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Quiz yourself on Natural Hazards OverviewGet your flashcardsBuild my revision planTrack my progress💡 Exam Tips for Natural Hazards Overview
🎯 Common Question Types:
- "What is a natural hazard?" (1–2 marks) — always include the human vulnerability element
- "Explain why natural hazard risk is increasing." (4–6 marks) — use the 5-step cause chain: population growth → urbanisation → poverty → climate change → environmental degradation
- "Explain why natural hazards have a greater impact in LICs than HICs." (6 marks) — the PEARL framework with named evidence from Haiti, Nepal, Christchurch, Chile
- "Assess how the impact of natural hazards can be reduced." (6–8 marks) — compare management strategies; evaluate which are most effective and for whom
📝 Key Command Words:
- Define: Include the word "threat" and the human element — not just "a natural event"
- Explain: Every factor needs a causal chain — "poverty means buildings are poorly constructed, WHICH MEANS more people die when earthquakes occur"
- Compare: Use explicit contrast language — "whereas", "in contrast", "compared to"
- Assess: Make a judgement — identify the most significant factor and justify it
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Defining a natural hazard without the human element — "a natural event" alone is not enough
- Saying "HICs have better buildings" without explaining WHY — enforcement of codes, ability to afford construction materials, institutional governance
- Giving a vague LIC vs HIC answer without any named evidence — you must name Haiti, Nepal, Christchurch, Chile, or similar
- Confusing hazard and disaster — the question may specifically ask about "disasters" (when humans are harmed) not just "hazards"
- Treating physical magnitude as the only factor — the entire point of this topic is that magnitude alone does not determine impact
- Listing factors without explaining how they connect — examiners reward causal linking ("this means that", "as a result", "which leads to")
Quick Check: Using the hazard risk equation (Risk = Hazard × Vulnerability ÷ Capacity to Cope), explain why Haiti experienced a greater disaster than Christchurch despite a weaker earthquake occurring in New Zealand.
Although Haiti's earthquake (7.0 Mw) was stronger than Christchurch's (6.3 Mw), the hazard magnitude was only one factor. Haiti's vulnerability was extreme: most buildings were constructed with no seismic design, the country had GDP per capita of ~$700, and building codes were rarely enforced. Haiti's capacity to cope was near-zero: the earthquake destroyed the government's own offices, emergency services were overwhelmed within hours, and the international aid response took days to arrive. In contrast, New Zealand had strict building codes enforced for decades, GDP per capita of ~$28,000, and a well-resourced Civil Defence system that deployed trained rescue teams within 90 minutes. Result: Haiti's disaster score (Hazard × Vulnerability ÷ Capacity) was far higher than Christchurch's — producing a death toll 1,700 times greater from a physically weaker event.
Quick Check: Give THREE reasons why natural hazard risk is increasing globally.
1. Population growth — more people are now living in all environments, including hazardous ones, simply because safer land is already occupied or unaffordable. 2. Urbanisation — rapidly growing megacities in LICs (Manila, Jakarta, Lagos, Dhaka) are concentrating millions of people in earthquake zones, flood plains, and cyclone-prone coastlines. 3. Climate change — rising global temperatures are intensifying the water cycle, producing stronger tropical storms, more severe floods, and longer droughts. Climate-related disasters increased by 83% between 2000–2019 compared to 1980–1999. Also accept: poverty trapping communities in hazardous areas; environmental degradation removing natural defences (deforestation increasing landslide risk; wetland drainage increasing flood risk).
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