The Characteristics of a City Subject to Natural Hazards

A natural hazard is a danger related to a natural phenomenon.

• A natural phenomenon is an event that occurs in nature, without any human intervention. This could be an earthquake, hurricane, aurora borealis, etc.

• Tectonic plates are pieces of the Earth’s crust that can move away from each other, rub against each other or collide with each other. The continents and oceans sit on tectonic plates.

Tokyo is a city subject to many natural hazards due to its location because it is:

• near a tectonic plate boundary and, therefore, is at risk of being hit by earthquakes

• 100 kilometres from Mount Fuji, which is an explosive volcano

• on a typhoon trajectory

• in a high-risk tsunami zone

• in a high-risk flood zone

Quebec City is subject to very few natural hazards due to its location because it is located:

• in an area where there is an earthquake risk, but since far from tectonic boundaries

• in a continental climate zone with very cold winters, at risk of being hit by snow or ice storms

Since the locations of Tokyo and Quebec City are different, the two cities are not subject to the same natural hazards.

• An earthquake is more or less violent shaking of the Earth’s crust caused by the movement of tectonic plates.

• A cyclone is a violent storm that originates in the oceans close to the equator. It can also be referred to as a typhoon or a hurricane depending on the region where it forms.

• A tsunami is a series of huge waves triggered in the ocean that can cause major damage to inhabited areas along the coast.

The term instability refers to the unpredictability and danger related to natural phenomena in a territory.

Population density refers to the average number of individuals living in a given area. It measures the number of inhabitants per square kilometre (inhabitants/km²).

The lower the density, the fewer the number of people living in a given area.	The higher the density, the greater the number of people living in a given area.

Here is an example of two cities: Anchorage, in Alaska, in the United States (North America), and Manila, in the Philippines (Asia).

Even though these two cities are not located in the same place on the planet, they are subject to similar natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and floods. However, their population density is different. If a 7 magnitude earthquake were to hit both cities, the damage would also be different: since Manila’s population density is much higher, the damage would be worse.

• Gross domestic product (GDP) is used to estimate a country’s wealth by calculating the value of the goods and services it produced in one year.

• A natural disaster is a natural phenomenon that causes material damage (to buildings, roads, etc.) and human victims (injuries, loss of life, etc.).

Here are two examples that illustrate the effect of a country’s level of development on the extent of human loss and material damage The first is the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and the second is the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011.

Despite the fact that Japan was hit by a bigger magnitude earthquake along with a tsunami, fewer people died, were injured or lost their homes. This is because Japan is a developed country and, therefore, has more resources to prevent the consequences of natural disasters. An example of a prevention measure put in place in Japan is earthquake-resistant construction, which minimizes the damage caused by earthquakes. Most of the damage was caused by the tsunami that followed the earthquake.

Developing countries like Haiti do not have enough financial and technological resources to implement such effective preventive measures.

As such, a country’s level of development has a major impact on the extent of human loss and material damage caused by a natural disaster in a city or country.

An earthquake-resistant building is a building that is designed and built to withstand the ground movements of earthquakes.