IGCSE Geography / Hazardous environments

Why some countries are more vulnerable

Edexcel International GCSE Geography (4GE1), chapter 3: Hazardous environments, specification point 3.2b. Part of the full course.

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Vulnerability is how likely people are to be harmed by a natural hazard and how difficult it is for them to cope and recover. Physical, social and economic factors help explain why the same hazard can cause different numbers of deaths and different financial losses.

More lessons in Hazardous environments

• Natural hazards: types and where they happen
• How tropical cyclones form
• Plates and plate boundaries
• Why earthquakes happen
• Volcanoes and hotspots
• Measuring hazards
• Case study: the Nepal earthquake, 2015
• Case study: the central Italy earthquakes, 2016
• Case studies: Mount Merapi and Mount Ontake
• Why people live with the risk
• Case study: Hurricane Katrina, 2005
• Case study: Typhoon Haiyan, 2013
• Preparing for earthquakes: warning, drills and mapping
• Earthquake-resistant buildings
• After the earthquake: short-term response and relief
• After the earthquake: longer-term planning
• Case study: managing the earthquake in Nepal
• Case study: managing earthquakes in Italy
• Case study: preparing for earthquakes in India
• Hazard fieldwork: collecting the data
• Hazard fieldwork: results, conclusions and evaluation