What is a hazard?
by- Piyoosh Rautela
Cambridge Dictionary defines hazard as being “something that is dangerous and likely to
In disaster management parlance hazard is understood as being a process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.
Hazard thus refers to the possibility or loss causing potential and not the actual loss.
The term ‘peril‘ is sometimes used instead of hazard, particularly in the insurance industry.
Most things around us can thus prove to be hazardous under certain circumstances.
For that matter absence or excess presence of water could result in drought, productivity loss, famine, food shortage, flood, inundation, and waterlogging.
Likewise if not handled properly cooking gas and electricity in your home could be a hazard.
Similarly, buying medicines and drugs without consulting a doctor and improper disposal of expired drugs could be a hazard.
Effective disaster risk reduction requires the consideration of not just what has occurred but of what could occur, as most disasters that could happen have not yet happened.
Types of hazard
Hazards are often categorized by whether they are natural or technological – sometimes called man-made or human-induced.
Natural hazard
Natural events are termed hazards when they have the potential to harm people or cause property damage, social and economic disruption.
The location of natural hazards primarily depends on natural processes, including the movement of tectonic plates, the influence of weather systems, and the existence of waterways and slopes.
Geological hazard: There are geological and geophysical hazards that originate from both internal and external earth processes. These include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, rockslides, ground subsidence and debris or mudflow.
Hydrometeorological hazard: Then there are hydrometeorological hazards that are linked to atmospheric and hydrological or oceanographic processes. These include tropical cyclones, floods, drought, heat and cold waves and storm surges.
In previous some time, with climate change impacts becoming increasingly evident scientists have expressed particular concern over biological hazards due to these.
Biological hazard: Biological hazards are of organic origin or conveyed by biological vectors, including pathogenic microorganisms, toxins and bioactive substances such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and insects.
Agglomeration of people and globalization are major concerns for the spread of biological hazards.
And having witnessed COVID-19 we all are aware of the scale of devastation biological hazards can cause and one need not to relate to what happened in Europe due to the Black Death (1346-1353) in which 7.5 – 20.0 crore persons died.
With the thawing of the Arctic permafrost and melting of ice sheets scientists have long been contemplating the release of disease-causing agents that have been trapped therein for millions of years. With our immune system having no clue of these diseases, we are to be hit hard.
And it is not really a science fiction. Take the case of Saiga – adorable, dwarflike endangered species of antelope which is native to central Asia.
In May 2015 two third of the global population of Saiga died mysteriously in the span of a few days.
Mass death of Saiga: After detailed and long-drawn investigations these deaths were attributed to a simple bacteria, Pasteurella multocida, which had been living inside Saiga’s tonsils for generations without causing any harm. Then in 2015 it suddenly proliferated, emigrated to the bloodstream, and from there to the Saiga’s liver, kidney and spleen. This behavior of Pasteurella multocida is attributed to extremely warm and humid weather conditions in 2015 – so climate was the trigger and Pasteurella was the bullet.
You would be shocked to hear that more than 99 percent of bacteria inside human bodies are unknown to science and one can only guess their behavior with changing climate.
Anthropogenic hazards
Apart from the above, a number of hazards are caused by human interference and these are called anthropogenic or human induced hazards.
Industrial hazard: Under this the first subcategory in industrial hazards that originate from technological or industrial conditions, dangerous procedures, infrastructure failures or specific human activities. Examples of these include industrial pollution, nuclear radiation, toxic wastes, dam failures, factory explosions, fires and chemical spills.
Transport hazard: The other category could be transport hazard and it includes all modes of transport – rail, road, air and maritime.
Miscellaneous hazard: And the last could be the miscellaneous hazard category includes stray household accidents, building collapse, household fire, stampede and others.
Risk drivers
It however needs to be understood that processes such as urbanization, environmental degradation and climate change critically influence the location, frequency and intensity of natural hazards.
These processes are often called risk drivers.
Moreover, anthropogenic hazards can also arise directly as a result of the impacts of a natural hazard.
Each hazard often triggers a sub-set of hazards, for instance, tropical cyclones can bring forth intense winds, storm surges and heavy rainfall, as well as trigger secondary hazards, for instance, landslides.
A series of triggering relationships can cause a domino or cascading effect, for instance in the case of the tsunami-earthquake-nuclear crisis in Japan, in 2011. Similar was the case with avalanches, glacial lake outbursts, flash floods and resulting dam wash-out crises in Sikkim in 2023.
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