The concept of natural hazards

The concept of natural hazards

Natural hazards are catastrophic events caused by natural forces that occur suddenly or gradually, thus, causing disasters.

These hazardous events may be regarded as disasters if their occurrence leads to serious damage and the affected community does not have adequate resources to avoid or recover from the catastrophe.

Some of these natural hazards include

• earthquakes,
• volcanic eruptions,
• landslides,
• tsunamis,
• fire outbreaks,
• floods and
• droughts.

Although the floods, droughts and fire outbreaks are natural hazards, they may as well be caused by human activities.

Natural hazards may occur either suddenly or gradually. Some of the natural hazards that occur suddenly include

• floods,
• earthquakes,
• volcanic eruptions,
• landslides,
• tsunamis, and
• fire outbreaks.