natural hazards

• what is a natural hazard?

  a natural process that could cause death, injury or disruption to humans, or destroys property and possessions
• what is a natural disaster?

  a natural hazard that has happened
• what are the two main types of a natural hazard?

  geological hazards and meteorological hazards
• what is a geological hazard?

  hazards caused by land and tectonic processes
• examples geological hazards:

  1. volcanoes
  2. earthquakes
  3. landslides
  4. avalanches
• what is a meteorological hazard?

  hazards caused by weather and climate
• examples of meteorological hazards:

  1. tropical storms
  2. other extreme weather (e.g heatwaves)
• what is a hazard risk?

  the probability of people being affected by a hazard in a particular area
• what are the three factors effecting hazard risk?

  vulnerability, capacity to cope, nature of natural hazards
• vulnerability = the more people in a area explosed to natural hazards, the greater the probability they will be affected by a natural hazard
• capacity to cope = the better a population can cope with an extreem weather event, the lower the risk of them being severly affected
• nature of a natural hazard = type (the risk varies depending on the type of hazard), frequecy (hazards that happen more often may carry a higher risk), magnitude (the more sever tend to have the greatest effects)
• example of vulnerability = an area with a high population density on a flood plain is very vulnerable to flooding caused by extreme weather
• example of capacity to cope = HICs are better able to cope with flooding because they can afford to build defences and evacuate people
• examples of nature of natural hazards:

  1. type = tropical storms can be predicted and monitored (so people can evacuate) but earthquakes happen suddenly (so its harder to protect people)
  2. magnitude = a 9.0 earthquake in japan killed over 15000 people while a 6.3 earthquake in italy killed around 300 people