To What Extent Can Preparedness and Planning Mitigate the Effects of Volcanic Hazards?

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To what extent can preparedness and planning mitigate the effects of volcanic hazards? A hazard is a threat that has potential to cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation. A volcano is a surface landform resulting from the extrusion of magma from underground. Lava, ash, rocks and gases are all erupted. How hazardous a volcano is depends on a variety of human and physical factors that interrelate to determine the level of impact on human activity. A disaster is a major hazard event that causes widespread disruption to a community or region with significant demographic and/or environmental losses, and which the affected community is unable to deal with it without outside help. As represented by Dreg's model in figure 1, a hazard becomes a disaster when there is an interaction between the physical and human systems: a hazardous geographical event with a vulnerable population. Vulnerabilty is the geographic conditions that increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards. Preparedness and planning is how a volcanic hazard is approached before there is an eruption in an attempt to mitigate the effects of it. Planning is a three-pronged approach that includes prevention, preparedness and emergency response. The most important preventative measure is land-use planning which prevents new developments from occuring in hazardous areas. In Hawaii the growth and development of the two areas of highest lava flow has been prevented. Hazard-resistant design of buildings protects people and structures. Most public buildings such as roads and bridges will incorporate appropriate hazard-resistant features in areas of percieved risk. Environmental control is the implentation of artificial barriers, water sprayers and explosives used to divert or cool the flow of lava. The first time
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