The Challenge of Natural Hazards - Defining the Natural Hazard

 Natural hazards are sudden, severe events that make the natural environment difficult to manage.

They are natural processes of the planet (be it atmospheric, flooding or geological) but since they disrupt human life and have huge economic and social impacts they become natural hazards. 

Atmospheric hazards include: Blizzards, Droughts, Heatwaves, Lightning & Tornadoes. 

Flooding hazards include: Glacial bursts & Storm Surges 

Geological hazards include: Earthquakes, Landslides, Sink Holes & Volcanic Eruptions

Atmospheric combined with Flooding include: Snow Storms, Thunder Storms & Tropical Storms

Flooding combined with Geological include:  Avalanches & Tsunamis

Geological combined with Atmospheric include: Ash or Pyroclastic Clouds

Hazards that combine Atmospheric, Flooding and Geological are mud flows or lahars

Hazard risk = the chance of being affected by a natural hazard e.g. the residents of New Orleans hit by Hurricane Katrina between the 23rd and the 30th of August 2005. 

Certain factors affect risk: 

• Urbanisation - the denser populated urban areas increase the risk e.g. fire started from lightning in a bustee (shanty town) in Dharavi may lead to the square mile of close urban dwellings burning down. 
• Poverty - the expense of the housing leads to building on risk grounds e.g. shanty towns in Brazil on steep slopes may lead to the slope collapsing. 
• Farming - the attraction of nutrient-rich floodplains put people at risk. e.g. many people live on the floodplains in Bangladesh which often floods and takes lives. 
• Climate change - global warming raises sea levels and generates more extreme weather. e.g. the Maldives and the Marshall islands in the Indian Ocean

TL:DR

• Natural hazards are environmental events that threaten people.
• Natural disasters occur where death and destruction result.
• As populations grow, so does risk.