HAZARDS

• a natural hazard is an event that is perceived to be a threat to people, the built environment and the natural environment. They occur in physical environments of the atmosphere such as the atmosphere, lithosphere and the hydrosphere.
• The 3 main types of hazards:

  Geophysical : driven by the Earth's own internal energy source e.g. plate tectonics

  Atmosphereic : Driven by the processes at work in the atmosphere e.g tropical storms , droughts

  Hydrological : Driven by water bodies e.g. floods, storm surges, and tsunamis.
• 5 factors that increase hazard risk:

  Location

  GDP of country

  Food/water secruity

  Preparation

  Magnitude of hazard
• The four stages in the hazard management cycle are:

  Preparedness

  Response

  Recovery

  Mitigation
• Preparedness: Education and raising public awareness can reduce human causes and adjust behavior to minimize hazard risk. Knowing what to do can speed the recovery process and preparedness rates will be greater in areas of high risk.
• Response : effectiveness of an emergency plan will affect the speed of a response , having emergency services on hand will help. Immediate responses focus on saving lives and coordinating medical assistance. Damage assessments help plan for recovery.
• Recovery : Restoring affected area to something approaching normality. Short term would be restoration of services , therefore longer-term planning and reconstruction to the pre-event levels can occur.
• Mitigation : Actions to help redu e serveity of an event and lessening its impacts. Can be through direct intervention e.g. building designs that can withstand hurricanes or preparing defense zones that slow down or halt advancements of wildfires.
• Long term migitation strategies : natural barriers such as coral reefs , protect shore from storm surges. Support after a disaster in form of aid and insurance can reduce long term impacts - however insurance is not always available.
• 3 stages following a hazard event :

  1- Relief

  2 - Rehabilitation

  3 - Reconstruction
• Following a hazard event :

  Relief: Immediate local & global response in form of aid , expertise and search + rescue
• Following a hazard event:

  Rehabilitation: lasts for weeks or months, when infrastructure and services are restored , allows reconstruction phase to begin as soon as possible
• Following a hazard event:

  Reconstruction:

  Restoring to same or better quality of life as before event took place , includes mitigation to ensure level of destruction doesn't occur still
• Fatalism is the acceptance of natural hazards and doing nothing