Hazards In A Geographical Context

Question 1

What are the 3 classifications of a natural hazard?

Answer 1

Geophysical, Atmospheric, Hydrological

Question 2

What are geophysical hazards?

Answer 2

Hazards that are related to the lithosphere

Question 3

Give 2 examples of a geophysical hazard?

Answer 3

Volcanic and seismic hazards

Question 4

Can geophysical hazards be monitored and predicted?

Answer 4

These hazards can be monitored, but accurate prediction is difficult.

Question 5

What are atmospheric hazards?

Answer 5

They are hazards related to the atmosphere.

Question 6

Give 3 examples of an atmospheric hazard

Answer 6

tropical storms, droughts and tornadoes.

Question 7

Can Atmospheric hazards be monitored and predicted?

Answer 7

These hazards are monitored, and warnings can often give people a few days’ notice of the hazard event.

Question 8

What are hydrological hazards?

Answer 8

Hazards that are related to the hydrosphere

Question 9

Give an example of a hydrological hazard?

Answer 9

Flooding

Question 10

Can hydrological hazards be monitored and predicted?

Answer 10

They can be monitored, and warnings can be given

Question 11

What is a natural disaster?

Answer 11

when a hazard has a significant impact on people.

Question 12

What is risk?

Answer 12

the probability of a hazard happening and creating a loss of lives and/or livelihoods.

Question 13

What is Vulnerability?

Answer 13

Vulnerability describes the risk of exposure to hazards combined with an inability to cope with them.

Question 14

What is resilience?

Answer 14

the degree to which a population or environment can absorb a hazardous event and stay organised and functioning.

Question 15

State the hazard risk equation

Answer 15

Risk = (hazard×vulnerability)/capacitytocope

Question 16

What are the 3 features that increases a population’s ability to cope?

Answer 16

‣ Having emergency evacuation, rescue and relief systems in place.
‣ Helping each other to reduce the numbers affected.
‣ Having a hazard-resistant design or land-use planning to reduce the numbers at risk.

Question 17

List the 3 social impacts of a hazard

Answer 17

Deaths, injuries and wider health impacts (including psychological ones)

Question 18

List the 4 economic impacts of a hazard?

Answer 18

Loss of property, businesses, infrastructure and opportunities

Question 19

List an environmental impacts of a hazard

Answer 19

destruction of ecosystems

Question 20

Give 5 reasons why it’s difficult to compare impacts between countries?

Answer 20

‣ The physical nature of the events is different.
‣ The socio-economic characteristics of affected places are different.
‣ The economic costs in developed economies can be very large, but they are less costly in developing countries.
‣ Deaths in developed countries are usually low, but they can be high in other countries.
‣ The impacts of volcanic eruptions tend to be smaller than the impacts of earthquakes and tsunami.

Question 21

Give 4 ways in which inequality can be the root causes of hazards?

Answer 21

inequality of access to: education, housing, healthcare and income

Question 22

Which model can inequality be seen in?

Answer 22

The PAR model

Question 23

What measures this inequality?

Answer 23

HDI (Human Development Index)

Question 24

How much does the HDI need to be for vulnerable locations for hazards?

Answer 24

<0.55

Question 25

How are countries with a lower HDI more vulnerable to hazards?

Answer 25

Many people lack basic things A lot of housing is informally constructed There is poor access to healthcare Education levels are lower

Question 26

What makes a good governance?

Answer 26

When the government of a country is good at meeting the day-to-day needs of its population

Question 27

How can governments improve preparedness in 5 ways?

Answer 27

Land-use planning and zoning Environmental Management Having effective monitoring systems Providing education and community awareness programs Having insurance

Question 28

How does population density contribute to vulnerability? (Give 2 ways)

Answer 28

‣ Highly populated areas may be hard to evacuate because there are so many people. ‣ Isolated populations in places that are difficult to access may take a long time to reach.

Question 29

What is the current trend of hydro-meteorological hazards? And why?

Answer 29

They have become more common due to climate change and high rates of deforestation

Question 30

What has been the trend of earthquakes since 1980?

Answer 30

There have been between 15 and 40 disasters per year

Question 31

What is the pattern of deaths of earthquakes since 1980?

Answer 31

They have varied in this time period with some large events in some years

Question 32

Can you give 2 examples of large earthquake disasters ever since 1980?

Answer 32

Banda Aceh (2004) and Haiti (2010) killing over 200,000 people each.

Question 33

What has been the trend of volcanoes since 1980?

Answer 33

The number of volcanic disasters has been less than earthquakes

Question 34

What has been the death pattern in volcanoes since 1980

Answer 34

Death tolls from volcanoes have been much lower than from earthquakes. There have only been 7 eruptions that have killed more than 100 people

Question 35

What are mega-disasters?

Answer 35

These are high magnitude, high impact, infrequent disasters that affect several countries directly or indirectly

Question 36

Can you give 3 examples of a mega-disaster and whereabouts it happened.

Answer 36

The Himalayas: ‣ Kashmir (2005), Sichuan (2008) and Nepal (2015).

Question 37

Which volcano disrupted flights all over the world due to its large ash cloud?

Answer 37

Eyjafjallajokull (Iceland) 2010

Question 38

What are the characteristics of multiple hazard zones?

Answer 38

- They are geologically young - They are tectonically active - Often on major storm tracks - At risk from global climate perturbations like ENSO

Question 39

What is ENSO?

Answer 39

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a warm ocean current that replaces the usual cold current off the Pacific coast of South America.

Question 40

How can ENSO affect hazards?

Answer 40

Hazards in ENSO years can have their effects multiplied

Question 41

What is prediction?

Answer 41

Knowing when, and where, a natural hazard will strike so that meaningful action can be taken (e.g. evacuation)

Question 42

What is forecasting?

Answer 42

Gives a ‘percentage change’ of a hazard occurring

Question 43

Can you give an example of forecasting?

Answer 43

There is a 25% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake happening in the next 20 years

Question 44

What are the 3 monitoring equipments used for measure chances in magma chambers of a volcano?

Answer 44

- Tilmeters - Seismometers - Gas Spectrometers

Question 45

What are tiltmeters used for?

Answer 45

They record volcanoes ‘bulging’ as magma rises

Question 46

What are seismometers used for?

Answer 46

Recording minor earthquakes that indicate magma movement

Question 47

What are Gas spectrometers used for?

Answer 47

Analyzing gas emissions that can point to increased eruption likelihood

Question 48

What are seismic gaps?

Answer 48

Areas that have not experienced an earthquake for some time and are ‘overdue’. (These areas are regarded as being particularly high risk)

Question 49

What is the hazard management cycle?

Answer 49

A tool to help us understand the response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness for natural hazards

Question 50

What does response mean in the hazard management cycle?

Answer 50

Immediate help in the form of rescue to save lives and aid to keep people alive

Question 51

What does recovery mean in the hazard management cycle?

Answer 51

Rebuilding infrastructure and services after the disaster and rehabilitating injured people and their lives

Question 52

What does mitigation mean in the hazard management cycle?

Answer 52

Acting to reduce the scale of the next disaster

Question 53

What does preparedness mean in the hazard management cycle?

Answer 53

This involves community education and resilience building (i.e. improving prediction warning and evacuation systems)

Question 54

What does the park model indicate?

Answer 54

Shows the difference stages of disasters

Question 55

What are the 4 things does the park model show specifically?

Answer 55

‣ How quality of life is impacted by a hazardous event. ‣ How a range of management strategies can be used over time, from before the event to after the event. ‣ The roles of emergency relief agencies. ‣ How different areas affected may have a different response curve, depending on their level of preparedness and economic development.