Essay Questions with Correct Solutions

Asses the relative useful ness of the Park Model and The Hazard Management Cycle in understanding the impact of seismic events? correct answer: The park model shows how quality of life is impacted by hazards, it shows the time scale of recovery evaluated by how long it takes for the population to reach the same quality of life again, while also showing how relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction after the event contribute to quality of life. The hazard management cycle is concerned with the disaster looking at the short term responses, post disaster and reconstruction and social and economic recovery and finally pre disaster which analyse mitigation strategies. This essay will use the impacts of the 2010 Haiti earth quake to understand how effective the models are at assessing the impacts of seismic events. How do economic impact link to quality of life correct answer: The earth quake in Haiti was a magnitude 7, and destroyed 250,000 homes making 2.3 million people homeless, the presents a serious social and economic impact, due to the loss of valuable items and capital invested in to homes. Further more due to Haiti having a GDP per capita of under 1000$ many home owners did not have insurance so many people lost all their assets How does quality of life relate the park model correct answer: impact from the earthquake clearly reduces the quality of life residents of Haiti which can be shown on the park model during the disruption phase while people were waiting for rehousing and temporary homes, this shows how the quality of life would directly follow the impact of the earth quake making the park model a use full tool Example of recovery correct answer: The park model also show how long the recovery takes, depending on how long to takes to reach normal quality of life, this issue is that if another hazard event follows before normality is reached again it can make the initial hazard appear to have had a larger impact this can be seen in the hurricane Mathew in 2016, as the impacts were made worse as not infrastructure and buildings had not been fully repaire How can quality life be vague correct answer: Another issue is that quality of life is very vague as is more directly talking about individuals and services and access to resources people have, meaning it doesn't account for the social impacts such as the 230,000 deaths. Presenting a more narrow view of the event plotted on graph and lacks a holistic approach to assessing all the impacts of the Haiti earthquake. Example of mitigation and preparedness correct answer: The poor building standards in Haiti meant many buildings didn't have rebar in side the concrete structures, so the majority of deaths were caused by people being crushed and trapped in the rubble. The HMC would show the poor mitigation and preparedness before the event contributed to increasing the impact of the earthquake.