Explore the PHYSICAL and HUMAN
factors that cause some hazards to
have a more DISASTROUS IMPACT
than others
Models
Hazard Risk Equation
Vulnerability
Size of pop.
Preparedness
Likely damage
Hazard
Physical factors
Capacity to Cope
Dregg's Model
Event Profile
Parks' Model
Crunch Model
Root Causes
Dynamic
pressures
Unsafe
Conditions
"Populations"
Ethnic groups
Death 6x higher among
Hispanics
during Hurricane Katrina
Warnings harder to
communicate in Spanish
Poverty
Size
Rural/urban
Population Density
Spread of disease
Age & Gender
"Four times as many women died in Boxing day tsunami".
Oxfam report says 77% of the 240,000 casulaties were women.
Guardian Global Development, March 2015
"Over 65s represented 70% of Katrina casualties"
Social Vulnerability to Disasters, Phillips et al. (2010)
"Disastrous"
Immediate vs. delayed
e.g. Pinatubo:
Immediate Deaths;
Disease outbreak;
Global Dimming
Direct vs. Indirect
Costs
Economic
Comparatively higher in MEDCs
Human
Comparatively higher in LEDCs
Environmental
HUMAN FACTORS
Level of economic
development
Individual wealth
Speed & effectiveness
of primary response
Health --> Haitian
Typhoid outbreak
Forecasting and
early warning
"Predict,
Prevent,
Prepare"
Pinatubo:
Monitoring for two
months by
PHILVOLCS and
USGS allowed
timely evacuation.
Communications
--> mobile phones
Haiti vs Loma Prieta
Education
Past experience
Public Information Campaigns
--> CA case studies
Culture/belief: Aeta did not think their
'Holy Mountain' would harm them.
Governance
Technology
Altering hazard:
e.g. pipes to release
CO2 in Lake Nyos
Little control over most tectonic hazards
Population growth
and urbanization
Congestion -->
Limited Escape
SECHUAN
Larger vulnerable
pop.
High death
tolls in NICs
UN 2012:Asia
is world's
most disaster
prone region
affect vulnerability & capacity to cope
Aid
Nepal returned 3 Chinnocks to
UK after recent Earthquake -
would have been useful based on
similarities to Sichuan
mountainous evacuation
Construction
Proper plumbing/electricity
lowers risk of flood/fire
School collapses after Sechuan
quake vs. quake several years later
Primary response
Minimise
secondary impacts
Real Time Warning
PHYSICAL FACTORS
Location
Flat ground, stable bedrock vs.
steep slopes and unstable bedrock
Isolation
no 'disaster'
Event timing
Seasonal
Meteorology
E15 ash cloud would not
have grounded ____ flights
without pravailing winds
Time of day
Loma Prieta @ 6pm
vs. Northridge @ 6am
Geographical isolation
e.g. Sichuan 2008
Type of event
Type of
plate
boundary
Ability to
forecast
EVENT
PROFILE
Magnitude
Remember Richter is a log scale
Duration
Speed of onset
Can evacuate some volcanic eruptions,
but rarely earthquakes
Spatial distribution
Secondary hazards
Nevada del Ruiz
(30,000 dead)
Limbic eruption:
Lake Nyos 1986
Research CONTRASTING examples
of hazardous events to examine
why the IMPACTS of these events
on POPULATIONS varies.
LOWEST LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT
HIGHEST LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT
Earthquake
Loma Prieta 1989
6.9 Richter; 5pm;
19km focus depth
62 deaths;
10,000 homeless;
$5.6bn losses
World Series Baseball --> many inside watching TV
Collapse of Cyprus Freeway,& part of Bay Bridge
Ruptured gas pipes --> fires in Marina District
COMPARE TO
HAITI (same Mag.
and focus depth)
Haiti 2010
100,000 (USGS) 160,000 deaths (Uni. Michigan)
(Gov. est 220-316,000)
7.0 Richter; 5pm; 19km focus depth
only $8 bn losses
Cholera outbreak 6mnths later - onging
UN Aid programme blamed
(peacekeepers) for introducing virus
"Class-quake"
v. high pop. density
No casualties in nearby Dominican Rep.
Northridge 1994
60 deaths; $30bn losses
6.7 Richter; 4.30am
Most deaths were from
collapse of student tower block.
Sechuan 2008
8.0 Richter; afternoon;
19km focus depth
250 aftershocks
87,000 deaths; 4.8 million homeless;
46 million affected; $192bn losses
2nd highest economic
losses in history (EMDAT)
Highest number homeless
due to quake in history
30,000 tents.
$1.5bn public
donations
Chengdu - China's 4th
largest city (14 million)
Epicentre 92km
away (British
Geological Survey)
More houses
damaged than in
all of Australia
BBC: "Sichuan
2008: A disaster
on an immense
scale" (May 2013)
VERY VULNERABLE POP, but fairly high CAPACITY TO COPE
Wealthly gov. response
But poor individual victims
Many did not have medical insurance
Military helicopters used
to access mountainous
regions cut off for 2 days
18,000+ missing
50,000 troops
deployed
158 rescue workers killed by landslides
World Bank praised 'speedy' response on website (2012)
Poor construction led to
school collapses
7,000 classrooms
Most deaths by shaking
Reconstruction
$138bn spent
6.6 Richter
Lushan quake
(2013): 193 dead
Thrust fault
cont/cont
convergence
Volcano
Pinatubo,
June 1991
6 on VEI
2nd largest
eruption of
twentieth
century
10km3 magma
emitted and 20
million tonnes of SO2
into stratosphere
Global dimming: -0.5'C 1991-93
Long term
1.5billion
pesos cost to
agricultural
industry
847 deaths
(mountpinatubo.net)
Many due to
collapsing roofs
from lahars
(Typhoon Yunya)
Effective
evacuation
saved
10,000s
Disease
outbreaks
for months
after
Luzon, Phillipines (90km NW of Manila)
USAF initiated Op. 'Fiery
Vigil': evacuation of
20,000 from Clark Air
Base. No US casualties
30,000 Aetas
living on flanks
of Pinatubo
worst affected
Other
Japan 2011 Tsunami
$294bn direct losses
Worst economic impact of any tsunami
16,000 deaths
11,500 aftershocks
9 Richter earthquake 130km East of Sendai
Lake Nyos 1986 (limnic eruption)
80,000,000 m3 CO2 gas
50 kph --> 25km radius
1700 dead
CO2 released from magma
and dissolves under high
pressure at low temp. base
Eyjafjallajokull 2010
4 on VEI
250 million m3 ejected Tephra;
9km high ash cloud
Jokulhaup
caused
localised
flooding
Primary fieldwork in 2013
European airspace shut for over 8 days;
10 million travellers affected; Icelandic
airspace unaffected
Eruption was directly into Jet Stream
Nevada del Ruiz 1985
Magnitude 6 on Richter,
but lahar buried town of
30,000 and 75% died.
Nepal
7.8 Richter
~9,000 dead
Sources & Methodology and
Definitions: see separate table