54
Chapter 7
The information may not be sufficiently reliable or timely to manage
disasters.
Disaster management staff may not be aware of the capabilities or
convinced of the usefulness of such information in their day-to-day
activities.
A partial list of some of the better known examples of natural hazards
includes:
Asteroid: a celestial object that may collide with the Earth.
Avalanche: a massive uncontrolled transport of snow and ice down
topographical slopes.
Crop disease: a crop health event that leads to losses in agricultural
production and sometimes to famine.
Drought: a shortage of water for periods long enough to result in losses
in agricultural production, cattle or even human life.
Earthquake: a sudden movement of the Earth surface due to the release
of stresses in the lithosphere along faults.
Floods: the overflowing of a river, lake, or ocean.
Hurricane: a violent storm, or a tropical cyclone.
Insect infestation: an invasion by desert locust or other pests.
Landslide: a sudden, uncontrolled transport of soil and rock down a
topographical slope.
Volcanic eruption: spouting of molten rock and gas from the magma.
Tornado: a highly destructive wind vortex over land.
Tsunami: a major sea wave generated by an underwater volcanic
eruption or earthquake.
Although non natural in their cause, there are also disasters that result
from human activities, and directly affect the environment, including acid
rain, global warming, soil erosion, uncontrolled fires, deforestation,
desertification, the melting of ice caps, ozone depletion, extinction of animal
or plant species, etc.
Our awareness of the occurrence and impact of natural disasters has been
greatly increased by the mass media. In parallel, our capacity as a society to
either prevent or reduce the damages they produce has increased thanks to
technological and organizational progress. A number of international
initiatives to provide information or to improve disaster management
strategies have been proposed, including IDNDR (International Decade for
Natural Disaster Reduction), IGOS/DMSP (International Global Observation
Strategy/Disaster Management Support Project), STRIM (European program
on Space Techniques for Major Hazard Management), Eurimage-ESA Earth
Watch project, and the NASA/NDRD (NASA/Natural Disaster Reference
Database).
Chapter 7
The information may not be sufficiently reliable or timely to manage
disasters.
Disaster management staff may not be aware of the capabilities or
convinced of the usefulness of such information in their day-to-day
activities.
A partial list of some of the better known examples of natural hazards
includes:
Asteroid: a celestial object that may collide with the Earth.
Avalanche: a massive uncontrolled transport of snow and ice down
topographical slopes.
Crop disease: a crop health event that leads to losses in agricultural
production and sometimes to famine.
Drought: a shortage of water for periods long enough to result in losses
in agricultural production, cattle or even human life.
Earthquake: a sudden movement of the Earth surface due to the release
of stresses in the lithosphere along faults.
Floods: the overflowing of a river, lake, or ocean.
Hurricane: a violent storm, or a tropical cyclone.
Insect infestation: an invasion by desert locust or other pests.
Landslide: a sudden, uncontrolled transport of soil and rock down a
topographical slope.
Volcanic eruption: spouting of molten rock and gas from the magma.
Tornado: a highly destructive wind vortex over land.
Tsunami: a major sea wave generated by an underwater volcanic
eruption or earthquake.
Although non natural in their cause, there are also disasters that result
from human activities, and directly affect the environment, including acid
rain, global warming, soil erosion, uncontrolled fires, deforestation,
desertification, the melting of ice caps, ozone depletion, extinction of animal
or plant species, etc.
Our awareness of the occurrence and impact of natural disasters has been
greatly increased by the mass media. In parallel, our capacity as a society to
either prevent or reduce the damages they produce has increased thanks to
technological and organizational progress. A number of international
initiatives to provide information or to improve disaster management
strategies have been proposed, including IDNDR (International Decade for
Natural Disaster Reduction), IGOS/DMSP (International Global Observation
Strategy/Disaster Management Support Project), STRIM (European program
on Space Techniques for Major Hazard Management), Eurimage-ESA Earth
Watch project, and the NASA/NDRD (NASA/Natural Disaster Reference
Database).