Exam Connection

🎯 Exam Connection

Frequency: Natural hazards overview concepts appear in every sitting of OCR B and AQA. The concepts of hazard, risk, vulnerability, and LIC vs HIC comparison appear in at least one question per paper.

Common Question Types

• "What is a natural hazard?" — 1 mark: needs a definition that includes the human element
• "Explain why some communities are more at risk from natural hazards than others." — 4–6 marks: needs PEARL or equivalent framework with evidence
• "Explain why natural hazards have a greater impact in LICs than HICs." — 6 marks: needs comparative framework with named evidence from both LIC and HIC
• "Assess how the impact of natural hazards can be reduced." — 6–8 marks: needs range of management strategies with evaluation of effectiveness

Moving from Level 1 to Level 3: The LIC vs HIC Question

Question: "Explain why natural hazards have a greater impact in LICs than in HICs." (6 marks)

Level 1 response (1–2 marks): "In LICs people don't have as much money so they can't prepare for hazards as well. HICs have better buildings and emergency services."

Problem: vague, no evidence, no causal explanation of the mechanisms.

Level 2 response (3–4 marks): "LICs have greater hazard impacts because they cannot afford earthquake-resistant buildings, so more people die when earthquakes occur. They also have fewer emergency services. The 2010 Haiti earthquake (magnitude 7.0) killed approximately 316,000 people because buildings were poorly constructed. In contrast, HICs like New Zealand have strict building codes and fast emergency response."

Better: specific evidence, some causal reasoning. But only one factor developed.

Level 3 response (5–6 marks): "LICs experience greater hazard impacts due to multiple interconnected factors. Building quality in LICs is typically low — few have the institutional capacity to enforce seismic construction codes, and residents cannot afford reinforced structures. This was catastrophically demonstrated in Haiti 2010 (7.0 Mw, ~316,000 deaths), where entire apartment blocks collapsed because steel reinforcement had been omitted to reduce costs. This contrasts sharply with Christchurch 2011 (6.3 Mw, 185 deaths) — a weaker earthquake, but one that struck a country with strictly enforced construction codes. Furthermore, economic recovery from disasters is far slower in LICs: without widespread insurance and limited government fiscal reserves, reconstruction can take decades. After Haiti 2010, cholera outbreaks in contaminated water killed a further 10,000 people — indirect mortality that would not have occurred in a country with functioning water infrastructure. Critically, the capacity to cope is not just about wealth but also governance: Haiti's earthquake destroyed its own government buildings, causing administrative paralysis at the very moment effective coordination was most essential."

Level 3: multiple factors developed, causally linked, with specific named evidence and a closing analytical point about interconnection.

Key Command Words for This Topic

Command Word	What It Requires
Define / What is...	A precise definition including the human vulnerability element — "a natural event that threatens human life or property"
Explain why	Causally linked reasoning: not just WHAT happens but WHY each factor leads to greater impact. Use "because", "which means that", "as a result"
Compare	Direct contrasts using named evidence from both sides — LIC and HIC examples with specific statistics
Assess / Evaluate	Judge the relative importance of factors. "The most significant factor is X because... However, Y also matters because..."