When does a natural hazard become a disaster Flashcards
Hazard
a perceived natural/ geographical event that has the potential to threaten both life and property
Disaster
The realisation of a hazard when it causes a significant impact on a venerable population
When does a hazard become a disaster (EM- DAT database)
- 10+ are killed
- 100+ are affected
-state of emergency is declared
-international assistance is called
What do insures class as a disaster
economic loses over 1.5 million dollars
UN’s ISDR definition of disaster
“… exceeds the ability of the affected community to cope using own resources”
vulnerability
the ability to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from a natural hazard
Resiliance
the ability to protect live, livelihoods and infrastructure from destruction and to restore areas after a natural hazard has occurred
Risk
The exposure of people to a hazardous event i.e. the probability of a hazard occurring that leads to a loss of lives
The disaster risk equation
(Hazard x vulnerability) divided by capacity to cope
The different ways to understand risk
unpredictability, dynamic hazards, Russian roulette reaction, lack of alternatives, cost benefit
Unpredictability
People getting caught out by timings or magnitude of an unpredictable event
Dynamic hazards
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)
Dynamic pressure
local economic or political factors, that can affect a community or organisation- anything that makes the threat decrease or increase based on root causes
Russian roulette reaction
the acceptance of risks as something that will happen whatever you do
lack of alternatives
may stay in one place due to lack of options or skills
cost benefit
the benefits of a hazardous location may outweigh risks involved in staying there- includes perception risk
Human factors that affect the vulnerability and resilience
-governance and political conditions
-economic and social conditions
-physical and environmental conditions
example of governance and political conditions
-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)
example of economic and social conditions
-level of wealth
-access to education
-health care
-lack of income opportunities (to buy resources)
Parts of the Pressure and release model
Looks at the underlying causes of a disaster.
1. Root causes
2. Dynamic pressure
3. unsafe conditions
example of
physical and environmental conditions
-population density
-urbanisation
-accessibility of an area (Nepal, 2015 mountains)
-quality of housing and where its located (marginal land?)
example of Haiti in PAR model
- 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
- lack of urban planning, and a high population density, lack of education systems
- a lot of illegal housing built, poor infrastructure
Hazard and exposure score in Myanmar compared to Japan
Significantly high in Myanmar whereas Japan is subject to a range of natural hazards
Vulnerability in Myanmar compared to Japan
Moderate risk in Myanmar whereas japan had a low risk but in comparison to other wealthy nations their risk was high
Coping capacity in Myanmar compared to Japan
poor coping capacity in Myanmar, low level of internet and education whereas in Japan, coping capacity is good, elderly educated and high internet connectivity
Overall risk in Myanmar compared to Japan
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
what model shows when a hazard becomes a disaster
the deggs model
hazard profile
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
how do gov use the hazard profile
to rank and identify hazards that should be given the most attention and resources
examples of hazard profile categories
-magnitude
-spacial predictability
-areal extent
-speed of onset
why is hazard profiling bad
becomes difficult when comparing volcano to tsunami as they have diff impacts on society and varying degrees of size and area impacted
traditional strategy for hazard planning
individual hazard by hazard basis bc each hazard is unique so mitigation strategies should be unique
what are hazard impacts the result of
interaction with physical factors and context of location e.g. development and governance
negative about hazard profile
doesnt include geographical human factors like population density, urbanisation, vulnerability, etc
