World At Risk- Global Hazards

Global hazards: What are the main types of physical risks facing the world and how big a threat are they?

Define: Hazard and hazard Types, disaster, hazard risk, disaster risk equation

Why some people are vilnerable to hazards

Why global warming is a major hazard

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DEFINING KEY TERMS- Hazard and Hazard Types

Natural Hazard: Natural occuring event or process which which is a potential threat to human life or property- eg, causing loss of life or injury, economic damage, disruption to people's lives or environmental degradation.

Hydro Meteorological: Those caused by running water and its processes (hydro) and those associated with or caused by weather patterns (meterological). Examples include:

 -Floods, Debris and Mud Flows

 -Hurricanes (otherwise known as tropical clyclones), coastal storm surges, thunder and hailstorms, rain and windstorms (including tornadoes), blizzards and other severe storms

 -Drought, bushfires, temperature extremes, sand and dust storms

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DEFINING KEY TERMS- Hazard and Hazard Types

Geophysical: Those caused by running earth processes. These can be broken up into two subunits:

-Internal Earth processes of tectonic origin: eg, earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic activity

-External Earth processes of geomorphological origin involving mass movements: eg, landslides, rockslides, rock falls.


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DEFINING KEY TERMS- Disaster- When does a natural

Disaster: When a hazard seriously affects Humans.   eg: A Tropical Cyclone is a hazard, but when it hits land and seriously affects people and property it's a disaster, e.g Huricane Katrina (2005)   Dreggs's Model of defining hazards shows how some kind of overlap is required before a hazard becomes a disaster. Its is simply a matter of scale. It is difficulat to define it properly though as many different people have different perceptions of a disaster.   Exam Point: In 1990, Swiss Redefined a disasster as an event in which at least 20 people are killed or insured damage is over $16millioin in value. But values and currencies have changed due to inflation- so is this still appropriate

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DEFINING KEY TERMS- Disaster- When does a natural

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DEFINING KEY TERMS- Hazard Risk & DRE, Capacity to

Risk: the likelihood that humans will be seriously affected by a hazard

Vulnerability: how susceptible a population is to the damage caused by a hazard.

The Disaster Risk Equation- gives the Risk of a Disaster Occuring

What affects capacity to cope and vulnerability?

Capacity to cope is affected by people's ability to deal with the hazard, eg- health care that is available, evacuation plan, emergancy services, aid available

Vulnerability is affected by factors such as: high population density, how stable the buildings are and and location, eg- people in rural areas have less access to emergancy services to are therefore more vulnerable

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