Hazard Risk and Factors Affecting It

Vocabulary flashcards covering natural hazard risk, why people live in high-risk areas, and the four key factors that affect hazard risk.

Hazard Risk

The probability of being affected negatively by a natural event.

Poverty (Hazard Risk Factor)

A factor where living in poverty forces people into cheaper, riskier locations such as steep slopes or floodplains due to lack of other options.

Rio De Janeiro Favelas

Informal settlements built by hundreds of thousands of people on steep mountainsides in Brazil, putting residents at great risk of landslides.

River Ganges Floodplains

Fertile floodplains in India and Bangladesh that feature one of the highest population densities in the world and experience severe regular flooding.

Urbanization (Hazard Risk Factor)

A factor where population growth in cities increases land pressure, forcing people to build in high-density informal settlements or on marginal land.

Marginal Land

Pieces of land, such as steep slopes or floodplains, that are unsuitable for construction.

Tokyo

The most populated city in the world, which has a very high population density in an area of tectonic activity that puts millions at risk.

Agriculture (Hazard Risk Factor)

A factor where farmers, especially in developing nations, choose to live on floodplains or volcanic slopes to utilize highly fertile soil for growing food.

Alluvium

Fertile material deposited across land by previous flood events.

Volcanic Soil Nutrients

Elements such as magnesium and potassium enriched in volcanic deposits, which release nutrients when volcanic rock and ash weather to produce extremely fertile soil.

Volcanic Ash (as Fertilizer)

Thin layers of weathered eruption deposits that act as natural fertilizers to increase agricultural harvest in the years following an eruption.

Climate Change (Hazard Risk Factor)

A factor causing increased global temperatures, resulting in more extreme weather events and expanding hazard areas, such as warming sea temperatures outside the tropics to fuel tropical storms.