“Seismic hazards will always be harder to manage than
volcanic hazards due to their unpredictability and scale”
Earthquakes: highly unpredictable, very short warning time since caused by
sudden jolt of tectonic plate. However, usually easy to manage through good urban
planning, building requirements and seismic isolators. Eg Haiti, 2010, damage was
so extensive due to poor quality buildings, didn’t follow CUBiC. However, poverty
and overcrowding can make it hard to be able to build resistant buildings,
especially slum areas. Recent innovations to combat eg earthquake proof Barrios
Bajos in Colombia.
Earthquakes also hard to manage due to secondary hazards, eg tsunami. 2011
Japan tsunami - around 90% of buildings survived the quake, most people did too.
Tsunami killed over 18,000 people and led to nuclear meltdown at Fukushima,
40bn damage. However, tsunamis are also relatively easy to combat. Sea wall
defences and better regulation of quality of safety and security of power plant
could have prevented, Japan’s were 3x too small and concerns abt reactor had
been raised in past. Harder to manage for LICs, easily solved by
some form of global funding eg by UN or World Bank for places like Haiti to be able
to implement better building codes, preventative action as opposed to reactionary
aid.
Volcanoes: significantly easier to manage since they can be easily predicted by
monitoring stations, give weeks of warning through micro quakes, geomagnetic
changes, land height changes. Eg in Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull 2010. Have Iceland
Meteorological Office, as well as 80 seismometers and 120 GPS trackers, able to
evacuate 800 people, 0 deaths. However, management of ash from volcano was
impossible, over 100,000 flights cancelled total, £130 mil cost to airlines per day
(2bn total). However, development and low pop density also important factors for
easy management. In LICs eg Colombia, mudflows caused 23k deaths in 1985,
Nevado del Ruiz. Montserrat half of island permanent exclusion zone, airport
completely destroyed by pyroclastic flow. Scale of eruption also important,
eruption 1 on VEI will be extremely easy to manage vs an eruption of Yellowstone,
which will be catastrophic.
Overall, ease of management of seismic and volcanic hazards is highly dependant
on a number of factors, including development and scale of the hazard. While
seismic hazards are unpredictable, they are arguably easier to manage by good
urban planning, and extent of damage depends highly on the magnitude of the
quake. They will definitely not “always” be harder to manage. A low magnitude
earthquake will generally be significantly easier to manage than a catastrophic
volcano eruption, regardless of level of development.
, “With reference to a multi hazardous environment that
you have studied, assess the view that the underlying
cause(s) leading to the hazards is human activity rather
than physical factors”
Haiti is a caribbean island nation, vulnerable to a variety of hazards, including
earthquakes, tropical storms, droughts and landslides. 96% of its population is
exposed to at least 2 different hazards. While earthquakes are generally understood to
be caused by physical factors, tropical storms, droughts, and landslides are heavily
influenced by human factors.
Earthquakes are caused by sudden jolting of tectonic plates as they move past
eachother. Some research suggests that there may be a loose correlation between
rising sea levels and increased seismic events, due to the increased weight of water
putting more pressure on faults. However, generally, earthquakes are not caused by
human factors. Haiti is particularly vulnerable to seismic hazards due to its
geographical location. 2 plate boundaries. However, human factors do determine
whether earthquakes actually become hazardous. If human activity was to include
strict urban planning seismic isolators for buildings, and adequate tsunami defences,
seismic events would not pose threat to life, and therefore arguably could not be
considered hazards. Haiti is crippled by poverty, 70% of pop on less than $2 per day.
Cannot afford earthquake defines, becomes a hazard.
Tropical storms are caused by both human activity and physical factors. Haiti in
Caribbean hurricane belt so warm ocean temps, island so good supply of water,
receives storms very frequently. Physical factors compounded by human factors.
Enhanced greenhouse effect. 1 degree increase in temp means 7% more water vapour
in atmosphere. Higher intensity rainfall, bigger storm surges, more flooding. Haiti highly
vulnerable to landslides form flooding due to high levels of deforestation for charcoal
or fuel, only 2% is forested. Human activity almost exclusively to blame for landslide
hazards.
Human activity also underpins drought hazards, climate change = drier summers and
wetter winters. Deforestation also impacting evapotranspiration recycling, causing
drought.
Coastal flooding in Haiti also due to rising sea levels and enhanced greenhouse effect
causing glacial melting.
Overall, both human and physical factors cooperate to cause most hazards
experienced by Haiti. Earthquakes are mostly caused by physical, storms are a mix of
human and physical, and all other hazards are almost exclusively caused by human
activity.
volcanic hazards due to their unpredictability and scale”
Earthquakes: highly unpredictable, very short warning time since caused by
sudden jolt of tectonic plate. However, usually easy to manage through good urban
planning, building requirements and seismic isolators. Eg Haiti, 2010, damage was
so extensive due to poor quality buildings, didn’t follow CUBiC. However, poverty
and overcrowding can make it hard to be able to build resistant buildings,
especially slum areas. Recent innovations to combat eg earthquake proof Barrios
Bajos in Colombia.
Earthquakes also hard to manage due to secondary hazards, eg tsunami. 2011
Japan tsunami - around 90% of buildings survived the quake, most people did too.
Tsunami killed over 18,000 people and led to nuclear meltdown at Fukushima,
40bn damage. However, tsunamis are also relatively easy to combat. Sea wall
defences and better regulation of quality of safety and security of power plant
could have prevented, Japan’s were 3x too small and concerns abt reactor had
been raised in past. Harder to manage for LICs, easily solved by
some form of global funding eg by UN or World Bank for places like Haiti to be able
to implement better building codes, preventative action as opposed to reactionary
aid.
Volcanoes: significantly easier to manage since they can be easily predicted by
monitoring stations, give weeks of warning through micro quakes, geomagnetic
changes, land height changes. Eg in Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull 2010. Have Iceland
Meteorological Office, as well as 80 seismometers and 120 GPS trackers, able to
evacuate 800 people, 0 deaths. However, management of ash from volcano was
impossible, over 100,000 flights cancelled total, £130 mil cost to airlines per day
(2bn total). However, development and low pop density also important factors for
easy management. In LICs eg Colombia, mudflows caused 23k deaths in 1985,
Nevado del Ruiz. Montserrat half of island permanent exclusion zone, airport
completely destroyed by pyroclastic flow. Scale of eruption also important,
eruption 1 on VEI will be extremely easy to manage vs an eruption of Yellowstone,
which will be catastrophic.
Overall, ease of management of seismic and volcanic hazards is highly dependant
on a number of factors, including development and scale of the hazard. While
seismic hazards are unpredictable, they are arguably easier to manage by good
urban planning, and extent of damage depends highly on the magnitude of the
quake. They will definitely not “always” be harder to manage. A low magnitude
earthquake will generally be significantly easier to manage than a catastrophic
volcano eruption, regardless of level of development.
, “With reference to a multi hazardous environment that
you have studied, assess the view that the underlying
cause(s) leading to the hazards is human activity rather
than physical factors”
Haiti is a caribbean island nation, vulnerable to a variety of hazards, including
earthquakes, tropical storms, droughts and landslides. 96% of its population is
exposed to at least 2 different hazards. While earthquakes are generally understood to
be caused by physical factors, tropical storms, droughts, and landslides are heavily
influenced by human factors.
Earthquakes are caused by sudden jolting of tectonic plates as they move past
eachother. Some research suggests that there may be a loose correlation between
rising sea levels and increased seismic events, due to the increased weight of water
putting more pressure on faults. However, generally, earthquakes are not caused by
human factors. Haiti is particularly vulnerable to seismic hazards due to its
geographical location. 2 plate boundaries. However, human factors do determine
whether earthquakes actually become hazardous. If human activity was to include
strict urban planning seismic isolators for buildings, and adequate tsunami defences,
seismic events would not pose threat to life, and therefore arguably could not be
considered hazards. Haiti is crippled by poverty, 70% of pop on less than $2 per day.
Cannot afford earthquake defines, becomes a hazard.
Tropical storms are caused by both human activity and physical factors. Haiti in
Caribbean hurricane belt so warm ocean temps, island so good supply of water,
receives storms very frequently. Physical factors compounded by human factors.
Enhanced greenhouse effect. 1 degree increase in temp means 7% more water vapour
in atmosphere. Higher intensity rainfall, bigger storm surges, more flooding. Haiti highly
vulnerable to landslides form flooding due to high levels of deforestation for charcoal
or fuel, only 2% is forested. Human activity almost exclusively to blame for landslide
hazards.
Human activity also underpins drought hazards, climate change = drier summers and
wetter winters. Deforestation also impacting evapotranspiration recycling, causing
drought.
Coastal flooding in Haiti also due to rising sea levels and enhanced greenhouse effect
causing glacial melting.
Overall, both human and physical factors cooperate to cause most hazards
experienced by Haiti. Earthquakes are mostly caused by physical, storms are a mix of
human and physical, and all other hazards are almost exclusively caused by human
activity.
