Case Studies on Natural Disasters
"Case Studies on Natural Disasters" are in-depth examinations of specific natural events, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis, and their impacts on the environment, society, and economy. These studies provide valuable insights into the causes, effects, and responses to natural disasters, helping to inform disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response strategies.
5 Key excerpts on "Case Studies on Natural Disasters"
- Vincent Campbell(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
...Natural disasters are associated with natural hazards such as hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis (Svensen 2009 : 14). However, disaster researchers, both those specialising in disaster management and those focused on the mediation of disasters, have shown how that distinction is largely a false one as the relationship between a natural hazard and whether or not it causes a disaster is dependent on human agency, such as human settlements being built close to active volcanoes, in tornado ‘alleys’, on floodplains and so on, turning ‘natural’ hazards into ‘unequally distributed and socialized hazards’ (Pantti et al. 2012: 18; see also Clarke 2006). Moreover, having once been seen as entirely beyond human control and causation, since the discovery of anthropogenic climate change, evidence is also mounting of possible human impacts on the long-term frequency and intensity of extreme weather and natural hazards (Svensen 2009 ; McGuire 2012). The predominance of documentary and factual entertainment programmes on weather and ‘natural’ disasters can be partly explained by a combination of the easy availability of technologies to capture imagery of disaster events generating footage (of which more below), and also the occurrence of a number of particularly large-scale and dramatic disaster events to have occurred in the televisual age, such as the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans in 2005, the Japanese tsunami of 2011 and Hurricane Sandy hitting New York in 2012. A deeper, underlying reason for a concentration of programmes on disasters is how such programmes can be seen as examples of the emergence of the ‘risk society’ (Beck 1992)...
eBook - ePubEnvironmental Management
Critical thinking and emerging practices
- Peter Mulvihill, S. Harris Ali(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...During the subsequent decades, especially through the pioneering work of the geographer Gilbert F. White (1973), geographic research on hazards expanded and was no longer limited solely to issues related to flooding. Rather, the repertoire expanded to focus on other types of natural hazards such as drought, earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes, snow storms, and so on, especially as greater funding support began to flow in from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Although geographers at the time did emphasize the physical aspects of the many hazards, there was a growing recognition that hazards and disasters arose from the interplay of material and non-material systems. It was in this connection that Gilbert F. White noted that: Hazard always arises from the interplay of social and biological and physical systems; disasters are generated as much or more by human actions as by physical events; the present forms of government intervention in both traditional and industrial societies often exacerbate the social disruptions from extreme events; if we go on with the present public policy emphasis in many regions upon technical and narrow adjustments, society will become still less resilient and still more susceptible to catastrophes like the Sahelian drought. (1978: 230) BOX 8.1 THE HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT (HIRA) PROTOCOL The formalized Hazards Identification procedure is based on first identifying all the hazards that exist within a defined locale...
eBook - ePubDisaster Mental Health Community Planning
A Manual for Trauma-Informed Collaboration
- Robert W. Schmidt, Sharon L. Cohen(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...6 Natural and Human-Caused Disasters Chapter 6 Preview A.Natural Disasters B.Human-Made/Caused Tragedies C.Mass Violence (Deliberate Disasters) Disasters, also called calamities and catastrophes, often involve extreme forces of nature like earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Natural disasters struck long before modern humans inhabited the planet and will likely continue as long as Earth exists. They can hit at any time and in any place, building slowly or occurring suddenly without warning. These events may have different characteristics and impacts, but they also have a common element, which is their severity. An emergency is a calamitous event that can typically be handled by a community alone; a disaster normally requires external support as well due to increased severity. In both cases, injury and loss of life are possible outcomes. Sometimes human actions cause disaster or contribute to loss of property and lives that may have been avoidable. These human-caused disasters have changed along with the evolution of human culture and technology. Some of these human-caused disasters are due to human error or carelessness, and others are from intentional acts of violence and cruelty or to make a political statement. Providing proper mental healthcare to those involved in a catastrophic event is a complex undertaking. This is especially true because people may react and be impacted very differently by a horrifying situation, so they may react and be impacted very differently depending on the type of disaster. A. Natural Disasters Statistics confirm an ever-increasing number of natural disasters. The weather in particular areas is indeed getting more extreme. The U.N. reports how weather-related disasters are bombarding the world with greater power and producing significantly more losses: 90% of disasters are due to the weather (U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015). Over the past 20 years, the U.S...
eBook - ePubCrisis, Disaster and Risk
Institutional Response and Emergence
- Kyle Farmbry(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...We would over the years encounter hurricanes of various scales of intensity, whose destructiveness often was the result of both hurricane force and the evolution of years of public policy that impacted the decisions people made about where to live. I end with 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, an event that served as a catalyst in framing discussions not only on a crisis, but also on the deeper dynamics of historical legacy, environmental complexity, and economic disparity in a region susceptible to disaster. Ultimately, my goal in this section is to explore the interaction between risk and disasters with a particular eye toward exploring issues of choice and response to the inevitable occurrence of disasters that, if not truly natural, have nature as a vital component. There are, as will be explained in the pages that follow, disasters that have critical elements that are intertwined with a multitude of human choices. In examining these disasters, we must take into consideration the role of human activity and choice in relation to these events’ impact on human lives. 1 Optimism Interrogated The Earthquakes and Tsunamis of 1755 and 2004 DOI: 10.4324/9781315705354-2 N early a quarter of a millennium separates two of the worst disasters that have confronted humankind: the 1755 earthquake and tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean and the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The timing of the disasters places them at opposing ends of the modern era of human development—an era characterized by our confidence in human ability to predict and control the happenings in the world. Our entrance into and emergence from an era of modernity were shaped by shifting interpretations of optimism, which in turn affected how we responded to the disasters and crises we encountered. The 1755 earthquake and tsunami fell during a time when philosophers were beginning to wrestle with questions related to humankind’s role in society...
- Linda L. Lowry(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Some incidents, such as diseases in people, animals, and plants, are associated with globalization, including tourism and travel. With climate change, urbanization, intensive farming, and rural abandonment, the potential for natural disasters grows by the year. In this context, tourism as a major component of the global economy must share responsibility for some of the catastrophes, and is itself at risk from the consequences of events. The potential adverse impacts of natural disasters on tourism were brought into sharp focus by events such as the long-running volcanic eruptions in Iceland in 2010 and the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. The latter represents a naturally occurring disease but translated into disaster by human agency, a common phenomenon. There is a substantial academic and popular literature on natural disasters and on associated impacts. However, to more fully understand the impacts on people and the implications for tourism in particular, a genuinely multidisciplinary approach is required. It is necessary to consider the phenomena of natural disasters but also the social, economic, and political issues. Tourism and Disaster Whilst on the one hand tourism may be adversely affected by natural catastrophes, it may also compound and contribute to problems, such as, for example, the spread of infectious diseases and invasive species around the world. Coming full circle, these problems may then impinge on the tourism economy, as seen with bird flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (e.g., WHO, 2004). The role of tourism in contributing to globalization has to be considered a major factor in these events. The relationship between disaster and tourism may be direct, such as a tsunami or earthquake destroying a locale and its tourism infrastructure, or indirect, such as the closure of Britain’s countryside to visitors during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001...
