Global Management of tropical storms
Rowan Ferguson
Using examples, Examine the success of different approaches to manage tropical storms (hurricanes and cyclones)
When discussing management strategies, it is important to use a system to categorise various approaches. In reference to a natural hazard there are number of ways management schemes attempt to deal with these events. Management schemes can modify the event; decrease its severity or alter its course or even incidence, they can modify the vulnerability: prepare for and try to reduce social economic and environmental damages or modify the losses; have systems in place to aid in the aftermath of an extreme weather event.
It is important to remember that for a management scheme to be deemed a success, it must reduce some economic, social and environmental damages, while being affordable for the region of use.
An example of a strategy that modifies the event of a tropical storm is cloud seeding. While cloud seeding (using dry ice or silver iodide to trigger precipitation e.g. to maintain sunny conditions at the Beijing 2012 Olympics) has the potential to prevent any social, economic or environmental losses at all through the dissipation of a storm over a safe region, it has a number of drawbacks. The process and equipment needed is not only extremely expensive (and completely unviable for LIC’s) but has the potential to make a tropical storm worse, meaning it is extremely difficult to condone its usage.
Strategies that modify losses include: building hurricane resistant buildings and hurricane forecasting and warning systems. Hurricane resistant building design has the potential to reduce losses in many areas, and indeed richer families have built purpose built structure in the New Orleans area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Unfortunately it is very expensive as educating people of the need for such structures must be added to the cost of building unfamiliar buildings. However in principle it is a successful strategy
Using examples, Examine the success of different approaches to manage tropical storms (hurricanes and cyclones)
When discussing management strategies, it is important to use a system to categorise various approaches. In reference to a natural hazard there are number of ways management schemes attempt to deal with these events. Management schemes can modify the event; decrease its severity or alter its course or even incidence, they can modify the vulnerability: prepare for and try to reduce social economic and environmental damages or modify the losses; have systems in place to aid in the aftermath of an extreme weather event.
It is important to remember that for a management scheme to be deemed a success, it must reduce some economic, social and environmental damages, while being affordable for the region of use.
An example of a strategy that modifies the event of a tropical storm is cloud seeding. While cloud seeding (using dry ice or silver iodide to trigger precipitation e.g. to maintain sunny conditions at the Beijing 2012 Olympics) has the potential to prevent any social, economic or environmental losses at all through the dissipation of a storm over a safe region, it has a number of drawbacks. The process and equipment needed is not only extremely expensive (and completely unviable for LIC’s) but has the potential to make a tropical storm worse, meaning it is extremely difficult to condone its usage.
Strategies that modify losses include: building hurricane resistant buildings and hurricane forecasting and warning systems. Hurricane resistant building design has the potential to reduce losses in many areas, and indeed richer families have built purpose built structure in the New Orleans area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Unfortunately it is very expensive as educating people of the need for such structures must be added to the cost of building unfamiliar buildings. However in principle it is a successful strategy