Case Studies Paper 1

Question 1

Typhoon Haiyan

Answer 1

Primary effects

• 6300 dead
• 600,000 displaced
• 30,000 fishing boats destroyed
• 90% Tacloban destroyed
• Oil spills causing water pollution of Mangroves
• Thousands of trees uprooted

Secondary Effects

• Cholera outbreak
• Violence and looting outbreak
• Great difficulty in generating an economic comeback
• Children could not go to school

Immediate response

• 12,000 evacuation centers
• Red Cross provided food and water

Long term response

• Rebuilding of Tacloban’s roads and houses
• New storm surge warning systems

Question 2

Malaysia Case Study Statistics

Answer 2

Causes of Deforestation

• Tin, oil and gas extraction
• Population pressure (15,000 hectares felled)
• Commercial farming (largest exporter of palm oil in the world, trees felled for plantations)
• Subsistence farming (slash n burn)

Impacts of Deforestation

• 15,000 hectares felled due to population pressure
• Soil erosion
• Loss of biodiversity habitats
• Half rainforests felled in total
• Contribution to climate change

Why should we deforest Malaysia?

• job opportunities
• valuable minerals
• improved road transport

Why shouldn’t we deforest Malaysia?

• climate change
• Loss of biodiversity
• less tourists
• finite resources
• indigenous people

How can we sustainably manage rainforests?

• International agreements
• ecotourism
• hardwood forestry
• debt reduction

Question 3

Svalbard Case Study

Answer 3

Opportunities for Development?

• Mineral extraction (coal, main economic activity, 300 jobs, however industry has declined)
• Tourism (landscapes, experience, activities)
• Fishing (one of largest cod stocks in world, Barents sea, herring n haddock)
• Energy Development (geothermal energy, constructive plate margin)

Challenges for Development?

• Temperatures (warm clothes, difficult to work)
• Construction (permafrost, limited daylight hours)
• Services and accessibility (remote, plane or ship, few roads)

Question 4

Banbury Case Study

Answer 4

What has been done?

• Raising A361 road
• Improvements to drainage beneath roads
• Floodwalls to protect properties
• Creation of new habitat to absorb excess water

Pros

• Reduces impacts in case of a flood for local lives
• protection of over 500 properties reduces property damage
• Environmentally beneficial creating
• Better quality of life
• Reduced anxiety from flooding
• Benefits are an estimated £100 million

Cons

• Noise pollution during construction
• Ugly
• £18 million in costs

Question 5

Haiti Earthquake 2010

Answer 5

• 220,000 dead, 250,000 injured
• 300,000 buildings collapsed
• 1.3 million homeless
• Water, communication and electricity were destroyed and police were in chaos
• Port and airport damaged
• $8 Billion in damages
• Landslides
• Oil Spills
• Trees destroyed

Background

• 1/3 of Port Au Prince Destroyed
• 2/3 of population unemployed
• 1/2 of Haiti was poor

Responses

• Dominican Republic : Water, medical supplies
• USA : 10,00 troops
• $13.5 billion donated

Question 6

Somerset Flooding

Answer 6

• 600 houses flooded
• 16 farms evacuated
• 100+ livestock evacuated
• 14,000 hectares of agricultural land was submerged for 4 weeks
• Roads and railway line cut off
• Farm waters heavily contaminated with sewage
• Ecosystems temporarily destroyed
• Boats used for travel
• £20 million flood action plan launched
• River banks built
• Rivers dredged
• Caused by rivers not being dredged for 20 years
• High tides and storm surges swept upstream

Question 7

Lake District

Answer 7

Pros

• Opportunities for new businesses to open
• Job opportunities
• Locals have increased income
• More money spent, so more environmental charity

Cons

• Shop prices increase, causing difficulty for locals
• Environmental damage through erosion and litter
• Seasonal jobs, poorly paid
• Increased pollution
• Traffic congestion interrupting business communications

Opportunities?

• Hiking
• Photography
• Windermere lake
• Scenery

Management Strategies?

• Paths to reduce erosion
• Dual Carriageways built to help with congestion
• Park and Bus ride schemes for tourists to reduce co2 emissions and car usage

Question 8

Eyjafjallajökull

Answer 8

Primary Effects

• Roads and homes destroyed
• No loss of lives
• Ash cloud turned day to night

Secondary Effects

• worldwide, businesses lost billions
• Sporting events cancelled due to cancelled flights, impacts to tourism industry
• Fresh food imports halted
• Local water supplies contaminated with fluoride
• Flooding from melting glaciers
• Europe lost over 6 million dollars a day from losses in the tourism industry

Immediate response

• EU airspace closed as a precaution
• Evacuation
• State of emergency declared

Long term response

• Properties rebuilt
• Cleansing of water supplies

Question 9

Bangladesh

Answer 9

• Deaths reduced from 500,000 in 1970 to 4,000 in 2007
• BECAUSE OF EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS
• CYCLONE SHELTERS
• BETTER AWARENESS
• CYCLONES TRACKED, WARNINGS GIVEN BY RADIO, TELEVISION

Question 10

Mt etna

Answer 10

• PROTECTION

- Lava flow was redirected from populated areas by using explosives and earth embankments

Question 11

Chile Earthquake 2010

Answer 11

• 500 killed
• 12,000 injured
• 800,000 affected
• destruction of buildings and infrastructure
• $30 billion in damages
• 53 ports destroyed
• 4500 schools destroyed
• 220,000 homes destroyed
• tsunami devastated coastal towns
• 1500km or roads destroyed by landslides
• chemical plant fire

Immediate responses

• 90% of power and water restored within 10 days
• emergency services ACTED QUICKLY

Long term responsss
- houses reconstructed