Hazards

• Hazard

  threat of substantial loss of life, impact or damage to property
• disaster

  occurs as a result of a hazard
• geophysical hazard

  driven by the earths own internal energy sources (e.g. plate tectonics, volcanoes, seismic activity, lightning, landslides, tsunamis)
• atmospheric hazards

  driven by processes in the atmosphere (e.g. tropical storms, droughts, wildfires)
• hydrological hazards

  driven by water bodies, mainly oceans (e.g. floods, storm surges, tsunamis, tropical storms)
• risk

  the probability of harmful consequences or expected losses
• risk equation

  risk (R) = (frequency or magnitude of hazard (H) X vulnerability (V)) / capacity to cope or adapt (C)
• vulnerability

  conditions determined by a physical social economic or environmental factor which increases the susceptibility of a community to the impact areas
• capacity

  a combination of all the strengths and resources available within a community, society or organisation that can reduce the level of risk or effects
• perception 


  the way someone understands or interprets a hazard
• fatalism

  an optimistic or accepting approach where people believe hazards are a part of life
• domination

  hazards are predictable and they can be better understood by scientific research
• adaption

  view that hazards are influenced by natural and human events so we can change our lives to reduce the impact
• fear

  people feel vulnerable to an event that they are no longer able to face living in the area and move away to regions perceived to be unaffected by the the hazard
• mitigation

  stratagies carried out to lessen the severity of a hazard
• management

  coordinated strategies to reduce a hazards effects including prediction, adaption and mitigation
• risk sharing

  a form of community preparedness where the community shares the risk posed by a natural hazard and invests collectively to mitigate impacts of future hazards
• incidence

  frequency of a hazard
• intensity

  power of a hazard
• the Park Model

  describes a sequence of phases following a hazard to show the step taken to return back to normal

  A) Disruption

  B) recovery

  C) hazard event

  D) pre disaster

  E) relief

  F) rehabilitation

  G) reconstruction

  
• stages of The Park Model (1991)

  1. occurs prior to the event and QOL is at normal equilibrium level
  2. hazard occurs again and QOL is at normal level
  3. event has happened and search and rescue is underway. QOL drops and stays low depending on the severity of the hazard and level of development
  4. relief strategies are underway and there are organised programmes. QOL improves
  5. long term responses to rebuild and restore normality. QOL returns to normal and can be higher than before event
• disaster life cycle

  steps that emergency managers take in planning for and responding to disasters
• preparedness strategies

  focuses on ensuring emergency services and people at risk are aware of how to react during an event
• preparedness strategies

  focus on ensuring emergency services and people at risk are aware of how to react during an event
• recovery

  equivalent to long term responses where authorities focus on clean up and rebuilding
• hazard management cycle

  1. mitigation - minimises the effects of future disasters
  2. preparedness - planning how to respond the next hazard
  3. response - how people react when the hazard occurs
  4. recovery - getting the affected areas back to normal

  
• regularity

  shows no way of predicting, and the same hazards happen again in the same circumstances
• predictability

  measure of how confident a particular hazard can be ahead of time
• magnitude

  size of the hazard as the energy is released
• frequency

  distribution of a hazard and the return interval