"The Impacts of Natural Hazards include Social, Economic and environmental effects" Discuss this statement in relation to an area of Multiple hazards.

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“The Impacts of Natural Hazards include Social, Economic and environmental effects”

Discuss this statement in relation to an area of Multiple hazards

Introduction

A natural hazard event can be defined as a natural occurrence that can cause a potential threat and loss of life to people inhabiting a certain area.  As well as causing danger to humans, natural hazards can also be crippling to the local economies.  An example of this was hurricane Andrew that struck the East Coast of America in 1992, causing $26.5 billion worth of damage.  Hazards are a very real threat to humans, with over 1500 active volcanoes and with 50 to 60 eruptions occurring every year.

A multiple hazard region is an area where more than one natural event threatens the local population.  This report will, as the title suggests focus on the three impacts of a Natural hazard, Social, Economic and environmental.  The social impacts of a hazard include the displacement of a population and how many people died and were injured.  The economic impacts are concerned with how the regions economy is affected in the aftermath of the event.  This can include immediate cost of having to provide shelter to the homeless to the more long term costs of rebuilding much of a city which was the case in Kobe when $20 billion worth of damage was done by the 1995 earthquake.  Environmental impacts include how the regions environment is affected by the event.  Over a local area this could include the destruction of rare forest habitat as was the case in the 1997 Montserrat volcanic.  Or Global impacts of the event as if a large volcanic eruption occurs, the worlds climate could cool by as much as a couple of degrees.

This essay will focus on a range of natural hazards (tectonic, climatic and geomorphic) and their impacts (social, economic and environmental).  The essay itself will use Sumatra as its main case study, while passing references will made to other areas of the world in order to make direct comparisons.

The ideas of LEDCs and MEDCs as a classification method is general, so it is better to refer to a countries economic level on a continuum, but for the purpose of this essay all case studies discussed will be referred to as MEDC or LEDC.

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Main body

Sumatra is an LEDC Multiple hazard region that lies in Indonesia.  Due to its position, t is susceptible to cyclones that lead to flooding and Landslides.  Sumatra also lies near the plate boundary where The Eurasian plate is subducted under the Australian plate.  This makes the area susceptible to Earthquakes such as the one that struck in June 2000.

The Landslide in 2003 occurred after torrential rainfall that lasted 2 days.  In total 110 people were confirmed dead with another 117 missing (presumed dead).  The flooding was caused by the illegal logging of timber from steep valley sides, ...

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