Are you ready?

Chapter 1 - Preparing for disaster

Figure 1.2 Some impacts and costs of major world disasters in 1998

A taste of Chapter 1

This page previews a few images and a snippet or two of text to give a flavour of Chapter 1.

The booklet is printed in high quality black and white (greyscale). You may wish to download, and possibly print, the sample pdf file to see what the booklet looks like.

Risk assessment

Any assessment of risk from hazards must take into account the interacting elements of Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3 The related elements of risk to be considered

Why do people take risks from hazards?

The resources needed by people living and working in hazardous regions may make it worth the risk.

Sometimes the people in a risky location lack the wealth to be able to move, or perhaps the knowledge of the degree of risk involved.

Figure 1.5 Why risk it?

How can we respond to natural hazards?

There are three main ways of responding to natural hazards. Figure 1.6 helps us to understand these responses and the possible combinations of these.

Figure 1.6 Responding to hazards

Example activities

An enquiry approach

This booklet encourages students to investigate issues and then make decsions and take appropriate action. The simple approach suggested can be seen in Box 1.2.