Different Types of Global Hazards
Geography Unit 1 Revision notes
World at Risk – Physical
Global hazards can be split into two groups – Hydro meteorological and Geophysical hazards, which cause a number of disasters around the world. Where people are already vulnerable because of poverty, high population density, multiple hazard hotspots occur.
Climate Change is a context hazard as it causes a global chronic threat to people and the environment.
Environmental Hazards: can be defined as the threat posed to humans and the environment by natural events originating it.
Geophysical Hazards: are formed by tectonic/geological events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis
Hydro – meteorological Hazards: are formed by hydrological and atmospheric processes such as floods and droughts
Context Hazards: are widespread threats arising from global environmental changes such as climate change or from a major hazard such as a super volcano
Disasters: is the realization of hazards to cause social and economic impacts
Risk: is the probability of a hazard occurring and becoming a disaster as a result of deaths and loss of livelihood.
Vulnerability: is shaped by the underlying state of human development, including inequalities of income, which marginalize the poor. Regions where vulnerability are high have a low capacity to cope and are exposed to frequent natural extreme events.
The risk equation measures the level of hazard for an area =
R= H x V/C
Climate change: is any marked trend or shift in climate that shows a sustained change in the average value for any particular climatic element
Climate variability: refers to the differences in climate from one year to another.
Global warming: refers to a consistent recently measured rise In the average surface temperature of the planet
The Greenhouse Effect: is a natural process that warms the Earth’s atmosphere due to trapping of heat in that would otherwise be radiated back to space
Enhanced greenhouse
World at Risk – Physical
Global hazards can be split into two groups – Hydro meteorological and Geophysical hazards, which cause a number of disasters around the world. Where people are already vulnerable because of poverty, high population density, multiple hazard hotspots occur.
Climate Change is a context hazard as it causes a global chronic threat to people and the environment.
Environmental Hazards: can be defined as the threat posed to humans and the environment by natural events originating it.
Geophysical Hazards: are formed by tectonic/geological events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis
Hydro – meteorological Hazards: are formed by hydrological and atmospheric processes such as floods and droughts
Context Hazards: are widespread threats arising from global environmental changes such as climate change or from a major hazard such as a super volcano
Disasters: is the realization of hazards to cause social and economic impacts
Risk: is the probability of a hazard occurring and becoming a disaster as a result of deaths and loss of livelihood.
Vulnerability: is shaped by the underlying state of human development, including inequalities of income, which marginalize the poor. Regions where vulnerability are high have a low capacity to cope and are exposed to frequent natural extreme events.
The risk equation measures the level of hazard for an area =
R= H x V/C
Climate change: is any marked trend or shift in climate that shows a sustained change in the average value for any particular climatic element
Climate variability: refers to the differences in climate from one year to another.
Global warming: refers to a consistent recently measured rise In the average surface temperature of the planet
The Greenhouse Effect: is a natural process that warms the Earth’s atmosphere due to trapping of heat in that would otherwise be radiated back to space
Enhanced greenhouse