Geography 2152F/G Lecture 1: Lec1 - Hazards
Document Summary
Lecture 1 - hazards: hazards affect millions of people around the world each year, within north america, every location is at risk from at least one hazardous process. Some hazards pose a risk to both humans and the environment. Examples: nuclear meltdowns, toxic gas release, oil spills, ozone depletion, acid rain, infrastructure failure (aging structures), shipwrecks (titanic), airplane crashes. Natural hazards can arise from three main processes: Tsunami, thailand 2004: hurricane katrina, new orleans 2005, oil spill, gulf of mexico 2010. Hazards as potential catastrophes: hazards differ in their potential to cause a catastrophe based on the size of the area affected. M: more likely to be catastrophic tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods. Less likely to be catastrophic landslides, avalanches, wildfires, tornadoes. The impact of a hazard is a function of both its magnitude (i. e. energy released) and frequency. It can also be affected by other factors (geology, land-use such as rural, or urban, population density, etc. )