Geography 2152F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Malnutrition, Epicenter
6 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Maintaining databases on disaster events can be difficult. Disasters can co-occur (hurricanes cause floods, earthquakes cause landslides, etc. ) Mortality can be difficult to count (famine, epidemics) General lack of census taking (in developing countries) Some people may consider certain events to be disasters while other people may not: eastern canada 1998 ice storm, walkerton tainted water, canada/us 14 hour power blackout, love canal toxic waste spill, three mile island nuclear meltdown. Therefore, a specific definition of a disaster has been developed. A threshold has been developed by the centre for research on the epidemiology of disasters: 10 or more deaths per event or, 100 or more persons affected (injured, homeless, etc. ) Or: governments declaration of disaster or, plea for international assistance. Exceptions to the cred threshold: for droughts or famines, at least 2000 persons affected, for technological disasters, 5 or more deaths per event. Statistical data is reported in absolute terms (number of casualties, billions of dollars in damage, etc. )
