natural hazards

• factors that influence the frequency of hazards

  • climate change - warmer conditions, things such as droughts or fires become more frequent - people have to deal with them more - costly (push factor)
• factors that effect the severity of hazards

  • poverty - poor quality housing, healthcare - houses collapse easier as they are poorly built - more injuries/death - harder to respond
  • population growth/urbanisation - more people are in an area hit by a natural disaster, it increases the amount of casualties - more people = more infrastructure = more damage
  • deforestation - no tree's to absorb flood water - more land gets flooded - costly to repair
  • governments - they may or may not put plans in place that can prevent/ reduce damage of natural disaster such as flood gates
• a natural hazard is an extreme event that causes lots of loss of life, severe damage to housing or severe disruption to human activity. Natural hazards can have social, economic and environmental impact on an area
• natural hazards impacts are more severe in LIC's as;

  • more poor quality property
  • poor healthcare
  • poor infrastructure so it is harder to reach affected people
  • less money to protect people
  • less money for responses
• soils in volcanic areas are very fertile which makes them ideal for farming. This is good for farmers who rely on land to make a living. There are economic opportunities in hazardous areas such as geothermal energy in Iceland. Often volcanic regions are useful for finding natural resources such as diamonds