Natural Hazards and Environmental Change

by McGuire, Bill; Mason, Ian; Killburn, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780340742198
• ISBN10: 0340742194
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-04
• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers

Summary

This important new book highlights and critically evaluates the accumulating evidence for an intimate link between natural hazards and environmental change. Surveying a unique collection of themes, this link is examined from two viewpoints: firstly, how environmental change can contribute to an increased level of hazardous natural phenomenon, and secondly how natural hazards may themselves lead to environmental change on a local, regional or even global scale. Through exploring the often complex and dynamic relationships between environmental change and the frequency and severity of hazards (such as floods, windstorms, landslides, asteroid and comet impacts and volcanic super-eruptions), the book also introduces the reader to some of the more speculative aspects of the relationship: how, for example, variations in sea level are linked to the level of volcanic activity and how a warmer, wetter climate might lead to landslides and tsunami formation at oceanic islands. With dramatically rising temperatures and sea levels now inevitable, as well as a growing global population that is becoming increasingly vulnerable to hazardous geophysical phenomena, the world of the 21st century is likely to be an increasingly dangerous one.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	x
List of abbreviations	xi
Natural hazards: an introduction	1	(17)
Chapter summary	1	(1)
What are natural hazards?	1	(1)
Natural hazards and environmental change	2	(3)
Natural hazard impacts: a historical perspective	5	(5)
A natural hazards primer	10	(4)
Recent environmental change	14	(4)
Windstorms in a warmer world	18	(35)
Chapter summary	18	(1)
Weather-related natural hazards and climate change	18	(5)
Observing and predicting trends in weather-related hazards	23	(6)
Mid-latitude storminess in a warmer world	29	(11)
Tropical cyclones, tornadoes, derechos and dust storms as the climate changes	40	(13)
Floods and other weather-related hazards in a changing climate	53	(12)
Chapter summary	53	(1)
River flooding and environmental change	53	(2)
Trends in rainfall extremes that can cause river flooding	55	(5)
Coastal floods and climate change	60	(1)
Changes in other hydrological and temperature extremes	61	(4)
Landslides and environmental change	65	(23)
Chapter summary	65	(1)
Impact of landslides	65	(2)
Types of landslide	67	(3)
Sluggish deformation	70	(4)
Catastrophic deformation	74	(3)
Intermediate deformation	77	(3)
Water and slope failure	80	(4)
Water and landslide run-out	84	(2)
Effect of environmental change on global rates of landsliding	86	(1)
The future	87	(1)
Volcanoes and environmental change	88	(24)
Chapter summary	88	(1)
Volcanism and environmental change: a brief history of research	88	(2)
Eruption characteristics and environmental impact	90	(4)
Contribution of volcanic eruptions to the atmosphere	94	(2)
Physical and chemical effects of volcanogenic aerosols on the atmosphere	96	(1)
Volcanoes and climate	97	(7)
Volcanoes as initiators of past environmental change: notes of caution	104	(1)
Volcanoes super-eruptions and environmental change	105	(3)
Volcanoes and Ice Age	108	(2)
Volcanoes and mass extinctions	110	(2)
Sea-level change as a trigger of natural hazards	112	(21)
Chapter summary	112	(1)
Changing sea levels and natural hazards	112	(5)
Perspectives on future sea-level change	117	(4)
Sea-level change as an initiator of seismicity and volcanism	121	(4)
Changing sea levels, submarine landslides and collapsing ocean islands	125	(8)
Asteroid and comet impacts as initiators of environmental change	133	(26)
Chapter summary	133	(1)
Setting the scene: the new catastrophism	133	(1)
Recognising the impact threat	134	(3)
Asteroids and comets	137	(1)
The impact record on Earth	138	(6)
Environmental effects of impact events	144	(15)
Environmental change and natural hazards: prospects for the future	159	(6)
Chapter summary	159	(1)
Environmental change and natural hazards: the impact in the twenty-first century	159	(2)
Natural hazards: the human dimension	161	(1)
Forecast for the future	162	(3)
References	165	(16)
Index	181