BGE 214-1 Geography: Natural Disasters

Study Notes

Definition of Disaster: A sudden event causing significant damage or loss, which can be accidental or a natural catastrophe.
Types of Disasters: Include emergencies, apocalypses, calamities, cataclysms, catastrophes, and natural disasters.
Natural Disasters: Catastrophic events stemming from natural phenomena on Earth, inflicting massive damage or loss of life, typically rare occurrences.

Natural disasters are often classified based on their origin, including hydro-meteorological events.

Floods: The most common natural disaster, caused by heavy rainfall, snowmelt, or storm surges, submerging typically dry land.
Flash Floods: Rapid water rise in streams or urban areas, due to intense rainfall overwhelming drainage systems.
Coastal Floods: Flooding in low-lying coastal areas, often due to storm surges from tropical storms, rising sea levels, or tsunamis.

Cyclones, Hurricanes, and Typhoons: Terminology is location-specific. Cyclones occur in the Indian Ocean, hurricanes in the Atlantic, and typhoons in the Pacific.
Tornadoes: Violently rotating columns of air, forming a contact point with the ground and a cumulonimbus cloud.

El Niño: Warm ocean waters in the Pacific can lead to various climate impacts globally, including flooding and droughts in different regions, altering weather patterns drastically.
Normal Year Conditions: Defined by high pressure in the eastern Pacific and low pressure in the western Pacific, resulting in standard trade winds and weather conditions.
La Niña: Involves cooler subsurface waters in the eastern Pacific, leading to severe droughts in South America and increased rainfall in northern Australia.

El Niño Effects: Increased flooding in South America, drier conditions in Amazonia, and reduced monsoon strength in Asia.
La Niña Effects: Severe weather events like flooding in Australia and snowstorms in North America.

Drought: Extended periods lacking precipitation, impacting ecosystems and agriculture, can cause significant loss of life (e.g., India in 1900).
Wildfires: Uncontrolled outdoor fires occurring in forests or grasslands, spreading due to environmental conditions.

Heat Waves: Extended periods of excessively high temperatures affecting crops, animals, and human health.
Factors increasing heat-related illnesses include humidity, obesity, and dehydration.

Result from human activities, including oil spills, chemical explosions, and gas leaks.

Common occurrences include heavy rains, floods, landslides, heat waves, droughts, tornadoes, cyclones, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, winter storms, and wildfires.

Campaign Goals: Reducing disaster mortality, affected populations, economic losses, and overall disaster damage while promoting awareness and preparedness by 2022.
Mitigation Strategies: Emphasize zoning, land-use practices, building codes, and international cooperation to enhance disaster response.