Tectonics mock

Question 1

governance

Answer 1

the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions manage common affairs, it is a root case of vulnerability

Question 2

vulnerability

Answer 2

The extent to which a community, structure, services or geographic area is likely to be damaged or disrupted by the impact of particular hazard

Question 3

resilience

Answer 3

is the ability of a community to cope with a hazard and recover after a certain event

Question 4

management cycle

Answer 4

a theoretical model of hazard management as a continuous four stage cycle involving: mitigation, preparation, response and recovery

Question 5

development

Answer 5

it refers to the standard of living and the quality of life of its human inhabitants

Question 6

Assess the role of governance in determining the vulnerability and resilience of a community to tectonic hazards (12)

Answer 6

1) governance
- root cause of vulnerability on the PAR model
- administrative governance, enforcement of land-use planning, building codes, poor political system
- poor governance and corruption suggests a lack of commitment and resources to improve the countrys infrastructure and living standards
- e.g. HAITI, lack of disaster prep meant they didn’t know what to do when the earthquake struck
- concerns about political corruption and mismanagement meant that many organisations were unwilling to channel aid money through the gov directly, hampered Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient so much needs money hasn’t gone to local businesses and industries, poor resilience as a result
however:
- maybe their physical context was more important, port-au-prince on unconsolidated sediment, led tof 19 million cubic metres of debris and rubble here, difficulty for incoming aid due to blocked roads

2) Physical context
- multiple hazard zone, e.g. philippines
- greater difficulty in resilience due to frequency
- located on a convergent plate boundary risks of earthquakes and volcanoes, climatic hazards due to being in storm belt region
- over 30% of the population lives within 30km of a volcano
- mountainous terrain can lead to landslides, high levels of deforestation and high rainfall
however:
- one may argue their human factors are more significant, 25% of the pop live in poverty, informal settlements, less protection, more vulnerable

3) Development
- arguably a country needs to be developed to have good governance, development controls how resilient an economy is
- better in the management cycle, better preparation
- they can afford to have more protection measures in place, less vulnerable to the impacts of tectonic hazards
- japan’s ‘stringent seismic building codes’ and early warning system prevented many deaths, this was by letting the authorities to know to stop trains, factory assembly lines and evacuating people from the impact zones
- in comparison to Nepal which ad very limited measures in place for protection
however:
- more developed countries are arguable more vulnerable to economic repercussions, Japanese tsunami led to $300 billion in damages interconnected economy, Nissan’s profits fell by 15% due to shortages