Hazardous Environments

What is pyroclastic flow?

A fast-moving (average speed of 100km/h) cloud of super-heated rock, ash, dust and gas that is deadly

What is remote sensing and GIS?

• Remote sensing is the technique of collecting data about the Earth’s surface using aerial or satellite sensors.

• GIS (geographic information systems) analyses and presents this information in a visual way by layering data to find correlations.

• This advanced remote sensing is often expensive so can only be afforded by high income countries

How did Japan respond in the short-term to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami?

• The Government:

  → set up shelters in schools and sports halls

  → provided emergency supplies such as food

• NGOs:

  → Japanese Red Cross mobilised 230 emergency response teams

  → 1500 shelter boxes were made and sent to Japan

• International help:

  → Countries such as the UK sent out search and rescue teams and provided shelter boxes

How did Nepal respond in the short-term to the 2015 earthquake?

• The Government:

  → The GIS tool “Crisis mapping” was used to coordinate the response.

  → Temporary housing was provided, including ‘Tent city’ in Kathmandu.

• International help:

  → China and India committed over $1 billion to helping the country recover

  → The Asian Development Bank provided Nepal with $200 million for rehabilitation

  → The UK sent over 100 search and rescue responders, medical experts, and disaster and rescue experts to Nepal

How did Nepal respond in the long-term to the 2015 earthquake?

• A new government taskforce was created to help deal with future earthquakes.

• Areas were zoned to assess damage.

• People are now being educated across Nepal to do earthquake drills.

Short-term impacts of the 2015 Earthquake in Nepal:

• 8000 people died

• 17000 people were injured

• Worst earthquake (7.8 magnitude) in Nepal in more than 80 years

Long-term impacts of the 2015 Earthquake in Nepal:

• $10 billion of infrastructure damage

• Lost harvests led to lower crop yields

• Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless