Global Hazards Edexcel AS Revision
Global Hazards Edexcel AS Revision
Global Hazards Edexcel AS Revision
Global hazards
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Geography @ Okehampton College
www.greatgeography.blogspot.com
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Keywords
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The nature of hazard
A natural event such as a tsunami only becomes a hazard if it threatens humans.
There are many different types of hazard. Environmental hazards are specific events
like earthquakes or floods, usually classified into
• Natural processes: where the hazard results from an extreme geophysical or
hydro-meteorological event, such as a flood or volcanic eruption
• Natural-technological disasters: where natural hazards trigger technological
disaster (e.g. flooding causes a dam to burst)
• Technological accidents: such as Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploding
Environmental hazards are related in varying degrees to context hazards which
operate at a global or continental scale.
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geomorphological origin involving mass movements (e.g. landslides, rockslides,
rock falls)
• Hydro-meteorological hazards result from atmospheric or hydrological processes
(eg floods, storms and droughts). Hydro-meteorological hazards are those
caused by running water and its processes (hydro) and those associated with or
caused by weather patterns (meteorological). They include floods, debris and
mud flows, hurricanes, coastal storm surges, thunder and hailstorms, rain and
wind storms (including tornadoes), blizzards and other severe storms, drought,
bushfires, temperature extremes, sand and dust storms.
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when comparing years directly, because the total number of deaths can be hugely
affected by a single major disaster like this. Most deaths from disasters occur in Asia.
Or is this part of a natural cycle? Research shows that the Atlantic Ocean – where
many windstorms begin – appear to work in a cycle of peaks and troughs. The period
around 1930-1935 showed increased storm activity, with major falls and increases
occurring in cycles since then. So, although there has been an increase in hurricane
activity since the mid 1990s, there were previous increases in the 1950s and 1970s.
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Benefits versus costs: People may subconsciously weigh up the benefits versus the
costs of living in high risk areas. The benefits of fertile farming land on the flanks of a
volcano, for example, may outweigh the risk from eruptions.
Risk perception: People tend to be optimistic about the risk of hazards occurring.
They are comforted by statistics which show that the risk of death from hazard events
is far lower than that from influenza or car accidents. They also believe that if a high
magnitude event has occurred, they may be safe for the next few years, although this
is not true.
Hx
R= V
C
We can begin to understand the risk equation by first recognising that not all natural
hazards (H) are equally devastating. Certainly, the impact that earthquakes have on
buildings results in more deaths (worldwide, per year) than the effects of either
cyclones or floods. Landslides and avalanches are fast-acting hazards that tend to
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happen without warning, unlike cyclones, which can be monitored and to some extent
predicted and planned for.
Investigating the risk equation further, it is apparent that not all of the earth’s
inhabitants are at equal risk from natural hazards. For example, whilst theoretically it
is possible for nearly any location on earth to experience an earthquake, they are
likely to be far more powerful in places that are located at or near the boundaries of
the tectonic plates. The chances are that people who live along plate boundaries
would be far more likely to experience an earthquake of a large magnitude than those
who do not. In effect, this makes these people and their communities more
vulnerable (V) to earthquakes.
The concept of vulnerability is quite easy to extend to other hazards; if you do not live
in close proximity to a volcano, then you are not likely to be threatened by lava flows.
However, that is not to say that your location may not be affected by clouds of
volcanic ash, which can significantly alter the climate of places many miles, even
continents, away from their point of origin. It is important to note that vulnerability
can also be increased by other factors such as poverty.
Capacity (C) refers to the ability of a community to absorb, and ultimately recover
from, the effects of a natural hazard. We have already noted that people in Japan
increase their capacity to cope with the effects of an earthquake by regularly
practising how to respond to a major quake. In theory, this will mean that their
community will have a better chance of coping with a large earthquake than if they
had not practised these procedures. Compare this to the capacity to cope that
currently exists in a sprawling slum in the less developed world, where dwellings have
been hastily constructed from poor quality materials, and where there is neither the
time nor resources to commit to a large-scale community training programme. The
effects of this lower capacity increase the risk that this community faces from these
hazards.
As our knowledge of natural hazards has steadily grown, so too has our preparedness
for these events and our ability to cope with, and recover from, them. That said, the
risk equation shows us that millions of people are still at the mercy of the natural
environment, and that their ability to survive is largely determined by factors that are
beyond their control.
It is clear that the number of reported natural disasters is increasing with each
passing year. Some argue that this is due to improvements in technology that allow
even the smaller-scale and more isolated disasters to be recorded. Others suggest
that with international monitoring agencies like the Belgium-based Centre for
Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in operation, people are
encouraged to report the occurrence of natural hazards more than in the past thus the
numbers go up because of better recording rather than any other trend.
This falling toll due to natural hazards reflects the ability of humankind to understand
natural hazards better, including improvements in our ability to predict their
occurrence and to take the appropriate precautions (such as evacuation). For those
living in the developed world, this knowledge also encourages the construction of
houses that are more likely to withstand the effects of most natural disasters. Sadly,
this is not always the case in the less developed world.
The year 2005, in which Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the USA, was
clearly an ‘above average’ year. In 2005, the number of people who were reported to
be affected by natural disasters was more than 650 million.
Capacity
There is an increase in our capacity to cope with disaster. Logic would say that in
modern times we should be less at risk from natural hazards, because we have
increased our capacity to understand and manage the effects of disasters. Disaster
warning systems and emergency responses are better now than at any stage in
human history. The preparedness of governments to respond appropriately in the face
of crises has improved dramatically in the last few decades, with the global
community being able to provide relief within hours. Scientists and engineers have
provided us with the latest in disaster-proof building materials and governments have
increasingly strengthened building regulations through appropriate codes of
construction in disaster-prone areas.
Vulnerability
We are experiencing a simultaneous increase in our vulnerability to natural hazards.
While there have been improvements in our capacity, in the later half of the 20th
century, we have significantly increased our vulnerability to natural hazards through a
combination of economic, social-demographic and technological factors. These
factors far outweigh the gains made in terms of capacity.
The net result of urbanisation is the concentration of people and infrastructure. Even
though natural hazards have a low probability of occurring, when they strike in highly
urbanised areas, they do so with a high cost. The greatest economic cost of a natural
disaster clearly lies in replacing lost infrastructure. The hidden costs of a disaster can
also include the cost of taxpayer-funded disaster relief programmes, tax breaks to
assist communities to rebuild, and the inevitable increase in the price of goods and
services as businesses re-establish themselves after a disaster.
As the need for more land for urban centres has continued to grow, the opening up of
marginal areas which are at higher risk of natural hazards, such as floods has
occurred. Insurers have responded by charging higher premiums to those who occupy
these areas. Whilst this seems appropriate in the developed world, there are no such
guarantees of overage in the less developed parts of the world.
An ageing population
In a demographic sense, the ageing population of the developed world has, in effect,
made our communities more susceptible to natural hazards. Older people (65+) are
the least mobile in a community and have less capacity to take action either before or
after a natural disaster. In an interesting contrast, it is the mobility of the rest of the
population – who are now freer to move between locations for work or family reasons
that at any other stage in human history – that has broken down what demographers
refer to as our ‘community memory’. In the past, when people were less mobile,
communities built up a strong local knowledge about natural hazards and their likely
effect on local places. This was an effective reminder to people about the places that
were worst affected by natural hazards and helped to prevent, or at least discourage,
development in the riskier parts of the local environment. Sadly, with our increased
mobility during our working lifetimes, this community memory has diminished.
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London. This has helped the city to expand and develop to a tremendous size, despite
the fact that much of it rests on the flood plain of one of Britain’s main rivers.
We are more dependent now on our systems of water, power, communication and
transport than ever before. When these systems collapse under the onslaught of a
natural hazard, we are unable to fend for ourselves, Many of us would struggle to
cope with a power cut for a few hours, let alone for the days or weeks that might
follow a severe natural disaster. Even the infrastructure designed to protect us from
natural hazards can in effect make us more vulnerable, especially if it ages and is not
replaced. Worse still, it may not be designed to withstand the intensity of the hazard
that we might experience. Of course, this will not be evident until it is too late, as
when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005.
The future
The most affected areas will be the poorest countries and communities in the world,
particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of south-east Asia, and many of the small
island developing states. The future risk equation emphasises how the development
gap between rich and poor countries is actually widening.
Hazard trends
The term ‘hazard’ and ‘disaster’ are often used interchangeably, in spite of there
being a clear distinction between a hazard as a potentially threatening event, and a
disaster as the realisation of a hazard event.
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• Declaration of disaster deaths and casualties may be subject to political
influences. The impact of the 2004 tsunami in Myanmar (Burma) was ignored
by its government, but in Thailand, where many foreign tourists were killed, the
impact was initially overstated and then played down to conserve the Thai
tourist industry.
• Statistics on major disasters are complex to collect, especially in remote rural
areas of developing countries or densely populated squatter settlements where
statistics on population are inaccurate.
• Time-trend analysis, which involves interpreting historical data to produce
trends, can be difficult. Much depends on the intervals selected and whether
the means of data collection have remained constant. Trends can be upset by a
cluster of mega disasters, as in 2005-2006.
Frequency s the number of events of a given magnitude hat occur over a period of
time. Low magnitude events are likely to have a more frequency recurrence level,
and therefore to present more frequent but less devastating risks.
Contrasting trends
For geophysical hazards, the variations over time can be accounted for by the
clustering of events along mobile (usually destructive) plate boundaries. There have
been a number of earthquakes off the coast of Indonesia, where the Indian plate is
being subducted beneath the Burma plate. Other mobile active zones include Iran
and Turkey. However, there is no solid evidence that the frequency or magnitude of
earthquakes or volcanic eruptions is increasing. Nevertheless, geophysical activity
remains a huge killer.
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In
Urbanisation
Rural-urban migration and rapid uncontrolled growth of cities lead to:
• The development of squatter settlements on areas at risk of landslides or
flooding
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Trends in human costs of disasters
Reported deaths
The number of people reported killed by disasters fell dramatically in the 20th century
because better prediction techniques and protection measures were developed. The
death rate has levelled off in recent years in spite of better disaster management.
This is largely because of increasing numbers of hydrometeorological hazards events
which became disasters. There is a fluctuating but steady rate of around 25,000-
40,000 deaths per year. However, some years are exceptions. Several huge disasters
made 2004-05 unforgettable, the south Asia tsunami which killed an estimates
250,000, two record hurricane seasons, and the Kashmir earthquake which claimed
75,000 lives.
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Economic losses
Economic losses from disasters have grown exponentially, nearly tripling between
1980-89 and 1990-99. This is far greater rate than the growth in the number of
disasters. Insured losses have increased less dramatically than total economic losses.
It is far too simple to say that developing countries suffer the greatest number of
deaths and developed countries the greatest economic impact of disasters. The
economic losses appear greater in richer countries because of the value of their
economies and the cost of making good the damage. For example, the insurance
costs of repairing a house damaged by flood in the UK may be great, but in
Bangladesh it is not uncommon for people to lose their crops, houses, and all their
possessions in a flood, none of which will have been insured. Many developing
countries depend on cash crops or tourism for their income, and both of these can be
devastated by a natural disaster. Economic losses in poorer countries may be smaller
in actual figures but far greater as a proportion of their annual GDP. Economic losses
are increasing faster than a number of disasters, larges because of the growing
economies of many recently and newly industrialised countries, especially in Asia.
Earthquakes
The main earthquake zones are clustered along plate boundaries. The most powerful
earthquakes are associated with destructive and conservative boundaries.
Plate tectonics
• According to plate tectonics theory the lithosphere or Earth’s crust is divided
into seven major sections or plates, and a number of smaller ones. Some plates
are oceanic (e.g. the Pacific plate), others continental. These plates float on the
underlying semi-molten mantle known as the asthenosphere. There are three
major types of plate boundary – constructive, destructive and conservative –
each of which has particular geophysical hazards associated with it.
• Hotspots from within the asthenosphere generate thermal convection currents
which cause magma (molten material) to ruse towards the Earth’s surface. This
continuous process forms new crust along the line of constructive boundaries,
where the plates are diverging.
• At the same time, older crust being destroyed at destructive boundaries, where
plates converge. The type of activity here depends on whether both plates are
continental, both plates are oceanic or an oceanic plate is being subducted or
dragged down beneath a lighter continental plate.
• At conservative boundaries, two plates slide past each other and there is no
creation or destruction of crust.
• The type of movement and the degree of activity at the plate margins almost
totally controls the distribution, frequency and magnitude of earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions.
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Destructive plate boundaries
• Destructive boundaries where oceanic crust is being subducted beneath a
continental plate, or where two oceanic plates collide, produce a full range of
earthquake types (shallow, intermediate and deep). The force of compression
as the plates meet causes stresses in the crust, and when the pressure is
suddenly released, the ground surface immediately above shakes violently.
• The point at which pressure release occurs within the crust is known as the
earthquake focus, and the point immediately above that at the Earth’s surface is
the epicentre.
• At the destructive boundaries where two continental plates are colliding to
produce fold mountains shallow, highly damaging earthquakes occur. These
present a hazard risk over a wide area in countries such as India and Iran.
Other earthquakes
A small minority of earthquakes occur within plates, usually involving the reactivation
of ancient fault lines. Occasionally, earthquakes can result from human actions such
as dam and reservoir building, which increase the weight and therefore stress on the
land. These occur where there is no record of earthquakes.
Earthquake hazards
• Primary hazards result from ground movement and ground shaking. Surface
seismic waves can cause buildings and other infrastructure (e.g. pipes for water
and gas supply) to collapse.
• Secondary hazards include soil liquefaction, landslides, avalanches, tsunamis
and exposure to adverse weather. These can add significantly to the death toll.
Most of the injuries and deaths that occur in an earthquake are a result of people
being hit by falling roofs or being trapped in collapsed buildings. In the more
developed world, and especially those parts that are prone to earthquakes, buildings
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may be designed and engineered to withstand the vibrations of an earthquake. Sadly,
in less developed parts of the world, where buildings may be less rigidly constructed
or made from cheaper, readily available materials (including mud, bricks or stone),
the death toll from earthquakes can be significantly higher.
Volcanic eruptions
The world’s active volcanoes are found in three tectonics situations: at constructive
and destructive plate boundaries, and at hotspots. The type of tectonic situation
determines the composition of the magma and therefore the degree of explosivity of
the eruption, which is a key factor in the degree of hazard risk. Hazard risk can come
from dormant volcanoes which have not erupted in living memory (e.g. Mt St Helens).
The materials ejected from volcanoes can include magma (molten rock, which when
exposed above ground, is referred to as ‘lava’), volcanic gases (such as hydrogen
sulphide), ash and dust. An ‘active’ volcano is one which is in the process of erupting
or showing signs that an eruption is imminent.
The rocks that are extruded from volcanoes tend to be rich in minerals and nutrients,
and are highly sought after by miners and farmers alike. This in part explains why –
throughout history – so many settlements have been built next to or near volcanoes.
Even in this modern age, this trend continues. Around the Bay of Naples in Italy, 3
million people live within 20km radius of Vesuvius, one of Europe’s most notorious
volcanoes. It is also important to bear in mind that lava flows actually help to create
new land. The small island of Iceland, in the Northern Atlantic, was created by
volcanic activity, and continues to grow in size as the years pass. Today, Iceland is
home to almost 300,000 people, who live alongside the island’s volcanoes.
Hotspots
Hotspots are localised areas of the lithosphere which have an unusually high heat
flow, and where magma rises to the surface as a plume. Hawaii is an example. As a
lithosphere plate moves over the hotspot, a chain of volcanoes is created.
Volcanic hazards
Apart from the local impacts of lava flows the most catastrophic impacts of volcanoes
are pyroclastic flows, ash falls, tsunamis and mudflows.
Landslides
• Landslides are the seventh biggest killer with over 1,400 deaths per year,
ranking above both volcanoes and drought. Most areas affected are
mountainous, and experience landslides after abnormally heavy rain and/or
seismic activity.
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• Human factors also play a part. Deforestation of hillsides in southeast Asia and
building on hill slopes in Hong Kong have both led to widespread slides following
rain.
• We associate landslides with high rainfall areas such as those located within the
earth’s tropics. Here, where hurricanes and monsoons can dump large amounts
of rainfall in a matter of hours, soil can very quickly become saturated.
Snow avalanches
• Snow avalanches are concentrated in high mountainous areas such as the
Southern Alps of New Zealand or the Rockies of North America. Avalanches
tend to occur on slopes steeper than 35°.
• An average of 40 deaths a year in Europe and over 100 in North America are
caused by avalanches. Recent research has suggested that global warming
may be increasing avalanche occurrence, although trends in deaths have
slowed because of effective management.
Drought
Drought has a dispersed pattern – over one-third of the world’s land surface has some
level of drought exposure. This includes 70% of the world’s people and agricultural
value, which means that drought has an effect on global food security.
drought is an extended period of lower than average precipitation which causes water
shortage. Droughts can extend for as little as one year, during which the rainfall that
is received is noticeably lower than in average years. More often, however, a drought
is a dry period that extends over two or more growing seasons for years. Droughts
can be localised, occurring in relatively small regions (approximately the size of a
country or state), or they can be much larger, affecting, at their worst, entire
continents. Some parts of the world are more drought-prone than others, due to the
variability of rainfall from one season to the next. This includes large parts of
Northern Africa, Central Asia and most of Australia.
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Reduced levels of rainfall in just one or two seasons can often be coped with because
of the existing supplies of water that are held in storage such as rivers, lakes, dams
and reservoirs. The careful rationing of water use will usually help a community
manage its water needs until the rains come again. However, when surface water
storages are not recharged and replenished for a number of consecutive seasons, the
situation can become desperate. In these circumstances, all non-essential uses of
water tend to be the first to be completely restricted (in more developed parts of the
world this might include watering gardens and washing cars). After this, the situation
becomes extremely serious indeed, because it may no longer be possible to irrigate
crops and water animals, as dwindling water supplies are prioritised for human use,
At this point the ability of a community to feed itself is places under threat.
Eventually, and in the worst case, a severely drought affected community may not be
able to meet its own water needs for purposes such as drinking and sanitation. This
can lead to the rapid spread of both dehydration and disease, resulting in widespread
death.
Causes of drought
The causes of drought include the following:
• Variations in the movement of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ). As
the ITCZ moves north and south through Africa, it brings a band of seasonal
rain. In some years, high pressure zones expand and block the rain-bearing
winds. In southern Ethiopia and Somalia, where farmers depend for food on
rain-fed agriculture, famines may result if the summer rains never arrive.
• El Nino can bring major changes to rainfall patterns. In particular, it can bring
drought conditions to Indonesia and Australia.
• Changes in mid-latitude depression tracks. In temperate regions, depressions
bring large amounts of rainfall. However, if blocking anticyclones form and
persist, depressions are forced to track further north, leading to very dry
conditions. Droughts in the UK and France (1976, 1989-92, 1995, 2003 and
2006) as well as in the US Midwest in the 1930s were all related to this cause.
Drought hazards
Drought leads to failure of crops and loss of livestock, wildfires, dust storms and
famine. It has economic impacts on agriculture and water-related businesses in
developed countries.
Flooding
Flooding is a frequent hazard and is evident in some 33% of the world’s area, which is
inhabited by over 80% of its population. Regional scale, high magnitude floods are
frequent events in India/Bangladesh and China.
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A
flood occurs when land that is usually dry becomes inundated. In most cases, floods
occur after a prolonged period of rainfall, which causes water course to burst their
banks and overflow. Sometimes, floods occur because the systems that have been
designed to cope with average levels of rainfall, such as storm water drains and levee
banks, simply fail to work properly because of a blockage or a structural weakness.
Floods can even occur in regions that have experienced no recent rainfall themselves.
Floods can even occur in regions that have experienced no recent rainfall themselves.
This is especially true of regions that lie downstream of regions with heavy rainfall or
vast amounts of melt water.
Some areas are more prone to flooding than others. For example, the relatively low-
lying nation of Bangladesh is regularly inundated by melt waters that originate in the
mountainous regions of its neighbours India and Nepal.
Causes of flooding
• By far the most common cause is excessive rainfall related to atmospheric
processes, including monsoon rainfall and cyclones. In temperate climates, a
series of depressions sometimes brings prolonged high rainfall.
• Intense rainfall sometimes associated with thunderstorms can lead to localised
flash flooding. These sudden floods can have a devastating impact.
• The El Nino Southern Oscillation can bring devastating floods, as in Mozambique
in 1997 and 2006.
• Rapid snowmelt can add water to an already swollen river system.
Flooding hazards
In developing countries flooding may lead to deaths by drowning and disease,
destruction of food crops and infrastructure and loss of homes. In developed
countries it disrupts transport and infrastructure, damages livelihoods and creates
high insurance costs.
Storms
• Storms include tropical cyclones, mid-latitude storms and tornadoes. Tropical
cyclones are violent storms between 200 and 700km in diameter. They occur in
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the latitudes 5-20° north and south of the equator. Once generated, cyclones
tend to move westward and are at their height of destruction.
• Tropical cyclones or hurricanes will only occur over warm ocean (over 26°C) of at
least 70m depth at least 5°N or 5°S of the equator in order that the Coriolis
effect (very weak at the equator) can bring about rotation of air.
Cyclones
The term ‘cyclone’ can be applied to any area of low atmospheric pressure that is
created when air rises from the surface of the earth. As the air rises into the
atmosphere, it is cooled and condensation occurs. This may result in the formation of
clouds and eventually precipitation, both of which often characterise low pressure
systems. As he rising air is relatively unstable, cyclone can also bring windy
conditions and are often associated with storms. Tropical cyclones, also commonly
known as hurricanes and typhoons, are fuelled and formed by warm ocean water.
Temperate cyclones are formed when air of different characteristics converges and
rises, drawn upwards by an accelerating jet stream.
The most intense cyclones are those that develop over the warm waters of the earth’s
tropics. Here, the warmth of the tropical ocean rapidly heats the air lying just above
its surface. As the air rises into the atmosphere, condensation is rapid and cloud
formation occurs quickly. The tropical cyclones that result from this process are often
very large, and their behaviour can be extremely hard to predict. Tropical cyclones
that begin life in the Atlantic Ocean are often referred to as ‘hurricanes’. Those that
begin in the Pacific Ocean are sometimes called ‘typhoons’ (Asia) or ‘cyclones’
(Australia).
Tropical cyclones can continue to grow in size and strength while they remain over a
warm ocean. Usually, the point at which a cyclone crosses a coastline will be the
point of greatest destruction. For those living in small island communities, such as
those found throughout Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean, a tropical cyclone can spell
potential devastation for an entire island. Once cyclones cross from sea to land, they
tend to lose their strength rapidly, as they are no longer fed by the warmth and
moisture of the oceans. Often, they end up as much less violent ‘rain-bearing
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depressions’ which can bring large amounts of much-needed rainfall to relatively dry
inland areas.
Disaster hotspots
Identifying and defining hazard hotspots
In 2001 the World Bank’s Disaster
Management Facility, together
with the Center of Hazard and
Risk Management at Columbia
University began a project to
identify disaster hotspots, not only
at a country level but within a
country. These hotspots are
multiple hazard zones. The
project assessed the risk of death
and damage. The level of risk
was estimated by combining
exposure to the six major natural
hazards (earthquakes, volcanoes,
landslides, floods, drought and
storms). Historical vulnerability (from data from the last 30 years) was combined with
potential vulnerability based on size, density and poverty of the population (as
measures of mortality) and GDP per unit area (as a measure of potential economic
damage).
The World Bank’s global risk analysis was noteworthy for its use of geographic
information systems techniques. Grid squares of 2.5 minutes latitude and longitude
were used as a base for various estimates of hazard probability, occurrence and
extent, and these were then related to the economic value of the land, its population
and population density, and vulnerability profiles. As the aim was to identify disaster
as opposed to hazard hotspots, only cells with a minimum population of 105 or
densities or above 5 per km² were entered on the database of around 4 million cells.
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DISASTER HOTSPOTS: THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippines, an island arc in southeast Asia,
consists of over 7,000 islands, many very
small, concentrated at latitudes between 5 and
20°N of the equator. It lies in a belt of tropical
cyclones (typhoons) and astride an active plate
boundary. The dense oceanic Philippines plate
is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate.
The country experiences a tropical monsoon
climate and is subject to heavy rainfall.
Flooding can lead to landslides because of the
deforestation of many hillsides.
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programmes of defences help people to survive the huge range of hazards facing
them.
• It sits across a major plate boundary, so it faces significant risks from volcanoes
and earthquakes
• Its northern and eastern coasts face the Pacific, the world’s most tsunami-prone
ocean.
• It lies within south-east Asia’s major typhoon belts. In most years, it is affected
by 15 typhoons and struck by 5 or 6 of them.
• Landslides are common in mountain districts
Area: the Philippines consists of about 7000 islands, and is 25% bigger than the UK
Population: 91 million in 2007
Wealth: GDP in 2006 was US$5000 per capita; a middle income country according to
the World Bank
Landscape: mostly mountainous, with coastal lowlands, many people live and work on
steeply sloping land
By 9 June 1991, 58 000 had been evacuated reaching 200 000 by 12 June (when the
first eruption sent a cloud of ash 20km into the atmosphere, spreading over South-
East Asia within three days). The second eruption, on 15 June, was cataclysmic, a
dome on the side of the volcano collapsed, creating a pyroclastic blast and causing
huge lahars. However, effective monitoring and management reduced Pinatubo’s
death and injury toll to just over 4300 people.
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The Philippines lies on the boundary between two tectonic plates, the Philippine and
Eurasian. The Eurasian Plate is forced beneath the Philippine, creating the deep
Manila Ocean Trench, to the west. The plates move in a series of ‘jerks’, producing an
earthquake each time they do so.
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California is home to the megacity of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Much
of the coastline is ‘crowded’ as various land uses compete for prime space. The
human-physical interface increases the danger from hazards, and only sophisticated
management prevents California from becoming a disaster zone (recent major events
such as the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 led to very few deaths). Nevertheless
California contains an underclass of around 3.5 million people, many of them semi-
legal migrants, a large proportion of whom live in hazardous locations.
Ever since 1849, when gold was discovered, California has been one of the most
desirable places to live in the USA. It is wealthy; its economy is the world’s sixth
largest, bigger than France or Italy. 25 Californian counties have per capita incomes
of over US$65 000 (about £35 000) per year, making them amongst the world’s
wealthiest places. Yet the risk map above, showing the likelihood of hazard
occurrences, identifies California as the USA’s most hazardous state. There are two
reasons for this: plate tectonics and climatic patterns, particularly those related to El
Nino and La Nina.
These faults move regularly, causing earthquakes. In 1906, San Francisco was
destroyed in an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter Scale. It fractured gas pipes
(which caused explosions and fires) and water mains (which could have prevented the
spread of the fires). A further earthquake, of magnitude 7.1, occurred in 1989. With
is epicentre at Loma Prieta, it caused major damage and deaths. Some buildings
collapsed, while others were badly shaken. Five years later, a further earthquake
shook Northridge in Los Angeles.
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• 57 people died and over 1500 were seriously injured
• 12 500 buildings were damaged; 25% suffered severe-to-moderate damage
• 9000 homes and businesses were without electricity for several days (20 000
without gas), and 48 500 people were without water
• There was damage to several freeways serving Los Angeles – choking traffic for
30km.
The earthquake that caused the Boxing Day tsunami was estimated at between 9.0
and 9.3 on the Richter scale, and was over 100 times stronger than the one which
caused the Kobe earthquake in 1995. The thrust heaved the floor of the Indian Ocean
towards Indonesia by about 15 metres, and, in so doing, sent out shock waves. Once
started, these radiated out in a series of ‘ripples’, moving almost unnoticed across
oceans until they hit land. The longer and shallower the costal approach, the more
the ripples built up in height. The waves that struck the shallow coastline near Banda
Aceh (only 15 minutes from their origin), and parts of Sri Lanka were nearly 17 metres
high on impact.
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Sri Lanka – who died in the 2004 tsunami?
Sri Lanka was the second most seriously affected country after Indonesia, with over
30 000 deaths, 5 700 people missing and 861 000 people displaced. One survey
carried out in Ampara (an eastern coastal district of Sri Lanka) found that the most
vulnerable people had suffered the most. This area had previously experienced rapid
coastal urbanisation. Its economy is also based on tourism and subsistence fishing,
which left it vulnerable to the tsunami.
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In this part of Ampara, out of a population of
3533 (living in 859 households), 12.9% died.
Of these:
• Most deaths occurred during and
immediately after the disaster
• More than double the number of
women died, compared to men
• 56% of victims were children
• The elderly and disabled were more
likely to die than young, healthy
adults; 15% of deaths were of people
aged over 50
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Title: ____________________________________________________
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What? Where? When? Why? Who?
GEOPHYSICAL HAZARDS
EARTHQUAKES
VOLCANOES
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MI
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DISCLAIMER
All of the text to create this revision document has been taken in its unedited form
from the three textbooks released for the Edexcel AS specification. Likewise, the
diagrams and maps have been scanned from these sources. This is purely to create
one comprehensive document to support the course.
References
Digby et al (2008) AS Geography for Edexcel Oxford University Press: Oxford
Warn et al (2008) Edexcel AS Geography Philip Allan: Oxfordshire
Byrne et al (2008) Edexcel AS Geography Pearson Education: Harlow
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