Hazards

• Hazard


  A potential threat to human life and property caused by an event
• Hazards can be human caused or occur naturally (natural hazards)
• An event will only become a hazard when it is a threat to people
• Natural disaster


  An event that occurs when a vulnerable population is exposed to a hazard
• Major types of geographical hazard

  • Geophysical
  • Atmospheric
  • Hydrological
• Hazards can also be a mixture of these geographical processes
• Hydrometeorological hazards


  Hazards that are both atmospheric and hydrological
• Hazard perception


  • People have different viewpoints of how dangerous hazards are and what risk they pose
  • These perceptions are dependent on lifestyle factors which include economic and cultural elements
• Wealth


  The financial situation of a person will affect how they perceive hazards
• Wealthier people may perceive a hazard to be smaller as they are less vulnerable, but may also view a risk as greater as there is more risk of property damage and financial loss
• Experience


  Someone who has experienced more hazards may be more likely to understand the full effects of a hazard
• People who have experienced hazards are likely to have an optimistic and unrealistic outlook on future hazards
• Education


  A person who is more educated about hazards may understand their full effects on people and how devastating they can be
• Religion and beliefs


  Some may view hazards as put there by God for a reason, or being part of the natural cycle of life, so may not perceive them to be negative
• Mobility


  Those who have limited access to escape a hazard may perceive hazards to be greater threats than they are
• Fatalism


  The viewpoint that hazards are uncontrollable natural events, and any losses should be accepted as there is nothing that can be done to stop them
• Active responses to hazards

  1. Prediction

  2. Adaptation

  3. Mitigation

  4. Management

  5. Risk sharing

  
• New Zealand is an example of where risk sharing has worked
• Incidence


  Frequency of a hazard
• Low incidence hazards may be harder to predict and have less management strategies put in place, meaning the hazard could be more catastrophic when it does eventually occur
• Distribution


  Where hazards occur geographically
• Intensity


  The power of a hazard i.e. how strong it is and how damaging the effects are
• Magnitude


  The size of the hazard, usually this is how a hazard's intensity is measured

  
• Magnitude and intensity are not interchangeable terms
• Level of development


  Economic development will affect how a place can respond to a hazard
• Even if the hazard is identical, an area with a lower level of development is less likely to have effective mitigation strategies as these are costly
• There are many high income countries that are not as prepared for natural hazards as they should be, meaning they lack the management strategies for an event
• The Park Model


  • A graphical representation of human responses to hazards
  • Shows the steps carried out in the recovery after a hazard, giving a rough indication of time frame
  • The steepness of the curve shows how quickly an area deteriorates and recovers
  • The depth of the curve shows the scale of the disaster
• The Hazard Management Cycle

  1. Preparedness

  2. Response

  3. Recovery

  4. Mitigation

  
• Stage 3 - Reconstruction

  1. Restoring the area to the same or better quality of life

  2. Area back to normal - ecosystem restored, crops regrown

  3. Infrastructure rebuilt

  4. Mitigation efforts for future event
• Control line


  A model to compare hazards

  
• An extremely catastrophic hazard


  Would have a steeper curve than the average and would have a slower recovery time than the average
• Hazard models


  • The unpredictability of hazards makes the models less effective at accurately representing human responses to hazards
• Can hazard models be applied to every hazard? Are some hazards more complicated and require a more complex model?

  
• Does the model take any aspects of hazards into account such as level of development?

  
• Is there any timeframe? Do the models accurately lay out the time taken for a full response and how this changes due to aspects of the hazard such as intensity?
• Could the model be less vague/ include more steps that can be applied to all hazards?
• Does the model present hazards currently? Are there any alterations that could be made to account for hazards affected by climate change? Will the model eventually not represent human responses at the time (e.g. could the cycle stop because hazards will occur more frequently than the mitigation strategies will occur)?
• Inner core


  Solid ball of iron/nickel, very hot due to pressure and radioactive decay
• Outer core


  Semi-molten, iron/nickel