The document discusses natural hazards and disasters. It defines hazards as natural events that involve people, where social and environmental factors can turn an event into a disaster. There are two main classifications of hazards: hydro-meteorological hazards caused by weather patterns like floods and storms, and geophysical hazards caused by earth processes like earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. A disaster is defined as a natural event that causes human or economic losses. While the number of deaths from disasters has decreased due to better preparedness, the number of people affected and economic costs have risen due to increasing population in vulnerable areas and climate change impacts.

1. The World At Risk AS Geography

2. 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

3. 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.

4. The Two classifications Hydro-meteorological Geophysical

5. Hydro-Meteorological Caused by running water and its processes and weather patterns Dust Storms Sand Storms Temperature extremes Bushfires Drought Blizzards Tornadoes Wind storms Rain Thunderstorms Tropical Cyclones Hurricanes Mud flows Floods

6. Geophysical Caused By Earth’s processes: Two types: Internal processes : Tectonic External processes : Geomorphological Tsunamis Earthquakes Mass Movement Volcanic Activity Rock falls Landslides Rockslides

7. DISASTER Degg’s Model 1992 Pop’n Vulnerable to human or economic loss Hazardous Geophysical event e.g. Earthquake

8. 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

9. Is the world becoming more hazardous?

10. Number of Natural Disasters

11. CRED CRED – Centre for research on the Epidemiology of Disasters CRED created EM-DAT CRED

12. 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

13. 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

14. IRC ISDR USAID TWB OCHA Munich Foundation PC UNDP ADRC Other Partners

15. Number of People Affected!

16. Economic losses The number of deaths may well be falling but the costs are rising dramatically

17. 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?

20. Declining Death Tolls

21. 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

22. 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

23. Finally….

24. CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!!