Hazard (Natural) 8
Hazard (Natural) 8 :
While some hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanoes, are the product of natural processes unmodified by human interventions, other ostensibly natural hazards are less and less natural. The impacts of human activities on global climatic systems, with attendant changes in rainfall patters, storm frequency, and storm severity suggest that meteorological hazards themselves could be influenced by (unintended) human factors (e.g. Southwick 1996; Flavin 1997). Flavin (1997) cites evidence that both the frequency and severity of meteorological hazards may be increasing as a result of human-induced climatic change. Similarly human modifications of riverine systems, from deforesting and paving watersheds to elaborate levee systems, have taken the natural out of many flood hazards (e.g. Smith 1996) (Bolin with Stanford 1998, 25 fn. (3).
