natural hazards-g1 Flashcards
What is a natural hazard?
A natural process which could cause death, injury or disruption to humans, or destroy property and possessions.
What is difference between natural hazard and natural event?
A natural event is an earthquake or flood which doesnt disrupt human activities. For example in 2015 there were landslides in Central Sfrica killing sevral people. If the landslide had occurred in a remote area where it did not pose any threat to people it would not be considered a hazard. A natural event only becomes a natural hazard if it affects human activities.
What is a natural disaster?
A natural disaster is a natural hazard that actually happened.
What are different types of natural hazards?
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, storms, tsumani, landslides and floods.
What are geological hazards?
Geological hazards are caused by land and tectonic processes. They include volcanoes and earthquakes, landslides and avalanches.
What are atmospheric hazards?
Atmospheric hazards are caused by weather and climate. Examples include tropical storms and other extreme weather eg heatwaves(drought), hurricanes, tornadoes
What is hazard risk?
Hazard risk is the probability of people being affected by a hazard in a particular area. For example people who live close to a river may be at risk of flooding.
Why do people live in risky places?
They weigh up the advantages and disadvantages and such events don’t happen very often so they may decide to accept the risk. Some people may have little choice of where to live or may have little knowledge that where they are living is dangerous.
What factors affect hazard risk?
Urbanisation, climate change, poverty and the nature of natural hazards.
How does urbanisation affect hazard risk?
Over 50% of the world’s population now live in cities. Some of the world’s largest cities are at risk from earthquakes. Densely populated urban areas are at great risk from natural events such as earthquakes and tropical cyclones.
Explain why high population density increases the risk of disaster from natural hazards.
Because more people in a given space means that there is a greater overall demand for first aid response from any given medical center, many people will be at risk of deteriorating health or even death if they cannot receive individually the medical help they require if services are strained.
How does poverty affect hazard risk?
In poorer parts of the world, poverty may force people to live in areas of risk e.g a shortage of housing could lead people building on unstable slopes that are prone to landslides and flooding.
How does being a HIC lower the risk?
The better a population can cope with an extreme event, the lower the risk of them being severely affected. So HICS are better able to cope with flooding because they can afford to build flood defences and evacuate people.
How does climate change affect hazard risk?
In a warmer world the atmosphere will have more energy leading to more intense storms and hurricanes. Climate change may cause some parts of the world to become wetter with an increased risk of flooding. Other areas may become drier and prone to droughts and famines.
How does the nature of the natural hazards affect hazard risk?
The type of natural hazard matters because the risk from some hazards is greater than others, e.g tropical storms can be predicted and monitored giving people time to evacuate but earthquakes happen very suddenly with no warning so it is much harder to protect people.
Natural hazards that occur more often may carry a higher risk.
More severe natural hazards tend to have the greatest effects, e.g a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 killed over 15,000 people whereas a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Italy in 2009 killed around 300 people.
