These are my notes for the Hazards module of AQA A-Level Geography (7037), particularly Paper 1 - Physical Geography. I got an A* across the whole of A-Level AQA Geography, and my main way of revising was reading over these notes frequently, and doing consistent active recall/"blurting" using these...
The concept of hazard in a geographical context
A hazard is an event that is caused by natural processes and is a potential threat to human
life or property.
Common characteristics:
● Each has clear origins and distinctive effects
● Little or no warning
● Exposure to the risk may be involuntary
● Most damage and deaths occur shortly after, but impacts may last into the future
● Their scale and impact requires an emergency response
3 types:
● Geophysical hazards are caused by land processes - e.g. earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions, landslides and tsunamis
● Atmospheric hazards are caused by climatic processes - e.g. tropical storms,
droughts, extremes of hot or cold weather and wildfires
● Hydrological hazards are caused by water movement - e.g. floods and avalanches
Key terms:
● Disaster: when a hazard severely affects humans
● Risk: the likelihood that humans will be severely affected by a hazard
● Vulnerability: how vulnerable a population is to the threats of hazards - e.g. damage
to property and deaths
Hazard perception is the way in which people view hazards differently, affected by their
economic, social and cultural background:
● Wealth: richer people are more likely to perceive hazards as less of a risk as they
can afford to adapt their lifestyles, such as building their homes to withstand
earthquakes, or even prevent the risk by moving out of the area
● Education and past experience: well-educated people, who may also have past
experience of hazards, are more likely to perceive hazards as less of a risk as they
are aware of the nature of hazards, the potential impacts and what to expect so they
are more likely to know how to effectively prepare, mitigate, adapt, potentially prevent
and effectively respond
● Personality: some people view hazards as exciting while others live in great fear
● Religion: some religious people view hazards as an act of God sent to punish people
on Earth
● Fatalism: fatalists see hazards as inevitable and unavoidable so they should just be
accepted and dealt with as they come
Human responses:
● Fatalism: idea of believing that hazards cannot be avoided so should just be
accepted and taken on as they come
● Mitigation: Reducing the magnitude/impact of hazards - prediction involves working
out when and where a hazard is likely to happen, increasing awareness and allowing
for preparation, and adaptation involves attempting to live with hazards by adjusting
lifestyle choices to reduce vulnerability (e.g. earthquake resistant features to
buildings)
, ● Management involves governments coordinating responses to effectively manage a
hazard and reduce the risk - e.g. mass evacuation, construction plans to adapt
buildings, emergency supplies, international aid, monitoring and early warning
systems
● Risk sharing is a form of community preparedness where residents share the risk of
a hazard - invest in mitigation and preparation together, share the costs of any
impacts and share the benefits of preventing it
Impacts on success of responses:
● Incidence: how often the hazard occurs
● Magnitude/intensity: how powerful/big a hazard is
● Distribution: the area over which the hazard occurs
● Level of development: economic development affects quality and quantity of
responses - e.g. LICs lack wealth and technology to effectively manage hazards
The Park Model shows the effects a hazard has on the quality of life over time after the
hazard has struck:
● 5 stages:
○ Pre-disaster: what the place was like before the disaster
○ Disruption: during and immediately after the hazard occurs when the quality
of life deteriorates - e.g. destruction of property and deaths
○ Relief: aftermath of the hazard - any attempts to mitigate the impacts of a
hazard, such as rescue measures to save people
○ Rehabilitation: resolving longer-term problems once immediate impacts under
control - e.g. restoring necessary services, socio-economically supporting
those affected (aid), investing into reparation and restoration of the area
○ Reconstruction: rebuilding and restoring properties, the infrastructure,
services and the environment to either same standard as before or to a higher
standard to improve the area (quality of life) and reduce vulnerability to future
hazards
● Evaluation:
+ Visualise the impact of a hazard on quality of life
+ Compare and contrast situations in the different stages - help planners predict
what resources will be needed at each stage and also how they can prepare
and mitigate for future hazards to minimise impacts
+ Compare and contrast with other hazards to understand what factors worsen
the impact, such as vulnerability and magnitude - e.g. LICs are more
vulnerable so have a steeper disruption curve (widespread immediate impact)
and a gentle recovery curve (longer-term problems that take longer to
resolve)
- Doesn’t show any quantitative data, such as number of deaths - makes
comparisons problematic
- Doesn’t show what was done before to prepare and mitigate - difficult to
determine whether the major cause was the vulnerability of an area or
magnitude of a hazard
- High magnitude hazards can affect multiple areas - difficult to apply the park
model to a hazard if multiple different areas had different levels of disruption
, and response with a different quality of life due to various factors like
economic development
- Secondary hazards that occur after the initial disruption can affect the
recovery - doesn’t show full picture of the hazard (it may look like the area
has had a poor recovery within the following days, but it is simply because
there have been numerous secondary hazards)
- Simplification of the event - doesn’t consider the complex, wider variety of
social, economic, political and physical factors that influence the impacts
The Hazard Management Cycle examines the management of hazards in an iterative,
ongoing manner to reduce the risk of hazards before, during and after it occurs.
● 4 stages:
○ Mitigation: minimisation of impacts of future hazards - happen before a
hazard or after when the area is recovering
○ Preparedness: planning how to respond to a hazard - e.g. monitoring and
warning systems in place and public education about survival like evacuation
plans
○ Response: how people react to a the occurrence of a hazard - e.g.
emergency services, search and rescue teams and evacuating people from
areas at risk
○ Recovery: getting the impacted area back to its previous state or even to an
improved state to increased mitigation, preparation, adaptation and
prevention in order to reduce vulnerability in the case of future hazards - e.g.
involves rebuilding buildings and the infrastructure, and restoring services like
medical care and electricity
● Evaluation:
+ Shows what was done before a hazard to prepare and mitigate - devastation
reduced so less money and aid needed when responding in long-term
+ Acknowledges that hazards are recurring events and the importance of
managing them to prevent widespread, long-term damage
+ Adaptable for all events of differing spatial distributions (multiple areas
affected) and magnitude (many secondary hazards weeks after initial
disruption)
- Simplification of the event - doesn’t consider the various social, economic,
political and physical factors that can influence the severity of the impacts of a
hazard
Plate tectonics
Earth structure:
● Inner core: solid ball containing iron and nickel
● Outer core: semi-molten containing iron and nickel
● Mantle: made of solid silicate rocks - top layer of mantle is semi-molten
(asthenosphere) and very top layer is rigid
● Crust: 2 types of crust - continental crust is thicker and less dense, while oceanic is
thinner and more dense
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