Notes On Natural Disasters

Submitted By michlam01
Words: 547
Pages: 3

Natural Disasters *September 2nd, 2014

• Hurricanes+ seasonal activities
• Disasters (dis- unfavorable, astro-stars)- unfavorable event
• *why is it that people live where they live (landslide in cali:ex) precipitated by the stars
• Earthquakes, floods: Mississippi river flood (local-regional)
• Hurricanes (regional)
• Tsunamis (regional-global)
• Climate change (local, regional, global)
• Can impact on various spatial and temporal scales (SPACE+TIME SCALE)
• Big spatial scale relates to large length of time scale: el nino
• Energies and phenomena → lightening to meteorite
• Spatial bigger, much better the amount of energy is put forth

Hazard: potential threat to humans and their welfare

Risk: Probability of loss (deaths, injuries, damage, disruption of economic activity) as a result of a particular natural event→ your assets, how much you have to loss. Quantitative. What affects the most people= greater risk

Vulnerability: potential loss, or degree of loss, from the event (0=no damage, 1=total loss): Hazard and Risk together

Fragile cities*- can be fragile when subjected to extreme phenomenon. Montreal ice storm—on the verge of collapsing.

Disaster: A hazardous event affecting a community in an adverse way such that essential social structures and functions are disrupted
• can’t use transportation, no electricity, etc. Essential functions of society are disrupted with a disaster

Prediction and forecasting: Statement that a particular natural hazard will occur: a) with a given probability, b) during a certain time frame, c) in a specified geographic area

Mitigation: Efforts to reduce or minimize the effects of natural hazards on a community
* Sirens that go off in advanced before tornados, tsunami warnings. Efforts are made to mitigating the effects of these natural disasters

Risk of death- why do people live where they do

Unpredictability
- mother nature is non-deterministic
- individual events are inherently unpredictable
- this requires a statistical approach such as probabilities, since we odn’t fully understand many natural processes

Sandy- highest tide of the year. Cone of uncertainty

Details in forecast that make for a lot of difficulties

Recurrence