Hazards In A Geographical Context Flashcards
What are the 3 classifications of a natural hazard?
Geophysical, Atmospheric, Hydrological
What are geophysical hazards?
Hazards that are related to the lithosphere
Give 2 examples of a geophysical hazard?
Volcanic and seismic hazards
Can geophysical hazards be monitored and predicted?
These hazards can be monitored, but accurate prediction is difficult.
What are atmospheric hazards?
They are hazards related to the atmosphere.
Give 3 examples of an atmospheric hazard
tropical storms, droughts and tornadoes.
Can Atmospheric hazards be monitored and predicted?
These hazards are monitored, and warnings can often give people a few days’ notice of the hazard event.
What are hydrological hazards?
Hazards that are related to the hydrosphere
Give an example of a hydrological hazard?
Flooding
Can hydrological hazards be monitored and predicted?
They can be monitored, and warnings can be given
What is a natural disaster?
when a hazard has a significant impact on people.
What is risk?
the probability of a hazard happening and creating a loss of lives and/or livelihoods.
What is Vulnerability?
Vulnerability describes the risk of exposure to hazards combined with an inability to cope with them.
What is resilience?
the degree to which a population or environment can absorb a hazardous event and stay organised and functioning.
State the hazard risk equation
Risk = (hazard×vulnerability)/capacitytocope
What are the 3 features that increases a population’s ability to cope?
‣ Having emergency evacuation, rescue and relief systems in place.
‣ Helping each other to reduce the numbers affected.
‣ Having a hazard-resistant design or land-use planning to reduce the numbers at risk.
List the 3 social impacts of a hazard
Deaths, injuries and wider health impacts (including psychological ones)
List the 4 economic impacts of a hazard?
Loss of property, businesses, infrastructure and opportunities
List an environmental impacts of a hazard
destruction of ecosystems
Give 5 reasons why it’s difficult to compare impacts between countries?
‣ The physical nature of the events is different.
‣ The socio-economic characteristics of affected places are different.
‣ The economic costs in developed economies can be very large, but they are less costly in developing countries.
‣ Deaths in developed countries are usually low, but they can be high in other countries.
‣ The impacts of volcanic eruptions tend to be smaller than the impacts of earthquakes and tsunami.
Give 4 ways in which inequality can be the root causes of hazards?
inequality of access to: education, housing, healthcare and income
Which model can inequality be seen in?
The PAR model
What measures this inequality?
HDI (Human Development Index)
How much does the HDI need to be for vulnerable locations for hazards?
<0.55
How are countries with a lower HDI more vulnerable to hazards?
Many people lack basic things
A lot of housing is informally constructed
There is poor access to healthcare
Education levels are lower
What makes a good governance?
When the government of a country is good at meeting the day-to-day needs of its population
How can governments improve preparedness in 5 ways?
Land-use planning and zoning
Environmental Management
Having effective monitoring systems
Providing education and community awareness programs
Having insurance
How does population density contribute to vulnerability? (Give 2 ways)
‣ Highly populated areas may be hard to evacuate because there are so many people.
‣ Isolated populations in places that are difficult to access may take a long time to reach.
What is the current trend of hydro-meteorological hazards? And why?
They have become more common due to climate change and high rates of deforestation
What has been the trend of earthquakes since 1980?
There have been between 15 and 40 disasters per year
What is the pattern of deaths of earthquakes since 1980?
They have varied in this time period with some large events in some years
Can you give 2 examples of large earthquake disasters ever since 1980?
Banda Aceh (2004) and Haiti (2010) killing over 200,000 people each.
What has been the trend of volcanoes since 1980?
The number of volcanic disasters has been less than earthquakes
What has been the death pattern in volcanoes since 1980
Death tolls from volcanoes have been much lower than from earthquakes. There have only been 7 eruptions that have killed more than 100 people
What are mega-disasters?
These are high magnitude, high impact, infrequent disasters that affect several countries directly or indirectly
Can you give 3 examples of a mega-disaster and whereabouts it happened.
The Himalayas:
‣ Kashmir (2005), Sichuan (2008) and Nepal (2015).
Which volcano disrupted flights all over the world due to its large ash cloud?
Eyjafjallajokull (Iceland) 2010
What are the characteristics of multiple hazard zones?
- They are geologically young
- They are tectonically active
- Often on major storm tracks
- At risk from global climate perturbations like ENSO
What is ENSO?
The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a warm ocean current that replaces the usual cold current off the Pacific coast of South America.
How can ENSO affect hazards?
Hazards in ENSO years can have their effects multiplied
What is prediction?
Knowing when, and where, a natural hazard will strike so that meaningful action can be taken (e.g. evacuation)
What is forecasting?
Gives a ‘percentage change’ of a hazard occurring
Can you give an example of forecasting?
There is a 25% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake happening in the next 20 years
What are the 3 monitoring equipments used for measure chances in magma chambers of a volcano?
- Tilmeters
- Seismometers
- Gas Spectrometers
What are tiltmeters used for?
They record volcanoes ‘bulging’ as magma rises
What are seismometers used for?
Recording minor earthquakes that indicate magma movement
What are Gas spectrometers used for?
Analyzing gas emissions that can point to increased eruption likelihood
What are seismic gaps?
Areas that have not experienced an earthquake for some time and are ‘overdue’. (These areas are regarded as being particularly high risk)
What is the hazard management cycle?
A tool to help us understand the response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness for natural hazards
What does response mean in the hazard management cycle?
Immediate help in the form of rescue to save lives and aid to keep people alive
What does recovery mean in the hazard management cycle?
Rebuilding infrastructure and services after the disaster and rehabilitating injured people and their lives
What does mitigation mean in the hazard management cycle?
Acting to reduce the scale of the next disaster
What does preparedness mean in the hazard management cycle?
This involves community education and resilience building (i.e. improving prediction warning and evacuation systems)
What does the park model indicate?
Shows the difference stages of disasters
What are the 4 things does the park model show specifically?
‣ How quality of life is impacted by a hazardous event.
‣ How a range of management strategies can be used over time, from before the event to after the event.
‣ The roles of emergency relief agencies.
‣ How different areas affected may have a different response curve, depending on their level of preparedness and economic development.
