Natural Hazards and Disasters
Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes and storms become disasters when they affect vulnerable people.
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Play with the controls to see the idea in action.
📘 Learn
Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes and storms become disasters when they affect vulnerable people.
- Preparation reduces impact
- Early warnings save lives
- Poorer places are often hit harder
🧠 Quick quiz
Three questions. Score 2 or more to complete the topic.
What is Natural Hazards and Disasters?
Within Earth & Environmental Science, which covers our planet, its resources and ecosystems, and how people can protect the environment, this topic explains Natural Hazards and Disasters. Earth and environment topics show how the planet’s systems shape landscapes, climate and life, with models that make these processes visible.
Check that you can explain Natural Hazards and Disasters in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.
Understanding Natural Hazards and Disasters helps you explain the environment around you and weigh up how people can protect it.
Natural Hazards and Disasters in detail
A natural hazard is a natural event that can cause harm, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires. A disaster occurs when a hazard seriously affects a vulnerable community, causing losses beyond its ability to cope. Risk depends on the hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity to respond.
Poorer countries often suffer more deaths and long recovery because of weaker buildings, services and warning systems. Management includes prediction and monitoring, planning and land-use rules, protection (building design and defences), education, warning and evacuation, and emergency response and recovery. Climate change may increase some hazards.
How the interactive helps you understand Natural Hazards and Disasters
Watch the tectonic plates in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the tectonic plates responds.
Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Natural Hazards and Disasters.
Real-life uses and examples
- Explain how Natural Hazards and Disasters affects the landscape or climate near you.
- Link Natural Hazards and Disasters to a real environmental problem and a possible solution.
- Use a diagram of Natural Hazards and Disasters to describe the steps of a process in order.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Describing a process without the timescale it works over.
- Presenting one cause as the only cause of an environmental change.
- Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.
Frequently asked questions about Natural Hazards and Disasters
What is Natural Hazards and Disasters?
Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes and storms become disasters when they affect vulnerable people.
What are the most important points about Natural Hazards and Disasters?
The main points are: Preparation reduces impact; Early warnings save lives; Poorer places are often hit harder.
Why is Natural Hazards and Disasters useful?
Understanding Natural Hazards and Disasters helps you explain the environment around you and weigh up how people can protect it.
How can I practise Natural Hazards and Disasters?
Open the interactive at the top of this page and change the controls one at a time. Predict the result before each change, then take the three-question quiz. A score of two or more marks the topic as complete on this device.
Which topics are related to Natural Hazards and Disasters?
Related topics in Earth & Environmental Science include Tsunamis, Green Technology, Environmental Monitoring and Fieldwork.