Choose either the Philippines or California and explain why it is considered a disaster hotspot. (15 marks)
A disaster hotspot is a place where they not only have a high vulnerability, but also a number of different hazards: hydro-meteorological and geophysical. The Philippines is vulnerable to disasters because they’re a lower middle income country, with majority of the people living in poor conditions/poverty and near the coast. This implies that they lack sufficient infrastructure to protect them against hazards and that many of these people are involved in agriculture like subsistence farmers in order to generate some income. In addition, the Philippines is a densely populated area as the country average is 240 people per km squared, and the megacities (Manila) population can go up to 2000 people per km squared.
The Philippines is located in South East Asia and is North of Indonesia. It lies on a destructive plate boundary (Eurasian and Philippine plates) so as a result, there is regular volcanic eruptions which cause pyroclastic flows and lahars. As they’re vulnerable due to their lack of advanced infrastructure, this causes a disaster for them. An example of a volcanic eruption that had large impacts was the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991 where it was the biggest eruption seen in 50 years. Volcanic activity causes a secondary disaster which is earthquakes, causes $850,000 worth of damage, mainly agriculture and property, and affecting roughly 2.25 million people. Steep relief and many hills mean landslides and further lahars are sometimes a result from earthquakes. Deforestation and land degradation has led to increased vulnerability for secondary hazards i.e. landslides and also flash flooding during typhoons.
Deforestation increases the magnitude of flooding because plants and trees hold the soil together and absorb water in their roots so reduce the amount of water in the soil. The vegetation causes intervention so the water doesn’t flow all the way down the hills. Removing vegetation, by slash and burn, however causes flash flooding to be increased.
The climate in the Philippines is very humid and moist. They live in a very warm climate with warm ocean temperatures above 27 degrees. When the water is above this temperature warm air raises, cools and then condenses to form clouds. This causes a low pressure system which causes a lot of fast winds and creates tropical cyclones. These tropical cyclones also cause storm surges which sometimes hit the coast of the Philippines. This can lead to many affects including floods and landslides. Typhoons alone have caused $9,000,000 worth of damage. This massively affects the Philippines economy, especially as they are LEDC and in these circumstances rely on aid from other countries. Increases in urbanisation and people migrating to the coast means more people are at risk and isn’t a helpful factor when trying to reduce the vulnerability of the population.
Drought, caused by El Nino events, affects those that are poorer because they rely on their crops and agriculture to make a living. Drought means that their crops die and therefore they will not be able to make an income and support their families. For the majority of the Philippians, drought does occur.
The Philippines meet the criteria for being a disaster hotspot, and the government have recently established organisations to try and forecast certain hazards such as landslides. New structural programmes of defence are now also being planned to help people face the huge range of hazards they have to face. They hope to reduce their vulnerability, as they are aware that the hazard number cannot be changed.