HAZARDS 1 - Hazards in a Geographical Context Flashcards
(18 cards)
Definition of a hazard?
An extreme event which leads to a loss of life, health impacts and substantial damage to property and can further lead to environmental, economic and social issues
What is a geophysical hazard?
- driven by Earth’s own internal sources
- plate tectonics, volcanoes
What are atmospheric hazards?
- driven by processes at work in the atmosphere
- tropical storms, droughts, wildfires
What are hydrological hazards?
- driven by water bodies, mainly in oceans
- floods, storm surges, tsunamis
What do the implications of a hazard depend on?
- how bad the hazard is and type
- where
- income + wealth of the country
- conditions of how the hazard forms
What are primary impacts?
Those that have an immediate effect on the affected areas such as the destruction to buildings, damage to infrastructure
What are secondary impacts?
Occur after the disaster as a result of the primal impacts such as disease, economic recession or contamination of the water supplies
Perception of hazards depends on:
- effect on their lives
- historical events + impacts
- education
- media representation
- predictions
- wealth
- advantage of the event e.g. fertile soil
Why is the concept of hazards of increasing?
- media representation
- greater technology
- climate change (frequency + level)
What are the responses on a local scale?
saving possessions, safeguarding property
What are human responses on a global scale?
coordinating rescue, humanitarian aid
What is ADAM?
Automatic Disaster Analysis and Mapping
- data base from the US geological society, World Bank and World Food Programme
What is fatalism?
Acceptance that hazards are natural events that we can do little to control and therefore losses have to be accepted
What is preparedness?
Education and raising public awareness to reduce human causes and adjust behaviour to minimise the likely impact of the hazard
What is response?
Immediate responses focus on saving lives and coordinating medical assistance
- depends on the effectiveness of the emergency plan that has been put in place
What is recovery?
Restoring the affected areas such to something approaching normality
- e.g. reconstruction
What is mitigation?
Actions aimed at reducing the severity of an event and lessening its impacts
- direct intervention
- long term protection
- intervention may not be available in all areas
What is the Park Model? And what are the 3 parts of it?
Shows the restoration of an economy after a hazard
- RELIEF
- the immediate local and possibly global response in the form of aid, expertise and search and rescue - REHABILITATION
- a longer phase lasting weeks or months, when infrastructure and services are restored, albeit possibly temporary, to allow the reconstruction phase to begin as soon as possible - RECONSTRUCTION
- restoring to the same, or better, quality of life as before the event took place. This is likely to include measure to mitigate against a similar level of disruption if the event occurs again
