Geography - Case Studies

Philipines
1. Volcanic activity
  1. Located in the ring of fire
  2. CASE STUDY:- MOUNT PINATUBO - STRATO VOLCANO
    1. Last erupted 15th June 1991 - MORE THEN 700 KILLED
    2. $500,000,000 worth of economic and property damage
    3. Cyclone Yunya later ensued - causing major rainfall cultivating in lahars that killed many more people
  3. 37 Volcanos - 18 ACTIVE
  4. 1300 people have died from 1616 to 2012 - Mount Mayan
  5. Oceanic Philippines plate is subducting under the Philippine Mobile plate at 16cm a year
2. Earthquakes
  1. SITS ON A DESTRUCTIVE PLATE BOUNDARY
  2. CASE STUDY:- LUZON EARTHQUAKE
    1. July 16th 1990
    2. 7.8 Magnitude
    3. Lots of the surronding area was rural so lower human vulnerability
    4. 500 People killed
    5. Felt in Manila so is this area very high human vulnerability
3. Drought
  1. Climate is 25-28 degrees so monsoon climate - However El Nino means that the weather remains dry and hot for long periods of time instead of the monsoon rains arriving
  2. Drought In El Nino years leading to wildfires potentially
  3. 1997-98 EL NINO DROUGHT
    1. 90% of the country recieved less then 50% of normal rainfall
    2. Farmers only had 30% of normal income due to agricultral loses
    3. AFFECTED 2,600,000 PEOPLE
    4. 72 lives lost due to disease due to small amounts of stagnant water
California
1. Drought
  1. Droughts are caused by high pressure. ANTI-CYCLONIC CONDITIONS
  2. CASE STUDY:- DORUGHT 2013-2014
    1. This lead to 5059 fires across 90,375 acres from January 1st 2014 to September 27th 2014
    2. July 1st 2013 - January 13th 2014
    3. San Fransico recieved just 2.1 inches of rain (just 20% of normal)
    4. 1/3 of all food made in America is in California so this drought had major implications for food production. The human vulnerabiltity is increased here therefore as the whole of the US is affected by droughts here
  3. Santa Ana winds bring dry winds down from Death Valley. This stops low pressure and the weather systems that come with low pressure
2. Wildfires
  1. With people relying to heavily on water now is this western culture, the extremely dry land has led to increased chances of wildfires occuring - Economic and property damage is going to increased in the future
  2. 2012-13 Californian Wildfires
    1. Burnt more then 600,000 acres of land
    2. 2012 - $481.7 million spent on firefighting 2013 - $599 million spent
    3. Winds fueled the fire further into towns and cities with the dense populations making the impacts more extreme in these areas
  3. They can be either started by human factors, or natural factors. Human factors include arsene or people not putting out camp fires properly. Natural factors include intense heat and lighting for example
  4. The causes of wildfires is the drought conditions that they experience through the summer and the strong winds that fuel fires once that begin - Dry tinder is a perfect fuel also to ignite fires
3. Earthquakes
  1. Conservative and Destructive boundary at northen end of california
  2. CASE STUDY:- SAN FRANSICO EARTHQUAKE
    1. 17th October 1989
    2. 6.9 on the Richter scale
    3. 67 deaths and 6000 homes destoyed - High Human vulnerability in that area
  3. SAN ANDREAS FAULT is a conservative fault line so means that the plates are sliding side by side
Africa
1. Flooding
  1. 34% of the population aged 15-24 years is illiterate
  2. Due to lower literacy rates, many work in the primary sector; thus if this sector is hit by flooding, then a large proportion of Africans are put at risk
  3. 70% rely on subsidence farming
  4. CASE STUDY:- EGYPT COASTAL FLOODING
    1. In port-said, thunderstorms days rose from 0 to 18 to 41 days in the last 10 years
    2. Most tourism facilites are located within 200-300 metres of the coastline. Therefore capacity to cope is reduced
    3. Vulnerability of Port-Said to sea level rise is particually high given the socio-economic importance of the coastline
  5. Sea level rise of 25cm by 2050, up to 1m by 2100
2. Climate Change effecting Weather
  1. 40% of Africans income comes from agriculttural farming
  2. LOW CAPACITY TO COPE
  3. CASE STUDY:- CHAD 2013
    1. December 2013 Chadian hospitals had a major influx of malaria cases - Poverty so high risk and low capacity to cope
    2. Eratic rainfall and flooding due to climate change was blamed
    3. Overcrowding and a lack of hygiene meant that the risk to the population is greater as Chad cannot cope with disasters such as this
Artic
1. Climate change
  1. CASE STUDY:- GREENLAND ICE SHEET MELT
    1. This is leading to sea level rise
    2. Caused by emittion of GHGs and pollution into the enviroment increasing sea and air tempuratures
    3. From 1979 to 2006, summer ice melt increased by 30%
    4. This has opene trade routes for shipping, thus adding to oil and shale gas exploration. This is only exacerbating the situation as the oil rigs create yet more GHGS and add to the effects of gloabl warming
  2. Sea levels are rising
  3. Ice cap melt has led to a loss of habitat and a disruption of eco-systems.
  4. Only land ice melt adds to sea level rise however
2. Arctic Sea Ice Melt
  1. Sea ice melt means a loss in habitat for polar animals such as Polar bears and Seals that use the ice to hunt - This could lead to a reduction in biodiversity which is deterimental to the whole ecosystem
  2. Potential low lying captial cities such as London, New York and Bangkok are at potential high risk of becoming submerged due to sea level rise - This would create huge social and economic impacts.
    1. However, due to being MEDC's they have a better capacity to cope - With the Thames Barrier being an example of a strategy to adapt tp the effects of sea level rise
  3. More ice being melted increased the positive albedo affect as more ocean is clear to absorb the suns light radiation. This leads to exponential increase in sea ice melt as the more ice that melts the more suns radiation is absorbed and further sea level temperature increase takes place
3. Spruce Bark Beatle is eating up Alaskan forests. From 1993 to 2003, they chewed up 3.4 million acres of forest

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