1.1 Natural Hazards Flashcards
Natural disaster
A natural hazard that endanger or affect people and infrastructure
Natural hazard
The threat of a naturally occurring event that is out of human control which could endanger or affect people or infrastructure
Meteorological hazards
Involving the weather, atmosphere or climate
Heatwaves
Bushfires
Hurricanes
Extreme weather (from climate change)
Geological hazards
Caused by the Earth and its tectonic plate movements
Earthquakes
Volcanic eruptions
Landslides
Avalanches
Risk hazard
The likelihood of an event caused by a natural hazard
Marginal land
Land that is difficult to grow crops on
Factors affecting hazard risk
Population density
Ability to cope
Living in high risk areas
High population density
Population density
The more people in an area, the more likely that they will be impacted by natural hazards
Ability to cope
The different activities and abilities populations have to deal with the risks of natural hazards and the events of a natural disaster
Living in high risk areas
People who live on more marginal land are more at risk
Naples in Italy and the island of Java in Indonesia are near to volcanoes
These areas are more likely to be affected by a volcano eruption.
San Francisco is a city on the San Andreas Fault Line
People living in San Francisco are more likely to be affected by earthquakes
High population density
The higher the population density, the more likely that some people will be affected by a natural hazard
Factors affecting ability to cope
Income
LICs often have lower quality housing than HICs
Hurricanes usually affect countries like Haiti worse than the USA because of differences in housing
Preparation
HICs usually have governments that can build flood defences and evacuate the population
Factors affecting severity of natural hazards
Magnitude
Predictability
Frequency
How magnitude affects the severity of natural hazards
A volcano erupting violently is worse than one that erupts mildly
Some hazards do more damage and injure more people than others
How predictability affects the severity of natural hazards
Some hazards are more predictable
Earthquakes are less predictable than tropical storms, so governments often can’t prepare and evacuate the population
In the 2020 Australia bushfires, forecasting the spread of the fires can allow the government to evacuate the population
