ERTH 2415 Lecture 1: Natural Disasters All notes
1 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Natural disaster: an extreme natural event in which a large amount of energy is released in a short amount of time with catastrophic consequences for life and infrastructure in the vicinity. Natural hazard: a source of danger that exists in the environment and that has the potential to cause harm. Examples: unstable snow and rock on mountain slip. Vulnerability: what makes you weak. likelihood that a community will suffer, both in terms of fatalities and physical damage, when exposed to hazards in the environment. Frequency number of similar event per unit time. Ex: on average, 4 former tropical cyclones affect atlantic canada every year. Return period length of time between similar events. Severe hurricanes strike the us on average every 6 years. *this does not mean that there is a sever hurricane every 6 years! Frequency and return period are the inverse of each other. Ex- if frequency is 2 occurrences per year then return period is or 6 months.
