Natural disasters are happening more often, and having an ever more dramatic impact on the world in terms of both their human and economic costs. While the number of lives lost has declined in the past 20 years - 800,000
Critically examine the view that natural hazards appear to be occurring with increased frequency. For my essay I will looking at different case studies and reasons why it appears that there are more natural disasters as time goes on. There were 497 reported natural disasters - hazards that took a significant human toll - between 1974 and 1978. The last five years have seen 1,897 of them, a nearly three fold increase. Between 1974 and 1978, 195 million people were killed by such disasters or needed emergency aid; there were 1.5 billion such victims in the past five years. The definition of a natural disaster, according to Webster's New Millennium(tm) Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6) is: any event or force of nature that has catastrophic consequences, such as avalanche, earthquake, flood, forest fire, hurricane, lightning, tornado, tsunami, and volcanic eruption. The definition of increased frequency according to The American Heritage(r) Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition is: The number of measurements in an interval of a frequency distribution. And also the ratio of the number of times an event occurs in a series of trials of a chance experiment to the number of trials of the experiment performed. Natural disasters are happening more often, and having an ever more dramatic impact on the world in terms of both their human and economic
How and Why are Sea Defences being used in North Norfolk?
GCSE Coastal Studies Geography Coursework Introduction How and Why are Sea Defences being used in North Norfolk? The topic I have chosen for my project is on coastal erosion. This is an important topic to study because it affects all the agriculture and inhabitants of the coastal areas. Coastal erosion can take the form of many different problems e.g. flooding, physical erosion on the beaches and general cutting away from the coastal areas. Coastal defence has many different methods to counteract the growing problem of coastal erosion. Such defences like groynes, dumping, gabions, rock armouring, flood embankments, revetments and vertical seawalls. All of these forms of coastal defences are costly and the local council often dislike paying for them if they are considered unreliable. There is a constant threat of coastal erosion because of the green house affect and global warming and the melting of the polar ice glaciers, threatening to raise sea level therefore flooding unprepared or low lying areas. This is a big problem for the UK because it is an island therefore will be more affected. My overall question on this project is the title 'How and Why are sea defences being used in North Norfolk?' and I will be answering this question using the data I collected on my field trip to North Norfolk, this is data from beaches including pictures and measurements on the
Analyse How the Inputs and Outputs from a River Basin Can Vary Over Time
Analyse How the Inputs and Outputs from a River Basin Can Vary Over Time Both the inputs to and outputs from a river basin can vary both spatially (in different areas) and temporally (over time), due to daily, seasonal and annual occurrences. Precipitation mainly reaches the grounds surface from the atmosphere as snow and rain. Heavy snow is often intercepted and stored on the tops of hills and mountains and may lead to a decrease in river levels. Some rainfall may fall directly into the stream or river and some may fall onto the land and flow into the river basin through a variety of routes including throughflow, stemflow and overland flow. The intensity and duration of precipitation has a short term but regular effect upon both the inputs and outputs of a river basin due to the weather patterns. Over a short period of time, for example a week, the precipitation levels over the river basin can significantly vary, as on some days of the week the total precipitation can be extremely high and the next it could be virtually zero. Long periods of rainfall are the main cause of flooding as the soil has become saturated it reaches its infiltration capacity and infiltration is reduced, therefore increasing the frequency of surface run off and the risk of flooding. In addition to the weather having a large impact on the inputs over a short period of time in and around the
A corrie on Ben Lui in Scotland
Upland Glacial Features Corrie In geography, a corrie is a terrain feature created by glaciation in high mountains. The word is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic word coire meaning hollow. It is known in Welsh as a cwm (often Anglicized as coomb, or coombe), and the French word cirque is used to denote a very similar geographical feature. Corries begin as small hollows on a relatively smooth slope. During the ice ages, snow and ice would gather in these hollows, eroding the floor and walls of the hollow, causing them to get larger and deeper. As the hollows grew, so would it gather more snow and ice which would compact into a small glacier. Eventually, the newly formed glacier cut through the lowest edge of the hollow and continue down the hillside. A corrie on Ben Lui in Scotland U shaped valley or glacial trough They are generally found in glaciated uplands. They are characteristically steep-sided and flat-floored. Over-deepening of glacial troughs causes tributary valleys to hang above the main valley. Spurs are truncated, and the head of the valley often ends abruptly in a steep rock wall or trough head, for example the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland. Glacial troughs are occupied by small valley glaciers in high mountain ranges such as the Alps and Himalayas today. However, it is unlikely that these glaciers were responsible for excavating glacial troughs. Most were
Turkey Earthquake, Izmit.
Turkey Earthquake, Izmit It is possible to suggest that a major earthquake is one of the most sudden, unpredictable and certainly terrifying events on earth. Earthquakes evidently shatter our assumption that we live on 'solid ground', and are lethal because they happen without warning. When looking in particular at the Izmit Earthquake in Turkey in 1999 and observing the causes, the material damage, the effects and the human costs, one may suggest that it is little wonder that such disasters have been recorded for centuries. The Causes A major earthquake is one of the most sudden, unpredictable and terrifying events on earth. Earthquakes are lethal because they happen without warning and while long term forecasts can be made, accurate short terms' predictions are extremely difficult. No warnings were given to Izmits earthquake which meant the damage was almost double. If this earthquake was predicted it would have made things a little easier for everyone. The Material damage With the 1999 Turkey earthquake on August 17th in Izmit reaching 7.4 on the richter scale, it was a terrifying time for both owners of buildings, businesses and many households. Officials from the Anatolian news agency suggested that more than four thousand buildings were severely damage. As this town was in a devastation state, many who survive this large earthquake were standing and sleeping on
Quality of life increases as you travel away from the business district of London
Introduction My hypothesis is: 'Quality of life increases as you travel away from the business district of London.' Quality if life is the level of enjoyment and fulfilment within the local community taking into account economic, political, social, and environmental conditions. Indicators such as car ownership, unemployment and tenure can be taken into account. The business district of London is Canary Wharf (Docklands). I have visited numerous areas and have analysed a number of factors in order to decide whether the 'quality of life increases as you travel away from the business district of London'. I will be focusing on one factor that affects this; I will be looking at how traffic affects the quality of life. I believe that as you travel away from the business district, the traffic will decrease, and as a result the quality of life will increase. I will be focusing mainly on the environmental aspect of quality of life, although I will also use some other indicators. I will decide how much of an effect traffic has on quality of life, and why quality of life increases as you travel away from the business district. Traffic has a large effect on the environmental and social aspect of people's quality of life. Traffic kills thousands of people each year, traffic fumes kill up to 34,000 people in Britain each year. Researchers also estimate that traffic fumes are to blame for
Volcanic Case Studies
Volcanic Case Studies Introduction Globally the risk of death or injury due to volcanic hazards are very small. However volcanoes attract disproportionate interest and are the first hazard to be considered in detail for this module. Current population trends and economic necessity mean that an increasing number of people live close to volcanoes. The flanks of volcanically active mountains are often densely settled due to their fertile volcanic soil which is rich in potassium. This is particularly the case in the tropics where soil fertility declines quickly as intense rainfall causes leaching. For some nations, notably island states, volcanic soils are the only rich soils available. For example in Indonesia population densities are positively correlated with maps of volcanic activity. As with all hazards there are natural and human components to their occurrence and aftermath. It is the interaction between society, technology and natural processes that this course module seeks to explore. Two case studies will be considered in detail, the eruption of Nyriragongo in January 2002 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 in the Philippines. Objectives * To explore the types of volcanic hazard, magma and locations of volcanic activity for both volcanoes * To understand the eruptions and effects of the eruption in each case * To acquire
Investigations in to Natural disasters - Earthquakes.
Natural Disaster Assignment - INVESTIGATION The first of the earthquakes in Afghanistan occurred in the evening of Monday 26 March 2002. This earthquake struck on the Hindu Kush Mountains; these mountains were struck by earthquakes in 1998. These mountain ranges are particulalary prone to earthquakes as it is located in the middle of the Eurasian and the Indian plates which are smashing into each other each year at a rate of about 4.3 centimetres. The second quake hit Nahrin Tuesday morning. By then up to 2,000 people had been killed, thousands more injured and up to 30,00 homeless. The first quake registered 6.2 and the second quake on Tuesday registered 5.7 on the richter scale. Now, the people of Mahrin and Afghanistan try to put back the pieces of their lives which have been destroyed by these series of earthquakes. The grounds around Nahrin are now covered in dust and rocks, the people are now immensly de-hydrated as Afghanistan is in the middle of a drought. The people are now going to have to build their city up again, using stronger materials and preparing for the next earthquake. Also, as Afghanistan is in the middle of a war, most of the Government's money is being put towards weapons and arsenal and being in a drought means no water for cement for re-building Nahrin.. In the future, the people of Nahrin and Afghanistan should think about putting barriers
River Studies
Geography MYP Coursework River Studies Rio Lizandro is a river located in Portugal, near the district of Lisbon, and has an approximate length of 30km. In this coursework, we have to test the hypothesis related to the characteristics of the Rio Lizandro to discover if it is justified. In order to do so, we will have to draw, measure and calculate the data which we are give on four different sites along the river, and thus conclude with an analysis on the relationship between our results and the given hypothesis. Task 2: State the aim of the study. You need to explain the hypothesis and perhaps suggest what you expect to be the outcome referring to Bradshaw's Model River. The aim of this study is to use the given data on the four different sites along the Rio Lizandro to see how its river variables change and compare it to Bradshaw's model. By doing this, we will be able to test the hypothesis and conclude on whether or not it is correct. The Bradshaw Model is a geographical model which illustrates how a river's characteristics differ from the mouth to source, or lower course to upper course, of a river. According to Bradshaw's model, the hypothesis is that "Stream characteristics (i.e. cross-sectional area, discharge, velocity, efficiency, and gradient) all change along the course of the river and they are related to each other". Source
A study of the downstream changes in the Curly Burn River
A study of the downstream changes in the Curly Burn River Aims: The aim for this field work is to investigate the downstream changes in the Curly Burn River in Limavady. Several hypotheses I decided to investigate included the increase of both channel width and depth with increasing distance downstream, the increase in velocity and discharge with increasing distance downstream, the decrease in slope downstream and the decrease in the calibre of bedload particles with increasing distance downstream. Planning: The Curly Burn River was chosen for us to investigate due to the various aspects it had relevant to our AS study of fluvial environments. The primary data I collected in the field included measurements such as the width and depth of the river as well as the float velocity, discharge, slope and bedload shape and calibre. For a secondary data source I used an ordnance survey map of the Limavady catchment area (1:50,000) to measure the distance between sites on the river as well as locate any nearby features that may be useful. I also used Power's roundness index to identify the shape of bedload particles. The sampling method I used was a combination of pragmatic systematic sampling to locate suitable sites of equal distance along the river and random sampling to choose various bedload particles. These methods of sampling proved to be efficient in obtaining an accurate
