Hazards

Hazards
Hazards are defined as a thing, person,
event or factor that poses a threat to people,
structures or economic assets and which may
cause a disaster.
They could be either humanmade or naturally occurring
in the environment.
The word ‘hazard’ owes its origin to the word
‘hasart’ in old French meaning a game of dice
(in Arabic – az-zahr; in Spanish – azar).
 Types of Hazards
Hazards are classified in different ways.

I. Based on their causes of occurrence.

II. Based on their origin.
 I. Based on their causes of occurrence

1. Natural hazards
2. Human-made hazards
1. Natural hazards
These are the results of
natural processes and man has no role to play
in such hazards. The main examples of natural
hazards are earthquakes, floods, cyclonic
storms, droughts, landslides, tsunamis and
volcanic eruptions.
2. Human-made hazards

• These are caused by undesirable activities of human. It

can be the result of an accident, such as an industrial
chemical leak or oil spill, or an intentional act. Such
hazards can disturb the safety, health, welfare of
people and cause damage or destruction to property.
• The following are the examples of human-made
hazards. They are explosions, hazardous wastes,
pollution of air, water and land, dam failures, wars or
civil conflicts and terrorism
3. Socio-natural hazards (Quasi-
natural hazards)
• These are caused by the combined effect of natural forces and
misdeeds of human. Some of the examples are:
• The frequency and intensity of floods and droughts may
increase due to indiscriminate felling of trees, particularly in
the catchment areas of the rivers.
• Landslides are caused by natural forces and their frequency,
and impact may be aggravated as a result of construction of
roads, houses etc., in mountainous areas, excavating tunnels
and by mining and quarrying.
• Storm surge hazards may be worsened by the destruction of
mangroves.
• Smog is a serious problem in most big urban areas. The
emissions from vehicles and industries, combustion of wood
and coal together combined with fog leads to smog.
 II. Based on their origin
Hazards can be grouped into eight categories
1. Atmospheric hazard – Tropical storms, Thunderstorms, Lightning,
Tornadoes, Avalanches, Heat waves, Fog and Forest fire.
2. Geologic/Seismic hazard – Earthquakes, Tsunami, Landslide and Land
subsidence.
3. Hydrologic hazard – Floods, Droughts, Coastal erosion and Storm surges.
4. Volcanic hazard – Eruptions and Lava flows.
5. Environmental hazard – Pollution of soil/air/water, Desertification,
Global warming and Deforestation.
6. Biological hazard – Chickenpox, Smallpox, AIDS [HIV] and Killer bees.
7. Technological hazard – Hazardous material incidents, Fires,
Infrastructure failures [Bridges, Tunnels, Dams, Nuclear and Radiological
accidents].
8. Human-induced hazard – Terrorism, Bomb blast, War, Transportation
accidents and Civil disorder
 Major Hazards in India
1) Earthquakes
2) Floods
3) Cyclonic Storms
4) Droughts
5) Landslides
6) Tsunami
7) Hazardous Wastes
8) Pollution of Air
1) Earthquakes
Earthquake is a violent tremor in the earth’s crust,
sending out a series of shock waves in all directions from
its place of origin.
Earthquake prone regions of the country have been
identified on the basis of scientific inputs relating to
seismicity, earthquakes occurred in the past and tectonic
setup of the region. Based on these inputs, Bureau of
Indian Standards has grouped the country into four
seismic zones: Zone II, Zone III, Zone IV and
Zone V (No area of India is classified as Zone I).
Seismic zones in India
 2) Floods
An event in which a part of the earth’s surface gets
inundated. Heavy rainfall and large waves in seas are
the common causes of flood
A. Meteorological B. Physical factors C. Human factors
factors
i) Deforestation
i) Heavy rainfall i) Large catchment
ii) Siltation
ii) Tropical area
iii) Faulty agricultural
cyclones ii) Inadequate practices
drainage iv) Faulty irrigation
iii) Cloud burst arrangement practices
v) Collapse of dams
vi) Accelerated
urbanisation
Major flood prone areas of India
3) Cyclonic Storms
A cyclonic storm is a strong wind circulating around a low pressure
area in the atmosphere. It rotates in anti-clockwise direction in
Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
Tropical cyclones are characterised by destructive winds, storm surges
and exceptional levels of rainfall, which may cause flooding. Wind
speed may reach upto 200 km/h and rainfall may record upto 50
cm/day for several consecutive days.
A sudden rise of seawater due to tropical cyclone is called storm
surge. It is more common in the regions of shallow coastal water.
East coastal areas vulnerable to storm
West coastal areas vulnerable to storm surges
surges
The west coast of India is less vulnerable to
i) North Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
storm surges than the east coast.
ii) Andhra Pradesh coast between Ongole
i) Maharashtra coast, north of Harnai and
and Machilipatnam.
adjoining south Gujarat coast and the coastal
iii) Tamil Nadu coast (among 14 coastal
belt around the Gulf of Camba
districts, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore
ii) The coastal belt around the Gulf of Kutch
districts are frequently affected).
.
 Cyclone Hazard Prone areas of India
East coastal areas vulnerable to storm
surges
i) North Odisha and West Bengal
coasts.
ii) Andhra Pradesh coast between
Ongole and Machilipatnam.
iii) Tamil Nadu coast (among 14
coastal districts, Nagapattinam and
Cuddalore districts are frequently
affected).
West coastal areas vulnerable to
storm surges
The west coast of India is less
vulnerable to storm surges than the
east coast.
i) Maharashtra coast, north of Harnai
and adjoining south Gujarat coast and
the coastal belt around the
Gulf of Camba
ii) The coastal belt around the Gulf of
Kutch
4) Droughts
Any lack of water to satisfy the normal needs of
agriculture, livestock, industry or human population may
be termed as a drought. Further, the drought could be
classified into three major types as,
i) Meteorological drought: it is a situation where there is a
reduction in rainfall for a specific period below a specific
level.
ii) Hydrological drought: it is associated with reduction of
water in streams, rivers and reservoirs. It is of two types, a)
Surface water drought, and b) Groundwater drought.
iii) Agricultural drought: it refers to the condition in which
the agricultural crops get affected due to lack of rainfall
Droughts in India
Droughts in India occur in the event of a failure of
monsoon. Generally monsoon rainfall is uneven in India.
Some areas receive heavy rainfall while other regions get
moderate to low rainfall. The areas which experience low
to very low rainfall are affected by drought.
 DROUGHT PRONE AREAS

The major areas highly

prone to drought are:

1) The arid and semi-arid

region from Ahmedabad
to Kanpur on one side and
from Kanpur to Jalandhar
on the other.

2) The dry region lying in

the leeward side of the
Western Ghats.
5) Landslides
• Landslide is a rapid downward movement of rock, soil and
vegetation down the slope under the influence of gravity.
Landslides are generally sudden and infrequent.
• Presence of steep slope and heavy rainfall are the major
causes of landslides. Weak ground structure, deforestation,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mining, construction of
roads and railways over the mountains are the other
causes of landslides.
• About 15% of India’s landmass is prone to landslide hazard.
• Landslides are very common along the steep slopes of the
Himalayas, the Western Ghats and along the river valleys.
• In Tamil Nadu, Kodaikanal (Dindigul district) and Ooty (The
Nilgiris district) are frequently affected by landslides.
6) Tsunami
• Tsunami refers to huge ocean waves caused by an
earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption.
• It is generally noticed in the coastal regions and travel
between 640 to 960 km/h. Tsunami pose serious
danger to the inhabitants of the coastal areas.
Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004
• On December 26, 2004, at 7:59 a.m. local time, an
undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 struck off
the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
• The tsunami killed at least 2,25,000 people across a
dozen countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India,
Thailand, Somalia and Maldives, sustaining massive
damage.
• The word ‘Tsunami’ is derived from Japanese word ‘tsu’
meaning harbour and ‘nami’ meaning wave (Harbour
wave).
7) Hazardous Wastes
The wastes that may or tend to cause adverse health effects
on the ecosystem and human beings are called hazardous wastes.
The following are the major hazardous wastes
i) Radioactive substance: tools and unused fuel pipe of nuclear
power plants.
ii) Chemicals: synthetic organics, inorganic metals, salts, acids and
bases, and flammables and explosives.
iii) Medical wastes: hypodermic needles, bandages and outdated
drugs.
iv) Flammable wastes: organic solvents, oils, plasticisers and
organic sludges.v) Explosives: the wastes resulting from ordnance
manufacturing and some industrial gases.
vi) Household hazardous wastes: pesticides, waste oil, automobile
battery and household battery.
Chernobyl nuclear disaster
Chernobyl nuclear disasterr site (near Pripyat) to become an official
tourist spot
Before:
• Chernobyl (then Soviet Union) nuclear accident was happened on 26th
April, 1986.
• The radiation emitted was more than 400 times than that released by
the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Japan) in 1945. This accident
remains the largest nuclear accident in history.
• More than 3,50,000 people were evacuated from the area and severe
restrictions on permanent human settlement are still in that place.
Now:
• 33 years after the accident, the Exclusion Zone, which covers an area
now in Ukraine and Belarus is inhabited by numerous animals and more
than 200 bird species.
• In 2016, the Ukraine part of this zone was declared as a radiological and
environmental biosphere reserve by the government
8) Pollution of Air
Air is a mixture of several gases. The main gases are
nitrogen (78.09%) for forming products such as, fertilisers
for plants and for making the air inert, oxygen (20.95%)
for breathing and carbon dioxide (0.03%) for
photosynthesis. Some other gases like argon, neon,
helium, krypton, hydrogen, ozone, zenon and methane
are also present. Besides, water vapour and dust
particles make their presence felt in one way or the
other. Air pollution is the contamination of the indoor
or outdoor air by a range of gases and solids that
modify its natural characteristics and percentage.
Types of pollutants
primary pollutant Secondary Pollutants
A primary pollutant is an Secondary pollutant is not
air pollutant emitted directly
directly from a source.

i) Oxides of Sulphur
i) Ground Level Ozone
ii) Oxides of Nitrogen ii) Smog
iii) Oxides of Carbon
iv) Particulate Matter
v) Other Primary Pollutants
9) Pollution of Water
Water pollution may be defined as alteration in the
physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water,
which may cause harmful effects in human and aquatic
life.
Water pollution in India
In India, water pollution has been taking place on a large
scale and since a long period. Both surface and
groundwater bodies are polluted to a great extent.
The major causes of water pollution in India are:
i) Urbanisation
ii) Industrial effluents
iii) Sewages
iv) Agricultural runoff and improper
agricultural practices
v) Seawater intrusion
vi)Solid wastes
Need for Prevention Measures

Prevention is defined as the activities taken to

prevent a natural calamity or potential hazard from
having harmful effects on either people or economic
assets.
• Prevention planning consists of i) hazard identification,
and ii) vulnerability assessment.
• Delayed actions may increase the economic losses.
• For developing countries like India,prevention is
perhaps the most critical components in managing
disasters.