Strategies to Manage The Impacts of Natural Hazards

• Focus on prediction, prevention or protection

  • trying to deal with it before, during, and after event
• Strategies can be short term

  • text messages
  • television
  • radio
  • rescuing people
  • providing food, water supplies and temporary shelter
• Strategies can be long term

  • training emergency services
  • education and awareness - allows people to stockpile essential items or evacuate safely
• Strategies should be sustainable and improvements in technology means taht it is increasingly possible to predict and protect against natural hazards

  • however, usually expensive and the provision of aid is often neede for the rebuilding process
  • international aid can come from governments or charitable organisations - offer various forms of assistance such as medicine, food and shelter
• Earthquakes can be identified by studying plate tectonics but predicting earthquakes is difficult and prevention probably impossible
• Earthquakes can be predicted

  • instruments such as seismometers can monitor tremors and groundwater levels and radon gas can be measured
  • epicentres and frequency of past events can be mapped to see if a pattern is developing
  • measurement of local magnetic fields
  • hazard zone map can be drawn based on geological information and ground stability
  • unusual animal behaviour
• Earthquakes can be prepared and protectedd for

  • earthquake proof or aseismic buildings and older buildings can be retrofitted
  • smart meters that cut. off gas supplies to prevent fires
  • land-use planning - important services such as schools and hospitals are buit in low risk areas
• Features of an earth-quake building

  • rubber shock abosrbers at the base to absorb tremors
  • foundations sunk deep into bedrock
  • cross-bracing steel beams allowing the building to move as a rigid structure
  • computer-controlledd weights on the roof to reduce shaking
  • construction using fire-resistant materials
  • flexible piping for electricity, water and gas
  • no bricks or concrete blocks
• Volcanoe eruptions are often unpredictable in terms of magnitude and timing
• Volcanoes can be predicted by:

  • seismometers monitor tremors caused by rising magma
  • satellites use heat-seeking cameras can measure increasing ground temperatures
  • tiltmeters and global positioning systems monitor change sin volcano shape
  • emissions of steam and gas (sulfur dioxide) can be monitored
• Volcanoes can be prepared and protected by:

  • studying past eruptions of a volcano and creating a hazard map
  • plans such as lava diversion channels, lava barriers, spraying lava with water and halting lava advance by dropping concrete slabs into the flow
  • building reinforcements e.g. sloping roofs to protect against ashfall
• Tropical cyclones are the most predictable of natural hazards - we know when they will form, we can track their movements and we know what the impacts will be
• Cyclones can be predicted by tracking them using satellites
• Cyclones can be prepared and protected for by:

  • cyclone shelters
  • buildings on stilts so not flooded by storm surge
  • embankment built along coast
  • preserve mangrove swamps to absorb the energy of storm surges
• Managing flood risks involves not only in the river channel but also thed rainage basin
• Floods can be predicted by:

  • monitoring the amount of rainfall and the change in river discharge
  • knowledge about the characteristics of the drainage basin and type of storm is valuable for determining the possible severity of the flooding
• Floods can be prepared and protected by (1):

  • hard engineering projects (physical structures that are permanent, often expensive and can impact on the environment) e.g. levees, flood barruers, flood control channels and dams
  • soft engineering projects such as afforestation, controlled flooding of meadowland and stoage basins
• Floods can be prepared and protected by (2):

  • straightening, widening and deepning the river channel by dredging and clearing vegetation
  • land-use planning to use higher land for settlements, restrict development on floodplains or increase green space
  • use of sandbags and pumps
  • adapt houses e.g. positioning power sockets to 1.5m above ground level
• Droughts can be predicted by monitoring precipitation and temperature
• Droughts can be prepared for and protected for by:

  • icnreasing water supplies by dams, reservoirs, percolation ponds, wells, pumps, and use of aquifers, water transfer by pipeline, desalination
  • water conservation such as storage tanks, spray irrigation, drought-tolerant crops, reducing deforestation and increasing water recycling
  • agricultural improvements such as planting shelterbelts to reduce wind and evaporation, building low banks across a slope to encourage infiltration and fencing to control overgrazing
  • government stockpiling supplies of water, food and medicine