When does a natural hazard become a disaster

Question 1

Hazard

Answer 1

a perceived natural/ geographical event that has the potential to threaten both life and property

Question 2

Disaster

Answer 2

The realisation of a hazard when it causes a significant impact on a venerable population

Question 3

When does a hazard become a disaster (EM- DAT database)

Answer 3

• 10+ are killed
• 100+ are affected
  -state of emergency is declared
  -international assistance is called

Question 4

What do insures class as a disaster

Answer 4

economic loses over 1.5 million dollars

Question 5

UN’s ISDR definition of disaster

Answer 5

“… exceeds the ability of the affected community to cope using own resources”

Question 6

vulnerability

Answer 6

the ability to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from a natural hazard

Question 7

Resiliance

Answer 7

the ability to protect live, livelihoods and infrastructure from destruction and to restore areas after a natural hazard has occurred

Question 8

Risk

Answer 8

The exposure of people to a hazardous event i.e. the probability of a hazard occurring that leads to a loss of lives

Question 9

The disaster risk equation

Answer 9

(Hazard x vulnerability) divided by capacity to cope

Question 10

The different ways to understand risk

Answer 10

unpredictability, dynamic hazards, Russian roulette reaction, lack of alternatives, cost benefit

Question 11

Unpredictability

Answer 11

People getting caught out by timings or magnitude of an unpredictable event

Question 12

Dynamic hazards

Answer 12

The threat of hazards isn’t constant- may increase or decrease over time. Human activity may influence this e.g. people moving into an area (urbanisation and population density)

Question 13

Dynamic pressure

Answer 13

local economic or political factors, that can affect a community or organisation- anything that makes the threat decrease or increase based on root causes

Question 14

Russian roulette reaction

Answer 14

the acceptance of risks as something that will happen whatever you do

Question 15

lack of alternatives

Answer 15

may stay in one place due to lack of options or skills

Question 16

cost benefit

Answer 16

the benefits of a hazardous location may outweigh risks involved in staying there- includes perception risk

Question 17

Human factors that affect the vulnerability and resilience

Answer 17

-governance and political conditions
-economic and social conditions
-physical and environmental conditions

Question 18

example of governance and political conditions

Answer 18

-building codes and regulations
-quality of infrastructure (government turned a blind eye in turkey-Syria because population growth)
-existence of preparedness plans
-quality of communication systems (japan use an app to alert them)
-earthquake drills (in japan, regular drills)

Question 19

example of economic and social conditions

Answer 19

-level of wealth
-access to education
-health care
-lack of income opportunities (to buy resources)

Question 20

Parts of the Pressure and release model

Answer 20

Looks at the underlying causes of a disaster.
1. Root causes
2. Dynamic pressure
3. unsafe conditions

Question 21

example of

physical and environmental conditions

Answer 21

-population density
-urbanisation
-accessibility of an area (Nepal, 2015 mountains)
-quality of housing and where its located (marginal land?)

Question 22

example of Haiti in PAR model

Answer 22

1. Haiti was heavily in debt to US, German, French banks, had to use this money to repay debt rather than improve infrastructure. 30-40 percent of budget came from aid
2. lack of urban planning, and a high population density, lack of education systems
3. a lot of illegal housing built, poor infrastructure

Question 23

Hazard and exposure score in Myanmar compared to Japan

Answer 23

Significantly high in Myanmar whereas Japan is subject to a range of natural hazards

Question 24

Vulnerability in Myanmar compared to Japan

Answer 24

Moderate risk in Myanmar whereas japan had a low risk but in comparison to other wealthy nations their risk was high

Question 25

Coping capacity in Myanmar compared to Japan

Answer 25

poor coping capacity in Myanmar, low level of internet and education whereas in Japan, coping capacity is good, elderly educated and high internet connectivity

Question 26

Overall risk in Myanmar compared to Japan

Answer 26

In Myanmar, ranked 7th out of 190 bc of elderly risk whereas in Japan ranked 133rd out of 190, due to strong coping capacity, low vulnerability

Question 27

what model shows when a hazard becomes a disaster

Answer 27

the deggs model

Question 28

hazard profile

Answer 28

way of summarising the physical processes that all hazards share to help descision makers determine areas most at risk- compares the physical processes of diff types of hazard

Question 29

how do gov use the hazard profile

Answer 29

to rank and identify hazards that should be given the most attention and resources

Question 30

examples of hazard profile categories

Answer 30

-magnitude
-spacial predictability
-areal extent
-speed of onset

Question 31

why is hazard profiling bad

Answer 31

becomes difficult when comparing volcano to tsunami as they have diff impacts on society and varying degrees of size and area impacted

Question 32

traditional strategy for hazard planning

Answer 32

individual hazard by hazard basis bc each hazard is unique so mitigation strategies should be unique

Question 33

what are hazard impacts the result of

Answer 33

interaction with physical factors and context of location e.g. development and governance

Question 34

negative about hazard profile

Answer 34

doesnt include geographical human factors like population density, urbanisation, vulnerability, etc