intro to hazards

Question 1

what is a hazard?

Answer 1

an event that threatens both life and property, they often result in disasters that cause some loss of life/damage to built environments and cause severe disruption to human activities

Question 2

what is socio-economic disruption?

Answer 2

disruption to social or economic aspects of society

Question 3

what is environmental degradation?

Answer 3

deterioration of the natural environment

Question 4

what is the difference between a hazard and a disaster?

Answer 4

a disaster is the “realisation” of a hazard. a major hazard event that causes widespread disruption

Question 5

how does the UN define a hazard as a disaster?

Answer 5

• a report of 10 or more people killed
• 100 or more people affected
• a declaration of a state of emergency by gov.
• a request by the national gov. for international assistance

Question 6

what is a geophysical hazard?

Answer 6

• caused by earth processes
• can be caused by internal earth processes (tectonic activity) or external processes (geomorphological origin = mass movement)

Question 7

what is a hydrological hazard?

Answer 7

-caused by occurrence, movement and distribution of surface and underground water

Question 8

what is an atmospheric hazard?

Answer 8

processes operating in the atmosphere resulting in extreme weather or atmospheric conditions

Question 9

what is magnitude?

Answer 9

assessment of the size of the impact of a hazard event

Question 10

what is frequency?

Answer 10

distribution of a hazard through time (how often it occurs)

Question 11

how does a hazard become a disaster?

Answer 11

the hazard event e.g. floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, combined with disaster vulnerability

Question 12

what is disaster vulnerability?

Answer 12

• underlying causes of vulnerability - poverty, failing political, social and economic systems
• pressures - local scale - lack of education and training, food, ethical standards
• pressures - macro scale - rapid pop. change, rapid urbanisation, debt repayment issues, overexploitation of resources
• unsafe conditions of pop. - physical and socio-economic environment

Question 13

why is vulnerability increasing in some places?

Answer 13

population increased and increased urbanisation - pop. density increased therefore more people affected.

Question 14

what is the greatest deciding factor?

Answer 14

poverty - people are forced to live in poorer, vulnerable, unprotected, high density areas
if wealthy = more protection