Concept and context hazard Flashcards
What is a natural hazard?
A perceived event that threatens life and property
What are effects of natural hazards?
- loss of life
- damage to built environment
- disruption to human activities
What are examples of natural hazards?
- volcanic activity
- seismic events (earthquakes)
- tropical storms (hurricanes,typhoons,cyclones)
What are the 5 characteristics of natural hazards?
- there origins are clear and effects are distinctive
- have short warning time before event
- exposure to risk is involuntary (usually LICs)
- most losses to life and damage to property occur shortly after event
- scale and intensity requires an emergency response
What is adaption?
The attempts by people/communities to live with a hazardous events by adjusting their living conditions to reduce vulnerability
What is fatalism?
A view of a hazard event that suggest that people cannot influence of shape the outcome. So no preventative measures are put in place. The outcome is said to be ‘God’s will’.
What is perception?
Way in which an individual/group views the threat of a hazard. This determines the response the take.
What is risk?
The exposure of people to a hazardous event presenting a potential threat to themselves, possessions and the built environment.
Give 4 reasons why people put themselves at risk
- hazardous events are unpredictable
- lack of alternatives
- changing level of risk
- cost/benefit
What is vulnerability?
Potential for loss. This will vary over time and space.
What factors affect vulnerability?
- technology
- wealth (defences)
- education
- urban areas
- hillsides and valleys
Name the 7 factors is which perception is influenced
- education
- socioeconomic status
- occupation (job)
- religion,culture
- past experience
- personality,morals
Name 3 ways people perceive natural hazards
- fatalism (acceptance)
- adaption
- fear
What is frequency?
Distribution of hazard through time
What is magnitude?
Size of impact of hazard
What is community preparedness/risk sharing?
Prearranged measures to reduce impact
- public education,
- awareness programmes
- evacuation procedures
- provision of emergency supplies
What is integrated risk management?
Process of considering social, economic and political factors involved in risk analysis, determining the acceptability of damage, deciding on actions to be taken.
What is prediction?
The ability to give warnings so that action can be taken to reduce the impact of hazard events.
What is resilience?
The sustained ability of individuals/communities to be able to utilise available resources to respond to hazard
What 3 ways do people try to manage natural hazards
- prediction
- prevention
- protection
What are the stages of the park model?
1-Pre-disaster
2-Relief
3-Rehabilitation
4-Reconstruction
What is the pre-disaster?
Before the disaster where quality of life is normal.
What happens in the relief stage?
Where medical attention, rescue services and overall care are delivered. The quality of life slowly decreases. This can last several hours to days.
What happens during the rehabilitation stage?
People try to return to the state of things to normal by providing water, food and shelter. This can last several days to weeks.
What happens during the reconstruction stage?
Where the infrastructure and property are reconstructed and crops regrown. They use this experience of the event to try and how to learn to respond next time. This can take several weeks to years.
What is distribution?
The spatial coverage of the hazard. Some have wider effect like tsunamis and volcano eruptions.
It also refers to areas that are particular effected like on plate boundaries.
