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Effects of Disaster

Disaster risk factors can be physical, psychological, socio-cultural, economic, political, or biological in nature. These factors influence the effects of hazards and disasters by either exacerbating or mitigating damage. Hazards are natural or human-caused events that have potential to harm people and the environment. Natural hazards include geophysical events like earthquakes, as well as hydrological, climatological, meteorological, and biological hazards. Technological or man-made hazards are caused by humans and include industrial and transport accidents. Hazards can also be classified as geological, hydrometeorological, biological, or technological based on their origin and impacts.

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71 views

Effects of Disaster

Disaster risk factors can be physical, psychological, socio-cultural, economic, political, or biological in nature. These factors influence the effects of hazards and disasters by either exacerbating or mitigating damage. Hazards are natural or human-caused events that have potential to harm people and the environment. Natural hazards include geophysical events like earthquakes, as well as hydrological, climatological, meteorological, and biological hazards. Technological or man-made hazards are caused by humans and include industrial and transport accidents. Hazards can also be classified as geological, hydrometeorological, biological, or technological based on their origin and impacts.

Uploaded by

Fahad Radiamoda
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Effects of Disaster

Disaster Risk factors are variables that either aggravate or mitigate the effects of hazards, affecting the degree or scope of a
disaster.

(1) Physical factors would pertain to tangible objects or infrastructure, like the availability of fire exits, or the
sturdiness of the building, or the presence or absence of objects that can harm you or help you, etc.

(2) Psychological factors include state of mental capacity and health (e.g. are we dealing with babies? Kids? Adults?
People with special needs?), perception of self (e.g. self-assessment of capability to respond to disasters, fear),
etc.

(3) Socio-cultural factors include religion, social status, traditions, perception by society, etc.
(4) Economic factors include assets and liabilities, income, economic class, etc.
(5) Political factors include government structure, diplomatic issues, etc.
(6) Biological factors include flora and fauna in environment, health, diseases, etc.

Concept of Hazard
What is Hazard ?
Hazard- are the potential for damage to a man and his environment that may result from the occurrence of natural
events as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, Floods and storm surge.
Types of Hazard
Natural hazards are naturally occurring physical phenomena caused either by rapid or slow onset events which can
be geophysical (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity), hydrological (avalanches and floods),
climatological (extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires), meteorological (cyclones and storms/wave surges) or
biological (disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues).

Technological or man-made hazards (complex emergencies/conflicts, famine, displaced populations, industrial


accidents and transport accidents) are events that are caused by humans and occur in or close to human
settlements. This can include environmental degradation, pollution and accidents. Technological or man-made
hazards (complex emergencies/conflicts, famine, displaced populations, industrial accidents and transport accidents)

Biological hazards include outbreaks of epidemic diseases, plant or animal contagion, insect or other animal
plagues and infestations.

Geological hazards include internal earth processes, such as earthquakes, volcanic activity and emissions, and related
geophysical processes such as mass movements, landslides, rockslides, surface collapses, and debris or mudflows.

Hydrometeorological factors are important contributors to some of these processes. Tsunamis are difficult to
categorize; although they are triggered by undersea earthquakes and other geological events, they are essentially
an oceanic process that is manifested as a coastal water-related hazard.

Hydrometeorological hazard

Hydrometeorological hazards include tropical cyclones (also known as typhoons and hurricanes), thunderstorms,
hailstorms, tornados, blizzards, heavy snowfall, avalanches, coastal storm surges, floods including flash floods,
drought, heatwaves and cold spells.
Hydrometeorological conditions also can be a factor in other hazards such as landslides, wildland fires, locust
plagues, epidemics, and in the transport and dispersal of toxic substances and volcanic eruption material

Technological hazards include industrial pollution, nuclear radiation, toxic wastes, dam failures, transport accidents,
factory explosions, fires, and chemical spills. Technological hazards also may arise directly as a result of the impacts
of a natural hazard event.

Hazard mapping- is the process of identifying the spatial variation of hazard events or physical conditions.

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