Predicting and preparing for hazards
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Flip to reveal answersWhat is pre-event hazard management?
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All 12 Flashcards — Predicting and preparing for hazards
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Question
What is pre-event hazard management?
Answer
Everything a place does **before** a geophysical hazard to **lower human vulnerability** (prediction, warning, zoning, resilient design).
Question
Define vulnerability (hazards).
Answer
How **exposed** and **unable to cope** a population is when a hazard strikes — the risk of death, injury and damage.
Question
What are the four families of pre-event strategy?
Answer
**Prediction & monitoring**, **warning & evacuation**, **land-use zoning**, and **resilient building design**.
Question
How does prediction & monitoring cut vulnerability?
Answer
Instruments (seismometers, GPS, gas sensors) detect warning signs, giving time to **warn and evacuate** before an eruption.
Question
How does land-use zoning cut vulnerability?
Answer
Maps the hazard and **bans building** in exposed zones (lahar paths, low coast), so fewer people sit in the danger zone.
Question
How does resilient building design cut vulnerability?
Answer
Hazard-proof construction (cross-bracing, lava walls, slope gabions) keeps buildings standing so people survive.
Question
Why can't earthquakes be predicted?
Answer
Unlike many eruptions, quakes give **no reliable warning signs** before they strike — so warning systems offer only seconds.
Question
Haiti 2010 vs Chile 2010 — the lesson?
Answer
Chile's **larger** quake killed far fewer because it **enforced building codes**; Haiti did not. Design works if a place can afford it.
Question
Tohoku 2011 — the lesson?
Answer
Early warning saved many lives, but the tsunami **topped the sea walls** and over 18,000 died — defences fail if the hazard exceeds the plan.
Question
Nevado del Ruiz 1985 — the lesson?
Answer
Hazard maps warned of lahars, but the **warning was not acted on** and ~23,000 died — prediction only works if communicated and heeded.
Question
What is lava diversion?
Answer
Engineering (barriers, channels, seawater spraying) that **redirects slow lava** away from towns — e.g. Etna and Heimaey 1973.
Question
What does a top [10] effectiveness essay need?
Answer
A range of strategies with **named evidence**, a **balanced** view of limits, and a **judgement** tied to cost and development level.
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Topic 10.4 hub
Future resilience and adaptation
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