecast models, Doppler Radar and geostationary satellites. Offers training to meteorologists.
Give some mitigation methods for an antiocyclone.
- Education
- Water and food storage (desalinisation, pumping from aquifers, trapping behind dams and banks, extraction from rivers and lakes). Water harvesting – irrigation of individual plants, cover expanses of water, storage underground in reservoirs)
- Transport infrastructure
- Early warning systems: temperature and humidity levels determine the threshold for heat wave alerts
- Forecasts and heat alerts sent as bulk messages on mobile phones (media and electronic screens at traffic intersections and market places)
Heat treatment wings planned in hospitals (training programme for health care professionals)
Give some examples of mitigation methods for anticyclones.
Odisha State Disaster Management Authority
