GEO 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Coastal Erosion, Seismic Wave, Mercalli Intensity Scale
9 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Hazards: elements in the physical environment that are harmful to people and are caused by forces extraneous to them. Hazards, simply put, are threats to people and the things they value: safety needs of home, finances, health, loved ones etc . These are partially socially constructed people"s perceptions and experiences shape our feelings towards hazards. Risk is the likelihood or probability of occurrence of an event. Hazards include risk (a probability), impact (magnitude) and contextual (sociopolitical) elements. Disasters are singular or interactive hazard events that have a profound impact on: local people, places in terms of injuries, property damages, loss of life, or environmental impacts. Vulnerability is the potential for loss or the capacity to suffer harm from a hazard: can be applied to individuals, society or the environment. Google search world risk index of vulnerability to natural disasters . It is possible to classify hazards according to the area in which they mainly originate.
