multi-hazardous areas: case studies

Question 1

what is a multi-hazardous environment?

Answer 1

• this is a country that experiences multiple types of hazards

Question 2

what country is an example of a multi-hazardous environment?

Answer 2

• the Philippines, which is a group of islands located in south-east Asia, the area is vulnerable to a variety of hazards with multiple impacts

Question 3

what hazards occur in the Philippines and how?

Answer 3

1) volcanoes- the Philippines is located near a destructive plate margin in the ring of fire, where the Philippine plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate making the country have 25 active volcanoes e.g. mount mayon
2) earthquakes- these occur along the plate boundary and at fault lines where the plate has cracked under pressure of subduction and between 2000-2017 there was at least 17 magnitude 6 earthquakes
3) tropical storms- the Philippines has a latitude of 13 degrees north and south, meaning there is around 10 storms every year. they develop in the Pacific ocean and move westwards over the islands e.g. typhoon Haiyan

Question 4

what climates do the Philippines face?

Answer 4

monsoon season- the Philippines have a hot tropical monsoon climate type, characterised by distinct wet and dry seasons
-this creates months of heavy flooding which causes high relief land to become saturated and cause mass landslides
- months of droughts also occur due to El Nino

Question 5

what are some of the human factors of hazards in the Philippines?

Answer 5

1) deforestation due to rapid urbanisation, leads to more surface run off meaning water cannot penetrate into the ground causing flooding and potential landslides
- this will affect the amounts of flooding in areas due to the steep relief of the Philippines
2) the Philippines has many areas of cheap, crowded housing which increases the vulnerability of people to major disasters e.g. volcanoes

Question 6

how did the Philippines increase resilience to hazards?

Answer 6

1) communities often understand the risks of hazards, having experienced them before so in many cases people have prepared for the hazards themselves e.g. by widening rivers near settlements to prevent flooding, and by stockpiling food
2) UN programmes use real life data for early warning systems and land use planning
3) the Philippine government has increased public awareness and understanding through education
4) the government of the Philippines is committed to building resilience through risk reduction e.g. enhancing infrastructure, community resilience etc

Question 7

what is meant by top-down and bottom-up?

Answer 7

1) top-down refers to a large-scale development projects driven by governments and transnational corporations
2) bottom-up refers to organisations by communities to benefit local areas

Question 8

what is an example of a local-scale case study?

Answer 8

• Gili Trawangan, which is a small island west of Lombok in between Bali and Lombok

Question 9

what happened in Lombok in 2018?

Answer 9

• an earthquake occurred in 2018 at a destructive plate margin when the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian plate move towards each other at the Wadati-Benioff subduction zone
• pressure built up in the mantle, due to the moving plates, and was released causing seismic shocks

Question 10

what factors in Gili Trawangan made people more vulnerable?

Answer 10

1) poor building quality means in the case of an earthquake, infrastructure will collapse increasing the vulnerability of human life
2) there are no motorised vehicles on the island so people cannot evacuate efficiently
3) there are no hospitals / ambulances on the island, so there is no rapid response to people caught by the earthquake, so loss of life increases
4) the only links to the mainland are by boat, so aid only travels over by boat so may take longer to reduce deaths and access the island

Question 11

what were the impacts of the earthquake on Gili trawangan?

Answer 11

• at least 8 people died, which could reframe people from coming to the island
• reports of looting and days for military to arrive shows that the island was not seen as a major priority to the Lombok government
• the number of tourists before the earthquake was 3000 but after it was only 900, many being Indonesian rather than foreign, this reducing the amount of tourism and costs into the island

Question 12

what were the immediate responses to the earthquake?

Answer 12

• thousands of panicked tourists left the island the day after the earthquake
• many people camped outside as they were to afraid to sleep indoors, in case of collapsing infrastructure

Question 13

what were the short-term responses to the earthquake?

Answer 13

• doctors, dive instructors and tourists set up basic camps with oxygen and medical supplies
• people were organised into groups from minor to major injuries

Question 14

what were the long-term responses to the earthquake?

Answer 14

• the Ministry of Public works would implement road improvements starting on paving the roads
• the island was making a rapid recovery with restaurants and businesses receiving tourists

Question 15

what were the social long-term responses to the Lombok earthquake that helped to improve sustainability?

Answer 15

• in early 2019, the Ministry of Public Works implemented road improvements, starting with paving roads which helped people travel efficiently without any blockages
• the philippine government also agreed to reduce energy and water bills to relieve stress off of people during the times after the earthquake. this enabled them to focus on returning their community back to normal without the stress of bills

Question 16

what were the economic long-term responses to the Lombok earthquake that helped improve sustainability?

Answer 16

• by september 2019, 50% of the 500 hotels and restaurants had returned to normal operations
• the island was making a rapid recovery meaning Gili Trawangan received more visitors and tourists, which increased the economic sustainability
• however, although the area was being redeveloped tourists may refrain from returning back to the area, due to the risk of another natural hazard striking

Question 17

what were the environmental long-term responses that helped improve sustainability?

Answer 17

• tourists helped protect cultural heritage by taking part in initiatives such as beach clean ups, cleaning structures off of beaches

Question 18

what are some examples of volcanic eruptions in the Philippines?

Answer 18

• Mount Mayon is the most active volcano, having erupted nearly 50 times in the last 400 years, with the most destructive event occurring in 1814
• the last eruption was in 2018 and was noted for its lahars, with volcanic ash mixing with heavy rainfall from topical storms to produce rivers of mud
• Mount Pinatubo which erupted in 1991 being the second largest eruption on the planet in the twentieth century
• Pinatubo can be deadly as large numbers of people live in the vincinity of the volcano (500,000 people within 40km )
• the explosion was so violent that is hurled gases, ash and steam into the upper atmosphere where they continued to affect global temperatures for at least 2 years

Question 19

what are some examples of earthquakes in the Philippines?

Answer 19

• earthquakes are fairly common in the Philippines as in the twenty-first century, between 2000 and 2017 there were 17 earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 6.0Mw
• these have caused numerous deaths and damaged a large number of buildings
• one example would be the 7.2 magnitude Bohol earthquake in 2013 which resulted in over 200 deaths, 800 injuries and damage to tens of thousands of buildings

Question 20

what are some examples of tropical storms in the Philippines?

Answer 20

• Typhoon Haiyan
• on the 6th of September 2013 the system was assessed as a category 5 or super typhoon with wind speeds already reaching over 250 km/hr with gusts reaching over 300km/hr
• on the 7th of November it made landfall as the most powerful typhoon ever recorded with the highest wind speeds reaching 315km/hr