Geomorphological hazards at a variety of scales should always be considered when planning the location of the settlement and economic activity. Discuss.

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Geomorphological hazards at a variety of scales should always be considered when planning the location of the settlement and economic activity. Discuss.

Geomorphological hazards should always been considered when planning settlement locations. This is mainly due to the extreme and deadly effects of these hazards for both humans and the environment. Volcanoes and earthquakes are the major hazards to contemplate. While the death and destruction caused by earthquakes can be quite substantial in urban areas, they usually only leave small scale physical scars on the landscape, with open cracks in the ground and some local land or lake level changes. Whereas volcanoes can be incredibly destructive, destroying anything in the erupted lava’s path whether human or natural vegetation. When the lava cools it leaves bare rock, vegetation growth is then relatively slow and it may take many plant successions before the climatic climax vegetation is reached. This can prove particularly devastating in Ledc’s where agriculture is the main income source and these large areas of newly created volcanic desert prove impossible to cultivate on.

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It can be reasonably safe to live in areas near constructive margins and hot spots where volcanoes emit basaltic lava. Although this greatly depends upon the severity of the volcanoes and also the warning and protection techniques used by the areas authorities. For example in Eldfell in 1963, the amount of damage caused was greatly reduced by careful planning and awareness of the proposed hazard. So that when the volcano did erupt there was time to evacuate the inhabitants and also to restrict the lava flow by cooling it with sea water. But conversely it can prove difficult to ...

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