Introduction - Welcome to my blog! (repost)

I very stupidly deleted my first blog post (by accident), so unfortunately this is just going to be a repost of it - although I didn't save the most up-to-date version so this may vary slightly. I also lost some of the reference links but will hopefully be able to find them soon. Thank you to everyone that commented on the original!

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Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog! The content of my blog will be regarding anthropogenic climate/land-use change and whether this may affect future frequency and intensity of natural hazards. Before I address future anthropogenic concerns, I will first look at some relevant theory on natural hazards. Natural hazards are naturally occurring events that range in form and magnitude. They include:

• Geophysical - earthquakes, mass movement, cyclonic storms, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis;
•  Biological - disease and infestations; 
• Others, such as floods, drought and wildfires. 

A common misconception is to equate natural hazards and natural disasters as one in the same, and to use these terms interchangeably. However, in order for a natural hazard to turn into a disaster, a number of other factors are involved (although in reality it is not this clean-cut):

Turning a hazard into a disaster. Source: Geology for Global Development

A natural disaster is a hazard that directly or indirectly affects a human population. In order to minimize the effects of a disaster, it must occur far from a community (limit exposure) or the community must have the capacity to prepare, absorb and recover (limit vulnerability). Due to new global population pressures, more people are being pushed into hazard-risk areas, with poorly made informal settlements increasing the vulnerability of these communities to disaster (Huppert and Sparks, 2006). In resource-rich countries such as Japan and the USA, specially made ‘hazard-proof’ structures ensure that governments are able to mitigate damages from a hazard. This is particularly important when considering that over 95% of all deaths from earthquakes result from building collapse (Anderson, 1985).

Engineered 'earthquake-proof' building. Source: web-japan.org 

So, how does anthropogenic change affect frequency and intensity of natural hazards? I argue on this blog that anthropogenic change in both land-use and climate (fueled primarily by GHG emissions) will change many natural hazards into natural disasters. I will also look at whether these disasters will affect different demographic groups disproportionately; whether gender, age, race or income would make a person more at risk. By using a predominantly feminist lens, I aim to dissect and critique much of the theory surrounding the Anthropocene and natural hazards.

I realise I am taking a somewhat ‘Malthusian’ point of view to this topic, and there may be room for technological advancements to limit the effects of hazards to such an extent - although currently they vary in success. In my next post I will be looking at the region of Ladakh, India, to examine how the intensity of earthquakes, floods and mass movement has changed in recent years. In this region, is there such a chance for these technological advancements to limit risk? Read my next post to find out!

Looking at Ladakh: Part 1

During the summer last year, myself and a fellow UCL student travelled to Ladakh in India with the NGO Geology for Global Development (GfGD). The purpose of this trip was to teach local school children about Geology, and to attend an academic conference held by scientists from around the world. One of the main focuses of the conference was on natural hazards, which highlights the importance of the topic in current geological circles; especially in Ladakh itself.

Dry, loose material covering slopes in Ladakh. Source: mouthshut.com

The region of Ladakh is part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which sits high in the Himalaya on a 3000m high plateau. It is vulnerable to a variety of hazards; drought, floods, mass movement and owing to its position on the Karakoram fault-plane (Rutter et al., 2007) - earthquakes. One of the largest natural disasters in Ladakh happened only a few years previously, in August 2010. After heavy overnight rains and a cloudburst event, the region was hit by an intense flood. It triggered a chain of secondary hazards, such as mudslides and debris flows (Hodgkins, 2013), resulting in the death of an estimated 234 people (Gupta et al., 2012). Due to the dry climate of Ladakh through most of the year, slope material is made of loose, unconsolidated material with little vegetation covering the slopes. This means that when a heavy rainfall event does occur, the runoff generated is huge, while the slopes are incredibly unstable and therefore prone to mass movement.

Cleaning up the effects of a debris flow after the 2010 cloudburst event. Source: climatechangenews.asia

At the school, the damage of the cloudburst event still seemed in the forefront of many students minds. Just after we left, another set of heavy rainfall triggered a further disaster near the city of Srinagar, close to Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. There is worrying evidence, however, that the frequency of these disasters is set to increase due to anthropogenic change. Firstly, as population pressures increase, many people look for cheap land to build their houses on - the cheapest being upon the unstable slopes of the region (Nagle, 1998). This issue became particularly poignant, when after teaching a session on the hazards of building on unstable slopes, many students approached us worried about the stability of their own houses, and the downwards pressure these structures would have on the slopes... For now, I will end my blog post on Ladakh, but stay tuned for part 2 where I will be looking at further anthropogenic issues and mitigation efforts! See you soon!