The final exam will consider basic terms and concepts as well as four specific cases.
Basics Terms
The terms considered include:
Hazard, Disaster, and the links between them
Vulnerability and its role in determining the extent of the disaster
Probability of hazards; including probability density function
Risks, risk assessment, risk governance
An important question in modern times if whether the probabilities of some hazards are changing over time and, if so, why?
Specific Examples
The exam will consider four specific examples:
April 6, 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (class 5)
Comparison of Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Haiyan (class 9)
The 1974 Super Outbreak of Tornados (class 10)
Holocene and Post-Holocene: Leaving the Safe-Operating Space for Humanity, including modern
climate change (classes 11 - 12)
For information on the four cases, please, look at the Lab slides and the slides of the classes indicated above.
Questions will relate to:
the hazard (earthquake, hurricane, tornado, climate change, extinction): general description of the type,
the specific event;
the disaster: extent of damage and lives lost;
cascading impacts, if any;
the specific reasons for the extent of the disaster (what led to the disaster?);
particulars of the risk management cycle, in particular: risk assessment prior to the event, early
warning; hazard mitigation, if any; impact mitigation, and recovery
