The World At Risk

AS Geography

What are Hazards?

• A Natural event only becomes a hazard if it involves people.

• It is the way people, social systems and environments link together that can determine whether an even is a hazard or not

Example

• A Rock fall in the Rocky mountains kills no one

• Rock fall in Wales kills 17 children

• One is a natural event – the other a natural disaster.

The Two classifications

• Hydro-meteorological

• Geophysical

Hydro-Meteorological

• Caused by running water and its processes and weather patterns

Floods Mud flows

Hurricanes Tropical Cyclones

Thunderstorms Rain

Wind storms Tornadoes

Blizzards Drought

Bushfires Temperature extremes

Sand Storms Dust Storms

Geophysical

• Caused By Earth’s processes:

• Two types:• Internal processes

:Tectonic• External processes

: Geomorphological

Volcanic Activity

Mass Movement

Earthquakes Tsunamis

Landslides Rock falls

Rockslides

Pop’n Vulnerable to human or economic lossHazardous Geophysical event e.g. Earthquake

DISASTER

Degg’s Model 1992

Definition

• A Natural process which affects people, e.g. causing loss of life or injury, economic damage, disruption to people’s lives or environmental degradation

The greater the scale of the natural hazard, and the more exposed people are, the greater a disaster is likely to be

Is the world becoming more hazardous?

Number of Natural Disasters

CRED

• CRED – Centre for research on the Epidemiology of Disasters

• CRED created EM-DAT

• CRED

EM-DAT

• EM-DAT – Stands for Emergency events database and was created by the WHO and the Belgium govt

• EM-DAT have many criteria and much info on thousands of disasters

• EM-DAT

OFDA

• OFDA – The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance

• OFDA is the office within USAID responsible for providing non-food humanitarian assistance in response to international crises and disasters.

• OFDA

IRC

ISDR

USAID

TWB OCHA

Munich Foundation

PC

UNDP

ADRC

Other Partners

Number of People Affected!

Economic losses

• The number of deaths may well be falling but the costs are rising dramatically

Questions

• Why has the number of disasters gone up but the number who have died gone down?

• Why has the death tolls gone down but the number of people affected gone up?

• Why has the death tolls gone down but the economic losses gone up?

Declining Death Tolls

Reasons

• Reflects the ability of mankind to understand natural disasters

• Improvements in prediction techniques

• Appropriate precautions

• Construction techniques

• Are these the same for the MEDC’s and the LEDC’s

Capacity and Vulnerability

• We have an increase in our capacity to cope with disaster

• We have an increase in our vulnerability through economic, socio-demographic and technological factors. These outweigh the gains in our capacity

Finally….

CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!!