When discussing the strategies taken to reduce the
impacts of hazards associated with low-pressure and high pressure
systems, students may present logically sequenced points progressing
from monitoring, prediction and warning of future hazards, immediate
response to lessen the impact once it has occurred to long-term
planning. Students should display a grasp of a number of these, but do
not expect all to be considered as students may choose to use examples
that enable only a limited number of strategies to be discussed.
Management of the tropical cyclone hazard and drought is
covered effectively in Chapter 5 of ‘Hazards and Responses’ by Victoria
Bishop, Collins Educational on which these notes are based. Strategies
available to address the impact of human activity on climate have been
implemented at international level, by government action and by pressure
groups and individuals. Students should re-visit relevant material
covered at AS level.
An Assessment of the Strategies
Implemented
May be assessed on a
monetary cost benefit basis- i.e. cost of implementing strategies
against savings and other benefits. The cost may be assessed in
terms of the probability of the hazard event occurring again over a
particular period of time and its likely severity. For example, the
cost of insurance may be more than the assessment of the damage
likely to be caused. Again, for example, it may be considered
cheaper to exclude people and human activities from certain
vulnerable areas than to implement strategies to reduce a hazard
impact in that area. But whilst strategies concerned with the likely
material losses resulting from a hazard impact may be assessed on a
monetary cost/benefit basis, the same monetary assessment cannot be
made where human lives are at risk - moral considerations have to be
taken into account.
Strategies may be
evaluated on the basis of the extent to which these can be adjudged
to meet the needs in terms of –
1. Reduction in vulnerability to the hazard event.
2. Strengths and weaknesses of the emergency measures in
place in the event of the hazard occurring.
3. Immediate reconstruction measures and restoration of
basic services.
4. Strategies in place to ensure long-term reduction of the impact of
an event.
The Human
Response to Hazards
Prevent or Modify the Event
(hazard prevention and protection by hazard resistant design)
Modify Vulnerability (by
prediction and warning, by community preparedness (e.g. public
education schemes) and by land-use planning
Modify the Loss (by Aid or by
insurance)
Consider
- How do the management startegies attempt to reduce the effects
on the environment and on people (demographic, economic, social impacts)
High Pressure Hazards e.g. DROUGHT
- are slow onset hazards
- can cause droughts which link with human induced problems like
desertification to cause famine.
- often the famines may result not from a total shortage of but from an
inability of the poorest to afford the current raised price of food.
Famine: Look at
these different causes of famine and for each statement suggest how the
problem might be managed or reduced.
There may be secondary natural hazards
such as dust storms or wildfires. There may be long term disease
resulting from malnutrition. There may be pests such as locust plagues.
Kenya Drought 2009 - Turkana Region of
Northern Kenya
Preventing or ending drought is not
possible. To modify the event through management has concentrated on
water storage. Engineering schemes involve building dams and reservoirs
often as part of a multi-purpose scheme for irrigation, flood control,
water supply and HEP. An example is the Nigerian schemes on the
Komoduu-Yobe drainage basin. such a scheme is a high technology, capital
intensive scheme which is not always suitable for an LEDC - as it may
lead to increased debt.
Low technology management has included
the building of stonelines in The Sahel will help with soil
conservation.
Recent developments to modify drought
and vulnerability include early warnings of drought impacts, such as
crop failures. Warnings are possible because of remote sensing which
detects changes such as reduced vegetation growth. Other methods of
providing early warnings of drought impacts involve food and nutrition
survey systems. These aim to detect food shortages before famine
develops such as by monitoring child development. The Kenyan Drought of
2009 has evidence of such monitoring by the United Nations Office for
the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
http://ochaonline.un.org/kenya/Meetings/Presentations/tabid/4129/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Community Preparedness
This is an important management strategy
since droughts cannot be prevented. In urban areas people may be
encouraged to adopt water-conservation methods perhaps by legal
enforcement. It is in rural areas, especially in LEDCs, that community
preparedness is most critical. Unfortunately this is complex, since
preparation for drought and avoiding famine is tied up with both
environmental degradation and human socio-political systems.
Source: Bishop
In many semi-arid areas people have
developed traditional coping strategies such as land diversification,
migration and selling of surplus stock. Under severe conditions more may
need to be done such as selling assets, calling in debts, or migration
to urban areas. However, in reality, responses are mainly at the
individual level and involve selling stock, praying, or using government
aid, although many use no strategy at all. Many people would not migrate
to the cities because of the fear of violence in urban areas and the
lack of jobs. Apply these points to the Kenyan
Nomadic Tribes in the 2009 Drought.
Drought Cycle Management Approach -
and Drought Emergency and Preparedness projects
DCM strategy - Prevention, Preparedness,
Mitigation and capacity building aiming to reduce community
vulnerability.
Emergency aid in severe droughts - medicines, food and water
distribution.
Water harvesting, sand dams and emergency boreholes.
So this video covers
2005 - 2008 and the drought is in 2009. Assess how successful the
programmes have been! Is this fair?
Land-Use planning
Since poor land-use practices can
intensify the impacts of drought, there is a need for better land
management, especially soil conservation measures. In Australia farmers
adopt a self-reliant approach, and land management is important in
determining the famers' ability to survive a drought. Moisture
conservation and crop protection practices are used and in some cases
water catchments are stripped of vegetation and compacted to increase
runoff.
Modify the Loss by Aid
Acceptance of or sharing the losses are
important strategies for dealing with drought. The large scale of
drought usually results in aid at government or international level. In
all countries, governments are involved in providing aid to
drought-stricken areas. During the 1984-85 Ethiopian Drought the
government failed to admit that there was a problem at first, mainly
because the drought was in the rebellious northern provinces. This lack
of action was partly responsible for the terrible famine which followed.
The problems in the Darfur region of Sudan (2008) were also intensified
by the government's actions. More than 3,300 villages have been
damaged or destroyed in Darfur, primarily between 2003-2005. This is
more than twice the number previously identified and strengthens the
evidence of a vast, targeted campaign of destruction against civilians.Source:
http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/
What role has the government of Kenya played in the case of the Kenyan
nomadic tribes 2009?
International aid is mainly in the form
of food aid by governments, international organisations such as the
United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation (UNDRO), and
non-governmental organisations like Red Cross, Oxfam and Comic Relief
and even Live Aid for the 1985 Ethiopian / Sahel Famines. Providing aid
is not without its problems. The food aid may not reach those most in
need, may create a 'dependency culture' and does not address the human
factors involved in the drought impacts. In the longer term, aid can be
used to help farmers re-establish themselves and to improve
communications and health facilities.
DROUGHT PROTECTION AND SURVIVAL
(Emergency Management Australia EMA)
We have to accept that droughts are a
natural recurring hazard of the Australian environment. Farmers can
prepare by developing plans which cover all aspects of managing a farm
and take into account variable climatic conditions, especially drought.
To further ensure an economically and environmentally sustainable
agricultural business, advance strategies could include:
u
appropriate additional fencing and pest/vermin control measures;
u
planting drought-resistant crops and pasture;
u
stabilising soil which is degraded or subject to erosion;
u
increasing water and stock-feed storage capacities and planting
shelter-belts; and
u
considering options for agistment (paying someone else to look after
the livestock from the drought hit zone) and protecting
plant and native species during drought.
Plans need to be specific to each farm but
consistent with regional catchment management plans.
Ethiopia, Kenya - Horn of
Africa - BBC October 2011
BBC Newsnight on Kenya's region of Turkana and ongoing drought -
Long term roots of the crisis. Corruption
Assess the effectiveness of strategies used to manage the effects of
hazards associated with high pressure. (1.6) [25] Sample Assessment
Papers 2009 (see Click for mark scheme)
