🟠✅Natural Hazards Introduction Flashcards
Risk meaning
The probability of loss
Capacity meaning
Capacity - ability if people, orginisation and systems using available skills and resources
Fatalism meaning
Fatalism - belief that all events are predetermined - (fate / an act of God)
Adaptation meaning
Adaptation - process of change, allows individual/community to cope better
Fear meaning
Fear - frightened of something that could potentially be dangerous
Mitigation meaning
Mitigation - reducing loss
Acceptance meaning
Acceptance - accept risks that hazards present because the advantage is greater
Vulnerability meaning
The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards.
Hazard meaning
Potential threat to human life / properties caused by an event
How do you classify natural hazards
Geophysical -a hazard originating from solid earth (such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity)
Hydrological - caused by the occurrence, movement and distribution of water on earth (such as floods and avalanches)
Atmospheric / climatological - caused by atmospheric processes and the conditions created because i freeze (eg. Wildfires and droughts)
3 aspects of hazards
Incidence - frequency of a hazard
Intensity - the power of a hazard
Magnitude - the size of the hazard (how intensity is measured)
What are the 3P’s
Preparation
Prediction
Prevention
Preparation
Governments might consider how they can educate / prepare their population for a disaster.
Can enforce laws and building codes to govern what can be built and to what standard so hazard impacts from tropical storms / earthquakes can be reduced.
Prediction
Mechanism that tries to predict when and where a hazard will occur.
Eg. Satellites / river flow meters / sulphur dioxide meters / tilt meters
Prevention
Methods put in place to prevent hazard / hazard impacts on a population or the environment.
Eg. Fire breaks / controlled burning for wildfires
Eg. Better building laws for tropical storm hazard prevention
Why has the amount of natural hazards being reported increased?
Changes in climate conditions, especially the warming of global temperatures increases the likelihood of weather-related natural disasters. Hotter global temperatures increase the risk of droughts as well as increase the intensity of storms and create wetter monsoons.
Better technology so improved reporting.
Short term responses
Search and rescue teams
NGO’s donating food, tents and water
Medical help from NGO’s
Providing aid money
Body recovery
Mid-term responses
Re-connection of water / electrical supplies
Ongoing medical rehabilitation
Possible council in
Rebuilding of homes / creation of permit and temporary structures
Rebuilding transport links
Re-opening of schools / hospital
Long term responses
Countries providing long term aid (donation)
Countries creating enterprise zones to encourage investment
Improvement in warning systems
Improved education of hazard risks
Creating new shelter and evacuation routes
Rehoming of orphans / help return of refugees
What is the parks model?
Shows the effects of a hazard on the quality of life over a period of time as well as the responses to the hazard over time.
Which natural hazards report the greatest social and economic loses worldwide?
Economic
HIC’s as they have more developed and expensive buildings so when these get destroyed it costs much more to repair them compared to cheaper building in LIC’s.
Areas that have large exportation rates with other countries as it effects other economies.
Social
Areas of high density mean higher number of houses closer together increasing the risk from a natural hazard.
LIC’s have less prevention and mitigation methods often sacrificing the wellbeing and lives of their population (poorer healthcare and infrastructure)
Social impacts of a natural hazard
Primary
Loss of lives
Injuries
The amount of people effected (eg. Typhoon Haiyan 14.1million people)
Secondary
People evacuated
Refugees living in hazard zones
Homelessness
Areas doubling in population due to migration of people
Illness and disease breakouts (due to flood / dirty water / loss of sanitation)
Political impacts of a natural hazard
Can cause vulnerability within the country and within the population.
Puts pressure on the countries leader, if they do a good job in responding and preventing the disaster people can form a positive opinion on them, if not they will be viewed negatively.
Economic impacts of a natural hazard
Primary
Peoples houses destroyed
Haiyan = 90% tacloban destroyed
Crop destruction (eg. Haiyan = 1.1million tonnes)
Secondary
People stealing food and drink from local businesses to survive
Fishing waters contaminated
Schools staying shut (due to destruction)
International trade and farm work disrupted
Reduction in tourism
Environmental impacts of a natural hazard
Primary
Roads blocked by fallen trees / debris
Crops and farmland destroyed - could be left infertile
Airports blocked and badly damaged (eg. Tacloban airport)
Secondary
Widespread flooding
Very little running water / any running water is very dirty
Buildings (eg. Airports) staying shut
Fishing stops
Biodiversity decreases
Describe phase 1 of the parks model
Pre-disaster
Time frame - N/A
QOL - Normal
Everything is at its normal equilibrium level
Describe phase 2 of the parks model
Hazard event
Time frame - variable depending on event type
QOL - decrease
When the hazard strikes normality is disrupted, often immediately and totally.
Describe phase 3 of the parks model
Relief
Time frame - short term
QOL - decrease
During the first few hours and days efforts are made to provide food, water, clothing, shelter and medical care to all inhabitants of the affected area, and to stop continued loss and disruption directly related to the event (such as the collapse of damaged buildings, or the spread of fire or infectious disease).
Describe phase 4 of the parks model
Rehabilitation
Time frame - mid-term
QOL - Increasing slowly
Actions are designed to restore physical and community structures to at least a temporary return to normality.Mass shelter is replaced by temporary housing, the injured are transferred from field hospitals to regular hospitals, money and resources are made available to the unemployed and dispossessed. More complex than the relief, rehabilitation requires accurate assessment of needs and carefully co-ordinated planning of responses.
Describe phase 5 of the parks model
Reconstruction
Time frame - long term
QOL - back to normal or improved
Permanent changes are introduced to restore the quality of life and economic stability to at least its original level, if not to improve on the past by creating better economic opportunities and a higher quality of life.
Park model advantages
Graphical representation of how steps carried out in hazard recovery with a rough indication of time frames.
Can be used to compare hazardous events (eg. In a LIC and HIC).
The steepness of the curve shows how fast the QOL of people can decrease / increase in relation to the event of a natural hazard.
The depth of the curve shows the scale of the disaster.
Park model disadvantages
Individual nature of the event - the middle isn’t theoretical - individual of an earthquake wont mirror the model exactly. Responses will vary depending on physical profile.
Humans factors also not the same everywhere - determine the speed of recovery - Haiti is very different to Indonesia or Japan in terms of community preparedness economic wealth.
Management - community preparedness / risk sharing
A form of ​community preparedness​, whereby the community ​shares the risk ​posed by a natural hazard and ​invests collectively to mitigate the impacts of ​future hazards​.
Management - integrated risk management
The process of considering the social, economic and political factors involved in risk analysis; determining the acceptability of damage/disruption; deciding on the actions to be taken to minimise damage/disruption.
Management - mitigation
Strategies carried out to ​lessen the severity of a hazard ​(e.g. sandbags to offset impact of floo
Management - monitoring / prediction
Using ​scientific research ​and ​past events in order to know when a hazard will take place, so that ​warnings ​may be ​delivered and ​impacts of the hazard can be reduced​. In some cases, hazards may also be ​prevented when predicted early enough (e.g. predicting wildfires from climatic red flags).
Management - prevention
the methods that we can put into place as human beings to either prevent the hazard entirely or prevent some of the negative impacts of a hazard.
Management - protection
constructing buildings so that they are safe to live in and will not collapse.
Eg. Rubber shock absorbers in the foundations to absorb the Earth tremors.
Management - reconstruction
Buildings, roads and other infrastructure damaged by a hazard event are rebuilt.
Park model considers not just restoring the previous infrastructure, but improving it.
Management - rehabilitation
The restoration of basic services and facilities for the functioning of a community or a society affected by a disaster.
Management - relief
The immediate response including search and rescue, provision of emergency medical assistance and aid.
Management - resilience
The ability of a community to cope with a hazard; some communities are better prepared than others so a hazard is less likely to become a disaster. It also includes the ability to return to normal following a disaster.
Wealth - impact of a hazard effect
The wealthier the country the more likely the infrastructure in the country will be to a higher standard and be able to resist the effects of a natural hazard as more money can be put into these buildings (eg. A seismic design).
The poorer a country the less likely this is to happen resulting in weaker infrastructure so more houses are likely to be damaged in a natural event.
Poorer countries are often more densely populated (eg. Nepal vs Christchurch earthquake) resulting in thousands more deaths than in a HIC which is less densely populated.
The more wealthy a country is the easier it is for a country to obtain the money to help repair the effects (eg. Christchurch earthquake repair costs were 40billion whereas Nepal was 10billion dollars, but because New Zealand is more wealthy it was significantly easier for them to pay off all the damage costs and not be put in as bad of financial situation as Nepal)
Disaster preparedness methods, how do they reduce natural hazard effects
People are aware of what to do when a disaster strikes (eg. Evacuation methods or for an earthquake which places in the house are the best to stay in).
People are aware of the effects of the natural event and know how to take personal strategies to mitigate against the changes and adapt to them.
Stability of Government - impact of a hazard effect
If a government is unstable or corrupt it causes large amounts of inequality and poverty within the country making the population more vulnerable.
If a government is unstable/corrupt it means that less money is likely to be available for the repair and rebuilding after a natural event will be more difficult. Also preparedness may be more difficult.
If the government is corrupt it makes its self more susceptible to war and if war is occurring which a natural event occurs the number of buildings destroyed / lives lost is likely to be much higher.
Magnitude - impact of a hazard effect
This is the strength of a hazard, most hazards are measures on a scale (eg. Richter scale / volcanic explosively index VEI).
Usually the stronger the hazard the more severe the effects.
What’s the hazard management cycle
Outlines the stages of responding to events, showing how the same stages take place after every hazard.
Preparedness
EVENT
Response
Recovery
Mitigation
REPEAT
