hazard profile.ppt

disaster management

1. Course : HSS F363: Disaster and Development
Instructor: Mohan Kumar Bera
Lecture 7
Date: 19
th
September, 2022

2. What is the impact of Hazard?
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3. What is hazard?
Hazard is a natural or human-driven event that could lead
to a particular level of loss, damage and disruption
A hazard becomes a disaster when it strikes certain
elements that are at risk.
Elements at risk are attributed by physical location, socio-
economic structure and political situation and market and policy
Hazard can be natural, biological and social
Is hazard = Disaster ?
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4. Hazard profile
A hazard profile is a description and analysis of a specific
type of local hazard
It is based on frequency, duration, and speed of onset of a
hazard

5. Purpose of hazard profile
First to know what hazards exist and where they exist
Describes the hazard in its local context
Identify those hazards that are most likely to occur and that are most
devastating should they occur
To plan for or prevent every possible contingency, so most government and
other organized emergency management entities will focus their efforts upon
those hazards
to identify every scenario that could possibly occur within a given community
or country as result of its geologic, meteorological, hydrologic, biological,
economic, technological, political, and social factors
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6. Why is hazard profiling important?
The traditional strategy for hazard planning has been on a
hazard-by-hazard basis.
It was thought that each hazard was unique and therefore
mitigation strategies should also be unique
A hazard profile compares the physical processes that all
hazards share
By comparing the characteristics of hazard events decision
makers are able to identify and rank the hazards that should
be given the most attention and funding
For example, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions
all occur with little warning time. Therefore a mitigation
and response plan could be created for rapid onset hazards.

7. Hazard assessment the actual physical hazards
the expected secondary hazards
All hazards or understanding specific hazards?
Resources may be limited
Hazard specific expertise and equipment (capabilities) to
address the unique response needs of certain hazards
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8. Hazard analysis
Identificationmethods of hazard profiling
Brainstorming : using own knowledge and experience to develop a
list of possible hazards and effectiveness
Research of the country’s disaster and emergency history
Reviews of existing plans
Investigation of similar hazard identification efforts in
neighboring countries
Using map
Interview with representatives from different communities and
organisations
Site visit
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9. Hazard profiling
To analyze a hazard,
disaster managers must determine exactly how a hazard exists
within the specific community or country
Each hazard is different in respect to climate, geography,
settlement patterns, regional and local political factors.
Determine the secondary hazards
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10. Event tree
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11. How to prepare hazard profile?
Hazard profile was designed by examining the physical
characteristics that natural hazards
(Natural Hazards: Explanation and Integration by Graham A.
Tobin and Burrell E. Montz(1997)
Hazard profile has grouped the various hazards into primary
and secondary hazards
The hazards were classified on physical mechanisms, and
temporal and spatial distribution.
Geographic area affected-measured in terms of magnitude.
Previous occurrences within the state-measured in terms of
frequency
Duration of event
Countdown interval: measured by speed of onset

12. How to prepare hazard profile?
Primary Hazards include: earthquakes, floods, and
wildfires
Secondary Hazards include: Landslides, Tsunamis and
other human caused hazards
To create the hazard profile some generalizations were made
about the hazards
We need to group the hazards into broad categories to
simplify the profiling process
For some hazards little information could be found on
specific physical processes. Therefore this profile should be
used as a guideline rather than an authority.

13. How to prepare hazard profile?
For example, we grouped all types of landslidesinto one category, even
though the physical processes and impacts of a creep versus an avalanche can
be significantly different. However, by addressing landslides as an important
hazard, landslide specialists can then create a specific profile for each type of
landslide and consequent mitigation plans.
For frequency, need to look at the average return period for the hazards
Wildfires, floods and earthquakes have historically been the most frequent
hazards and happen on an annual basis. Tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are
far less frequent.
For magnitude, need to use extent of area affected as a gauge of overall
power/energy of the event. Deaths and estimated costs are another way to
compare magnitudes however, since we grouped hazards into overall
categories these assumptions could not be made.
Some generalizations need to make for speed of onsetand duration of the
events.
We no need to distinguish between river floods and flash floods or creeps and
avalanches. Volcanic eruptions can also vary significantly in their duration.

15. Challenges with Hazard Profiling
Its easy to compare an earthquake in Japan to an
earthquake in California because they are measured using
similar metrics
However, it is much more difficult to compare an
earthquake to a flood to a volcanic eruption as they all
have different impacts on society and have varying spatial
and temporal distributions
In order to accurately rank multiple hazards on one scale
certain elements of the hazard become inaccurately
displayed or simply left out