natural hazards

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Natural hazards

A perceived event which threatens live and property.

Humans live in disaster zones making them hazardous, if a volcano erupts where there a no people, it isn’t a natural hazard.

Characteristics

Clear origins

Short warning period

Exposure to risk (voluntary or involuntary)

Long-term effects

Emergency response

Risk

The exposure of people to hazardous event - threatening their own lives, the environment and others. People live in hazardous zones so they always put themselves at risk

Reasons

Unpredictable

Lack of alternatives

Cost/benefit

Changing level of risk

Vulnerability

Related to potential for loss of life/ possessions/ good environment

Varies over time and space, linked to economic development and wealth – so becoming more economically developed will lead to a reduced vulnerability but level of vulnerability will reduce as they can afford more and better protection

Economic development…

Technological advances

More prepared

Better emergency services

More education

Better protection e.g. flood walls

The perception of natural hazards will…

Socio-economic

Education

Occupation

Religion

Family

Personality

Past experiences

… Help to determine a course of action

Helplessness – impoverished, way of life

Preparation – better prepared

Types of perception

Fatalism – acceptance. Any losses are inevitable

Adaptation – willing to prepare for an event and therefore they have the will to survive it (prediction, prevention and adaption). Dependent on economic and technical status of the area they are living in

Fear – people feel so vulnerable and at risk they will move away from the area they are living in

Reducing the risk

Scale – individual / government

Community resilience

Utilise available resources

Withstand

Recover

Minimising the effects and impacts, making it easier to return to normal life

Integrated Risk Management

Identifying the hazards

Analysing data

Prioritise (e.g. susceptibility to loss)

Plan

Public awareness/ communication (education and effective warning)

Monitor the risk and hazard

Manage the risk

Prediction – satellite/ warning

Prevention - seed clouds to attempt to weather a storm

Protection - better flood protection

Park’s disaster response curve

Relief – initial emergency response

Rehabilitation – food/shelter

Reconstruction – infrastructure. Can take a very long time.

The graph is not the same for every hazardous event, meaning the time scales will be different for each, depends on other factors such as development stage as well as severity of impacts.

Distribution

Spatial coverage of a hazardous event (e.g. local - storm or global - tsunami)

Frequency

Distribution of hazard through time (e.g. Ring of Fire)

Magnitude

The size of an impact (e.g. earthquakes are measured on the Richter scale)

Effects of natural hazards

Human

Loss of life

Damage to property

Environmental

Damage to crops

Damage to infrastructure

All effects can be primary (at first instance - death) or secondary (later on - disease)