Hazards revision paper 1 exam Flashcards
(12 cards)
Define Earthquake?
A violent shaking of the earths crust
DEGS model?
This shows the relationship between an event and a population and how this creates a disaster; Wealth of people is an influential factor at reducing the vulnerability because wealthy people can afford cars so can escape quicker, they can afford insurance and to stabilise buildings and have access to technology like mobile phones so will recieve emergency alerts.
> Education - Better education means people know how to react in the presence of a disaster.
Location - Urban areas are more densely population which means there is a greater proportion of people that could get injured. Rural areas are less densely populated, however buildings are probably of worse quality which makes them more susceptible to fall down.
The pressure and release model?
The PAR model shows the relationship between a hazard and its wider context - this includes root causes, dynamic pressures, unsafe conditions.
ROOT CAUSES: Poor political systems like corrupt government, Lack of education on hazards which means population do not know how to react in the instance of a hazard and therefore evacuation is slow.
DYNAMIC PRESSURES - This could be a lack of emergency services or training which affects the recovery from a hazard.
UNSAFE CONDITIONS - Densely populated areas.
HAITI CASE STUDY FOR THE PAR MODEL:
Root causes - Low GDP per person of 1200; This means there is a lack of technology and buildings are probably not stabilised.
Dynamic pressures - Lack of education, training and investment
Unsafe conditions - 80% of Port au prince housing - this is the capital of HAITI - is informal slums.
1.6 Development and Governance are important in understanding disaster impact
1.6a) Inequality in terms of access to education, housing, healthcare and income can affect vulnerability and resilience
Access to education - Lack of education increases vulnerability because people do not know how to respond; People who have poor literacy cant communicate or respond to advice given.
Unequal access to housing - Poor building designs are more likely to collapse in the instance of a hazard; Densely populated houses makes it difficult to rescue people and the chance of collapse is much higher. An EQ in Iran in 2003 killed 31,000 people because clay houses collapsed.
Unequal access to healthcare - A dense population living in unsanitary conditions mean that diseases spread more quickly; Developing and emerging countries have a lack of specialist equipment which means that treating more complex injuries are harder. Age is influential for healthcare because younger people are prioritised for treatment.
Unequal income opportunities - People that do not have a stable income are more at risk to the impacts of tectonic hazards because they cannot invest in insurance which protects their valuable items and they cannot prepare emergency supplies like grab bags.
Low income have less technology so cannot make connections - this means they cannot repair or rebuild so economic losses are high.
1.6 b) Governance and geographical factors influence vulnerability and a communities resilience
Governance: Corruption in governance prevents investment into hazard mitigation and adaptation strategies; This is because developing or emerging countries are more focused on economic growth to build their economy so hazard preparation is low - this means they have to rely on international links to help them recover from a hazard event because their economy is not sufficient enough.
Geographical factors:
ACCESSIBILITY - some countries are isolated by physical barriers like mountains which makes their aid slow as its harder for search and rescue teams to get in, increasing vulnerability.
Urbanisation - Increases in urbanisation is increasing the population in areas - This can increase vulnerability as housing developments are placed on top of each other which increases the chance of collapse from a disaster. Increase population demands can also increase the amount of informal housing like slums - For example, the capital of Haiti Port au Prince have 80% of their housing as informal slums. These slums have no stability or foundations against hazards which increases a populations vulnerability. An EQ in Israel in 2003, killed 31,000 people because clay houses collapsed.
1.8 Frameworks can be used to understand the prediction, impact and management of tectonic hazards.
1.8a) Prediction and forecasting accuracy depends on the type and location of the hazard.
PREDICTION - This involves knowing when and where a natural hazard will strike so that emergency procedures like evacuation can be acted upon.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted because its hard to know when are where they will occur due to little warning signs. However, they can can use seismic gaps to identify areas that have not had a hazard in a long time, which therefore makes them overdue and more vulnerable.
Volcanic eruptions however can be predicted because warning signs appear like magma rising, increased seismic activity and increased emissions of sulphur dioxide - These changes can be detected through remote monitoring which allow temperature readings to be taken; This allows scientists to identify any abnormalities in the volcano which would indicate the possibility of an eruption. Land-use zoning can therefore occur and barriers can be placed to divert the lava flow to ensure safety of populations.
FORECASTING - This is much less precise than prediction and provides the percentage chance of a hazard occurring. Real time monitoring can be used to forecast volcanic eruptions because it provides scientists with data needed to forecast the style and possible time of a volcanic eruption. In developed countries this is effective because high levels of technology means they can communicate and therefore act accordingly. In developed countries corrupt governments are less likely so investment into mitigation and adaptation strategies are higher which means they can use land use zoning to remove people away from vulnerable areas, significantly reducing the social and economic impacts.
1.8 b) The importance of the HAZARD MANAGEMENT CYCLE - Prediction and Forecasting can be used to manage the impacts of tectonic disasters but so can the hazard management cycle
The hazard management cycle can be split up into 6 different stages -
3 stages occur before the hazard - Preparation, prediction and prevention.
3 stages that occur after the hazards - Response, recovery and reconstruction.
PREPARATION - Governments play a massive role in the preparation of a community to hazards because their actions can improve resilience and reduce vulnerability. For example, effective education can increase preparedness for hazard events as populations know how to react in the instance of an disaster. This can be seen in Japan where they hold an EQ day each year which ensures the population are educated and have emergency grab bags available.
PREDICTION AND MONITORING - Its hard to predict EQ hazards but you can predict volcanic and tsunami events through advanced technology that identify increased temperatures or magma flow of a volcano and give emergency alerts to allow people to evacuate. This is an effective strategy because mitigation and adaptation strategies can therefore be implemented like land use zoning which removes people from vulnerable areas, reducing the social impacts.
PREVENTION - its hard to fully prevent hazards because you don’t know the scale that they will be but you can use land-use zoning and Earthquake resistant design to reduce the social, economic and environmental impacts of an event when it does strike.
AFTER THE HAZARD - THE 3 R’S:
EMERGENCY RESPONSE - This is immediate help in the form of rescue teams and aid which can help to reduce the impact of hazard events by providing food, shelter, search and rescue teams and emergency response teams so people can be taken to hospital to get treated.
RECOVERY - This involves rebuilding infrastructure so that normal activities can occur and people can start to return to the way they were. Rehabilitating of injured people occurs to restore their quality of life and international assistance is given to help rebuild the country.
RECONSTRUCTION - Reconstruction occurs months or years later and helps to rebuild infrastructure, schools, telephone wires all of which are needed for education and communication levels.
Reconstruction is affected by governance and how much they prioritise recovery and the development level because developing countries have less accessibility to insurance etc which means if there buildings fall down they may struggle to rebuild and property and economic losses are high.
Reconstruction is also influenced by external aid; For example after Haiti experienced the Earthquake in 2011 economic and social losses were high due to low levels of preparation and poverty levels which meant that the population greatly suffered. Corruption in their government system meant that only 1% of aid actually went to Haitian companies and all the other aid was kept by international organisations. This meant that recovery was slow and little reconstruction took place due to high levels of corruption - Perception levels of Haiti were extremely negative which meant that little people wanted to get involved.
LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT does normally influence the rate of recovery and reconstruction but it varies and can be seen in The CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE , which occurred in New Zealand a developed country. Earthquake occurred in 2010 and was a magnitude 7; They had prediction strategies in place prior to the disaster but the scale of the EQ meant that damage was serious. Recovery attempts were poorly co-ordinated and 5 years later the city is still not repaired.
1.9 - Tectonic hazard impacts can be modified by a range of mitigation and adaptation strategies.
1.9a) Strategies to modify the event include land use zoning, hazard resistant design and diversion of lava flows.
Hazard mitigation - These are strategies meant to avoid, delay or prevent hazard events
Hazard adaptation - This reduces the impacts of hazard events - this can include better community preparedness and high tech monitoring.
MODIFYING THE EVENT: Form of mitigation because it occurs before the event.
This occurs before an event and aims to reduce how severely people experience the impacts of hazard events
1. Hazard resistant building designs - These are buildings with deep foundations that ensure stability, shatter proof windows and sloped roofs which mean that ash doesn’t build and create pressure. These strategies reduce vulnerability to a hazard event because the buildings wont collapse which reduces economic losses so that people can invest more into education etc that will further reduce vulnerability and increase resilience.
- Land-use zoning - This involves preventing building on low lying areas or areas of high risk, like near a volcano which reduces the economic and social losses if an hazard was to occur. This reduces the impact of a hazard because it prevents development on high-value land - this cant be done in developing or emerging countries because the land is needed for agriculture or industry to boost economic growth.
The Swiss cheese model can be used to represent modifying the event because the slices of cheese represent barriers and the holes represent weaknesses that can get through. This represents modifying the event through hazard resistant design and land-use zoning because low income families cannot afford to stabilise their buildings and they cannot afford to waste the land for land-use zoning which reduces it occurring.
KATES MODEL ABOUT PERCEPTION OR RESPONSE: Perception is what people believe or understand about a hazard - People in developing countries will have low perception on hazards due to low education levels - this affects their response because they will take little action in mitigation or adaptation to protect themselves against the hazard. People in developed countries are more likely to have higher perception of hazards due to higher levels of community education etc. For example, New Zealand invested in education and prediction warning systems to increase the resilience on their country.
1.9 b) Strategies to modify vulnerability and resilience include high tech monitoring, prediction, education and community preparedness.
Modifying vulnerability and resilience uses a range of strategies to increase communities abilities to cope with a hazard event - its a form of mitigation because it occurs before the event.
- Community preparedness and education - If people are educated on how to react to a hazard event the impacts are significantly reduced because evacuation is more effective reducing death toll and social costs. Education also increases preparedness which means people can stabilise their buildings or develop emergency kit and grab bags with all the supplies they would need in the instance of an event - JAPAN HOLD AN EQ DAY EVERY YEAR on September 1st
- High tech monitoring - This uses GIS mapping to identify areas high at risk to volcanic eruptions. This can reduce vulnerability because strategies can be implemented to prevent buildings and social development in these areas, which reduces the scale and economic and social losses in a disaster because there is no development in these areas. High tech monitoring can also produce early warning signs which can allow a evacuation and movement to safer areas - This reduces vulnerability because people are moved out of the high risk areas but this can only be achieved by developed countries with high levels of economic and technological ability - therefore not effective in rural areas who are more remote or emerging / developing countries.
1.9 c) Modifying the loss
Modifying the loss is an adaptation strategy that reduces how severely people experience the impacts of hazard events and allows them to recover better.
Modifying the loss can be achieved through aid and insurance.
AID - Aid can be short term or long term - Shot term aid can be search and rescue teams, access to food and water. This allows people to recover better if aid is more efficient because it can significantly reduce death toll if people are found and their injuries are treated which reduces the social costs. This means that more money can then be invested into rebuilding the country like schools and homes rather than focusing on the heath of the population.
> Aid can also be long term which is when money is given to countries to help with the last stages of the hazard management cycle, recovery and reconstruction. In Haiti the government was corrupt which meant that little money actually went to Haitian companies which significantly slowed down their recovery. The population also got a spread of cholera which killed 8000 people and further reduced their ability to recover from the event because their human capital was ill and therefore not productive.
INSURANCE - Insurance is compensation given to replace losses from a hazard event; This allows people to recover from the hazard economically and environmentally because debris is cleared and buildings can be replaced - people cannot recover socially as it doesn’t save lives and also is not accessible for all.
Hazard case studies:
MYANMAR - They are high vulnerability because they have poor coping capacity. This is because they have low levels of education so do not know how to respond to a hazard but also don’t have the literacy levels to communicate with search and rescue teams and aid workers which will slow down recovery.
JAPAN - High vulnerability to hazards because they have an ageing population, however their resilience is compromised and high because the government have prioritised education, they have high internet connectivity so can engage in high tech monitoring and are developed so can invest in mitigation and adaptation strategies like hazard resistant design, insurance and community preparedness.
HAITI: GDP per person is 1200 which is relatively low; They have a young population who can contribute to the population but the government is corrupt so there is a lack of education, training and investment in hazard preparation.
> High levels of deprivation - 25% of people live in extreme poverty and 80% of people who live in port au prince live in informal slums that are not protected against hazards.
HAWAII VOLCANO: VEI of 1 - the volcanic eruption destroyed more than 200 homes and a village was burned under 15 metres of lava. This meant that there economy suffered because less people came to visit the volcano - around 2.6 million tourists visit the volcano each year.
NEW ZEALAND EARTHQUAKE: New Zealand is a developed country - It was a 7 magnitude earthquake - they had good preparation as had prediction systems in place for before the earthquake struck however 2000 people were still injured and 181 people killed. The recovery from the EQ was incredibly slow despite them spending 20 billion to rebuild and 5 years later they were still not repaired -faced great economic losses because the city was destroyed.
JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE 2011: Magnitude 9 earthquake struck Japan - they had a great record for preparedness and preparation. Relief efforts were made straight away with over 50,000 people deployed to help with search and rescue. Government pledged 11.8 billion to rebuild the country.
Maths questions:
Mean - Add all the values up and divide them by however many values there are.
Median - calculate the middle value, this involves putting them in order of lowest to highest and then if you had 12 data sets you would calculate the 6th one.
If you have an uneven amount of data put them in number order and then the 2 sets of data. With the 2 sets of data left you add them together and divide by 2.
Mode - this is the number that appears the most.
Range - data difference between the largest and smallest data pieces.
Interquartile range -
