Hazards: Multi-Hazardous Place

Question 1

Why is California a multi-hazardous zone?

Answer 1

Because there is a variety of hazard threats which occur across the whole of California:

• wildfires (concentrated in around the central valley)
• tsunamis
• earthquakes
• volcanoes
• landslides
• storms
• drought (widespread, worst is concentrated in the South-West)

Question 2

Are there any aspects of life in California that increase hazard risk?

Answer 2

• Employment and economical growth brings lots of migration (belief that the benefits of living there outweigh the risks)
• Ignorance towards the risk, faulty knowledge leads to building homes in high risk areas (earthquakes, landslides and wildfires)
• Chaparral vegetation is adapted to burn easily (for germination) and the slopes increase wind speed to carry fire further
• Idyllic Californian lifestyle is associated with coastal living, puts people in hazardous places for landslides

Question 3

Are there any aspects of life in California that decrease hazard risk?

Answer 3

• Earthquake resistant/proof buildings
• Emergency services and planning by FEMA
• more of a social issues no physical solution
• community resilience to overcome everything

Question 4

How would you describe peoples reaction to the threat of hazards in California (and their hazard perception)?

Answer 4

• People’s perception of risk is faulty
• Denial mechanisms (denying it will happen to them)
• Some acknowledge the risks but choose to ‘tune’ it out
• Seen when wildfires occur, find people to blame and not the location of the homes

Question 5

How does the nature of the seismic hazard can influence the potential impacts on the Bay Area?

Answer 5

• Scale greater than 6MMS
• 2 faults (San Andreas and the Heyward)
• Frequency circa 150 years (Heyward is long overdue)
• Largest large earthquake was in 1906 San Andreas fault (7.8MMS)
• Can cause landslides which in turn may cause wildfires

Question 6

How do the characteristics of the Bay Area influence impacts of the seismic hazard?

Answer 6

• costal, hilly and therefore prone to landslides (therefore floods)
• soft sediment and loose gravels make it vulnerable is liquefaction
• dense population that is ever growing making transport infrastructure most vulnerable
• pockets of poverty are high at risk (minorities) as there are mostly poorly engineered buildings
• rich often build homes on surrounding slopes which are well engineered hazard resistant buildings but are at high risk of landslides or wildfires
• value of land makes land-use zoning hard, rent of sq ft is the second most expensive in the world, first in Tokyo

Question 7

How do politics and hazard perception influence the potential impacts to seismic hazards of the Bay Area?

Answer 7

• Faulty hazard perception (denial of risk)
• democrats dominate the local government
• believe in government action
• government is focused on public engagement to improve hazard response
• however they are opposed to developments that will disrupt communities and heritage making land use zoning hard

Question 8

How does community response and management help influence the impacts of the hazard?

Answer 8

• FEMA, California Governors Office and community groups are cooperating to produce the Bay Area Earthquake Plan (“safety depends on you reading the plans”)
• Residents are taught to store supplies, have a family contact plan and “stop, cover, hold!” in the event of an earthquake
• 4 task forces apart of the areas plan to rebuild Bay Area and return it back to normality including rehoming displaced residents and communications