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    U2 l7 2 What Are Natural Hazards

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    Natural hazards are unpredictable natural events that can endanger humans and the environment. They include events like avalanches, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. A natural hazard only becomes a disaster when it affects human settlements. The location of human development, like buildings in flood plains, can turn a natural hazard into a disaster. Natural hazards cause worldwide concern because the disasters they trigger kill and injure people, damage property and infrastructure, hurt economies, and cause stress.

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    U2 l7 2 What Are Natural Hazards

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    Natural hazards are unpredictable natural events that can endanger humans and the environment. They include events like avalanches, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. A natural hazard only becomes a disaster when it affects human settlements. The location of human development, like buildings in flood plains, can turn a natural hazard into a disaster. Natural hazards cause worldwide concern because the disasters they trigger kill and injure people, damage property and infrastructure, hurt economies, and cause stress.

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    Natural hazards are unpredictable natural events that can endanger humans and the environment. They include events like avalanches, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. A natural hazard only becomes a disaster when it affects human settlements. The location of human development, like buildings in flood plains, can turn a natural hazard into a disaster. Natural hazards cause worldwide concern because the disasters they trigger kill and injure people, damage property and infrastructure, hurt economies, and cause stress.

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    11 views1 page

    U2 l7 2 What Are Natural Hazards

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    api-134134588
    Natural hazards are unpredictable natural events that can endanger humans and the environment. They include events like avalanches, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. A natural hazard only becomes a disaster when it affects human settlements. The location of human development, like buildings in flood plains, can turn a natural hazard into a disaster. Natural hazards cause worldwide concern because the disasters they trigger kill and injure people, damage property and infrastructure, hurt economies, and cause stress.

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    Unit 2 Lesson 7: What are Natural Hazards?

    The Earth is a dynamic place. Within nature nothing is constant. Indeed, nature is typified by
    continual changes, in some cases by predictable change or the normal sequence of cyclical events
    as in seasonal weather. Much of nature, though, is unpredictable. When unpredictable natural
    events become extreme in their occurrence, they may constitute a danger to humans and to the
    other members of an environment. Such an event, then, defines a natural hazard.
    Another way of conceptualizing natural hazard is as the coexistence of people in a natural
    environment that may disrupt or threaten their safety, property, or livelihood at an unpredictable
    time. There are many such natural events that, when experienced in an extreme degree, may
    become a risk to the inhabitants of an environment. These include avalanche, coastal erosion,
    drought, earthquake, flood, fog, frost, hail, landslide, lightning, snow, tornado, tropical cyclone,
    volcano, and wind.
    It is important to understand that there is a relationship between natural hazards and
    disasters. In fact, the hazard may be viewed as the triggering device for the disaster to occur.
    Often times the disaster is brought on by the mere presence of human settlement in an area
    that perhaps should not be occupied, as in flood plains. Or the impact of human intervention in
    natural processes may trigger a disaster, as in a flash flood in a deforested area.
    Why are natural hazards such a universal concern? The disasters they cause kill and injure
    people worldwide. They cause emotional stress and trauma. They destroy homes and
    businesses, damage agriculture, and disrupt both local and national economies. Disasters
    are increasing, both in number and in people affected.
    Adapted from: Natural Hazards: Causes and Effects. 20 September 2012
    <http://epdfiles.engr.wisc.edu/dmcweb/BB02NaturalHazardsCausesandEffects.pdf>.

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