Natural Disasters and Their Impacts in Europe
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ScribdTranslationsNatural Disasters and Their Impacts in Europe
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ScribdTranslationsINTRODUCTION
Natural threats, like natural resources, are part of our
natural systems but can be considered as negative resources. The events
natural issues are part of the "environmental problems" that attract so much attention
public, alter ecosystems and intensify their degradation, reflect the damage caused by
the human being to its environment and can affect large human groups.
Although most publications on natural disasters contain a chronicle of
deaths and destruction, almost never include a similar account of the damages avoided. Without
embargo, the effects of natural disasters can be largely reduced if they are
take precautions to reduce vulnerability. Industrialized countries have managed
progress in reducing the impact of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, eruptions
volcanic and landslides.
Natural disasters generate a great demand for capital to replace what has been
destroyed and damaged. The people who work in the development field should
to be interested in this matter as it represents, within all aspects of the environment
environment, the most manageable situation: the risks can be identified quickly, they
it has mitigation measures and the benefits of reducing vulnerability are high in
comparison of costs.
General Objectives
Detail the anthropogenic and socio-natural disasters that occur in each continent.
Point out why socio-natural disasters occur.
Specific Objective
Identify the anthropogenic and socio-natural disasters by continent
Detail why these types of disasters occur
Development
Natural disasters in Europe
Natural disasters can have significant environmental impacts, which,
depending on the event, they can affect more than one country. Extreme storms, due to
for example, they caused extensive damage in France, Germany, and Switzerland in December 1999. The
Wildfires can destroy rich forest ecosystems and cause serious effects.
about the fauna and flora of the forests. Landslides and avalanches of
Snow can eliminate or damage biological reserves in the areas where they are located.
path. In addition, extreme phenomena can cause a 'domino effect' as they can
produce more indirect impacts, such as the mobilization of toxic substances from the soil that
they infiltrate the aquifers, degradation of soils due to fires, loss of the
water quality due to drought, etc.
However, extreme phenomena also serve an important function in the
maintenance of natural ecosystems. Wildfires, for example, can
create new habitats, through the revitalization of the forest's biodiversity. The
floods are essential for typological forests and wetlands for recharge of
aquifers and the renewal of soil fertility, while avalanches can
create the conditions for the growth of new plant species. Even droughts
they can have positive functions such as the elimination of invasive species that are not
prepared to survive in certain conditions of ambient humidity that
native species can endure.
In Europe, the diversity of geophysical and climatic characteristics makes it susceptible
a wide range of extreme natural phenomena. Thus, the great rivers that cross
Europe, like the currents of the Mediterranean, makes these areas very vulnerable to the
floods. Similarly, southeastern Europe is affected by droughts,
Mediterranean and Eastern Europe due to the fires, the British Isles due to the storms,
the mountainous areas like the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Carpathians due to avalanches and
specific areas of the center and east of the Mediterranean affected by earthquakes and eruptions
volcanic.
Floods
Floods are a natural phenomenon and therefore expected. However, it is
interesting to make a distinction between the periodic floods that constitute a
normal events that usually cause little or no damage and the events
exceptional events that can cause significant damage.
It is also important to highlight the beneficial effects of flooding as they have
a positive impact on riparian ecosystems, aquifer recharge, and fertilization of
the soils.
According to EM-DAT data, floods account for 43% of all
disasters that occurred in the period 1998-2002. During this period, Europe experienced around
100 severe floods with more than 700 fatalities, the displacement of
approximately half a million people and numerous economic losses.
Storms:
Storms are the type of natural disaster that causes the greatest economic losses.
only because of the destructive force of the strong winds unleashed. Until the summer
From 2002, the storms unleashed in 1990 and 1999 became those that caused the
greater economic losses and human lives in Europe. Tornadoes can also
occur in Europe, however they are much less frequent events than the
storms.
Storms, like other extreme natural phenomena such as fires, have
important effects on the dynamics of forest ecosystems. Storms have
effects on vegetation structure, longevity of trees, and balance between species.
Drought:
In Europe, droughts primarily affect the countries of the Mediterranean region, no
however, it also occurs throughout the continent and can be considered as a
frequent phenomenon. Throughout the 1990s, numerous have occurred
episodes throughout all of Europe, from Finland to Portugal and from the United Kingdom to Greece
(EEA, 2001). In Europe, drought does not trigger famines and does not cause fatalities.
However, the human, economic, and environmental impacts can be devastating.
especially when accompanied by a heatwave.
Droughts can have significant economic impacts especially when they are of
long duration. In the 90s, the drought has mainly affected the center and south of
Spain causing losses exceeding 800 million euros in the agricultural sector.
It is also important to emphasize that the effects of drought can be increased.
due to unsustainable use of water resources.
Droughts can cause the deterioration of water quality in rivers, lakes, and aquifers.
since there is a massive growth of algae that reduces the available oxygen
for the rest of the aquatic species.
Landslides:
In Europe, the most catastrophic landslides are associated with the major
storms and floods combined with soil erosion on the slopes of the
mountains. In the Nordic countries, however, the main factor is the frequent presence
of soft sediments of glacial origin that can be easily movable.
In Western Europe, this phenomenon occurs with relatively low frequency; however,
the Mediterranean basin and the mountainous regions of Central and Eastern Europe are
particularly vulnerable to that phenomenon. The high tectonic activity and the deposits
relatively recent sand and clay increase susceptibility in these regions to
landslides and this vulnerability increases with urbanization and deforestation
are present.
Avalanches:
Avalanches are a natural phenomenon that in most cases occur without
cause damage or generate news about it. The Alps extend through the area
southern France, through Switzerland, Liechtenstein and northern Italy, southern Germany,
Austria and finally Slovenia suffer a greater number of avalanches than anywhere else.
of the world.
Alpine avalanches cause the death of around 100 people each year. The winter of
1998/1999 was especially dramatic with numerous occurrences in the alpine area.
avalanches.