CHARACTERISTICS OF HAZARDS

A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effect on something or
someone. Basically, a hazard is something that can cause harm or adverse effects such as to
individuals as health effects, to the environment or to organizations as property or equipment
damage.

Hazard it has the potential to cause harm to:

 People -death -injury, disease and stress
 Human activity -economic, educational etc.
 Property – property damage, economic loss of
 Environment – loss fauna and flora, pollution, loss of amenities

Some examples are: a lit cigarette, a wet floor, direct exposure to the sun, or exposure to toxic
chemicals ,earthquake, volcanic eruption, cyclones, floods, landslide and other such events.

CHARACTERISTICS AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE HAZARD

1. Earthquakes (an example of a tectonic hazard - which in themselves can cause further
hazards such as tsunami)
2. Typhoons (which is the south east Asian name for tropical cyclones, and are the same
weather feature as hurricanes)
3. Drought (a meteorological hazard)
4. Nuclear accidents (a human-induced hazard; note that this will relate to nuclear power
not nuclear weapons)

Abdullah Rasul U.