haiti - multi hazard environment

• What hazards does Haiti face ?

  flood,cyclone,landslide,drought,earthqauke
• Why is Haiti vulnerable to hazards?


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• physical factors: -located in seismically active zone

  - lies in active hurricane region

  - repid deforestation for fuelwood for cooking

  - Port au Prince densely populated -40,000 per km2 due to mountainous terrain
• Social factors: - 1/2 population is unemployed

  - food insecurtiy affects 1/4 of population

  - world food programme gives 1/2 million school children a meal per day
• economic factors: - reduced tax base gov needs to support poluation

  - said to be one of worlds most economically vulnerable countries

  - GDP £1,300 per capita

  77% live on less than $2 a day
• Political factors


  their parliament and hospital collpsed
• How common are Hurricanes in Haiti: - on average they get 6 per year

  - in 2008 severe hurricane season with 3 over a 3 week period
• Why do they occur: - its location in the carribean where a lot of tropical storms begin to form with there being warm sea temps and it position on the globes lattitudes
• Impacts of hurricanes in Haiti: -2008 severe hurricane season

  - FAY, GUSTAV, HANNAH in span of 3 weeks

  - winds,mudslides,coastal surges

  - 793 deaths

  - 25000 homes destroyed

  - economic damages of 1 billion / 5% of countries GDP

  - 825,000 people affected

  - flood wiped out 70 % of countries crops

  - floods eroded soil away
• How common are earthquakes in Haiti: - on average 32 earthquakes per year
• Why do they happen: - located on plate margin where N.American slides past the Caribbean - conservative
• Impacts of 2010 earthquakes: -Jan 12 2010

  - epicentre 25km west of capital

  - shallow focus

  - killed 222570

  -injured 300,000

  - collapsed building hospitals and homes

  - 10 months after cholera spread killing 9,000
• How has Haiti prepared: National Disaster Risk Management System - NDRMS

  - take 'living with risk' approach to natural hazards
• What did the NDRMS do to prepare? - national hazard and disaster vulnerability map with help from Oxfam

  - development of emergency operations center where civil servants can manage natural disasters

  -expanding number of weather monitoring stations across the island

  - forecasting can allow people to prepare and evacuate
• How effective was this for 2008 hurricane season: - saw fewer than 800 casualties even though 865,000 were effected
• How did the NDRMS cope with the 2010 earthquake? Gas and emergency service buildings were damaged so had to rebuild meaning those meant to lead response were victims
• Responses to 2010 earthquake: - 4 million people received food aid

  - 1.2 million had access to safe water daily

  - 1.5 million received emergency shelter materials

  - 11,000 latrines installed

  - 150,000 benefitted from temporary learning spaces
• How effective were they: -still high death rate

  - didnt prevent spread of disease from foreign aid workers
• Response to 2010 earthquake built envrionment: - NDRMS emergency operations center and gov building rebuilt to higher standards

  - advice on seismic design being implemented by NGOs - homeowner driven reconstruction preferred to empower local community and provide transferrable skills
• Response to 2010 earthquake - preparation: - improved mobile technology to improve crisis mapping and sharing of infor for aid organsiations

  - farmers educated on how to manage soil and imporve agro forestry practices to increase size of forest in Haiti
• Social risks presented by hazards in Haiti: - lack of formal gov so social unrest can occur

  - hazards disrupt services that improve peoples lives eg school
• economic risks presented by hazards: - poor people cant afford precautionary measures

  - low resilience

  - impact farmers income
• physical risks: - poorest live in slums very vulnerable to collapse

  - deforestation may have to increase to build new homes
• biological risks: - flooding in slums can spread disease

  - disrupt access to freshwater