Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
larger and more complex infrastructure
of contemporary cities also provides a more
vulnerable target, for high winds destroy power lines or cause trees to fall and break.
During periods of freezing rain, ice accumulation destroys many power lines since
they cannot bear the additional weight of the ice. Snow accumulation causes in-
creased traffic hazards and accidents; open air car parks or lots are vulnerable to
hailstorms.
Despite these examples of failures in the developed world, the increase in the
provision of services, and the regulatory environment and rules that ensure compli-
ance to the standards, meant that cities in the developed world have become less
vulnerable to natural hazards. By contrast, there is
greater vulnerability in cities of
the developing world
, for most have few of the regulations and services that reduce
the impact of natural hazards and, until recently, few had risk reduction schemes.
So the loss of life from natural disasters is often many times worse, although the
property losses are usually greater in the developed world because of the greater
wealth in their cities. In addition, many aid projects in developing countries have
actually reduced the capacity of many areas to withstand the effects of natural di-
sasters. Such new transport routes as the Sheberghan and Khuzdar highways, in Af-
ghanistan and Pakistan respectively, were hailed as exemplars of modern design and
development assistance. But they have blocked natural drainage channels in many
places, leading to increased floods and destroying scarce productive land (Oxfam
2008). Unthinking human activity has also increased risks through
environmen-
tal degradation
. Deforestation in many areas has increased rain run-off and hence
flooding and silting downstream, as can be seen in Nepal, where 60 % of the country
has been deforested in the last century, allowing the deforested slopes to become
more unstable and liable to mudslides or landslips. The shock of high winds and
tidal surges, especially tsunami waves, has been absorbed by coral reefs, mangrove
swamps and offshore islands which provide some protection for the inland areas
behind the immediate coast. Once these areas are destroyed, or the sites urbanized,
it is not only the shorelines that are devastated by tropical storms; settlements inland
are now less protected, thereby adding to the scale of devastation.
Finally it must be noted that the incidence and scale of devastation from nat-
ural disasters have
differential group impacts.
Those who are old, infirm, young
and female suffer the worse, for they are often malnourished in less developed cit-
ies—meaning they are less able to cope with the conditions—whether cold, heat or
floods—so more die from exposure to these natural events. In addition, many are
too weak or do not have the ability to escape, such as being unable to swim when
confronted with floods, or succumb to subsequent diseases because of their weak-
ness. Also most have few reserves or assets to survive, let alone recover their liveli-
hood, in the post-disaster period of deprivation without help from either national or
international agencies. It is salutary to record that the Kashmir earthquake in 2005
killed approximately 75,000 people, most of whom were poor and impoverished
with few resources, whereas less than a twelfth of that number were killed in the
much more urbanized, but prosperous region around Kobe, Japan, by the Hanshin
earthquake of similar strength in 1995. Elsewhere, authorities in Sumatra estimated
that a third of the deaths in the 2004 tsunami were children, and women were four
