Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Processes
- 2 Regional seismic shaking hazards in mountains
- 3 Volcanic hazards and risks: a geomorphological perspective
- 4 Mountain hazards
- 5 Review and future challenges in snow avalanche risk analysis
- 6 Landslide hazards
- 7 Catastrophic landslides and sedimentary budgets
- 8 Landslides and climatic change
- 9 The hazardousness of high-magnitude floods
- 10 Flood hazards: the context of fluvial geomorphology
- 11 Geomorphology and coastal hazards
- 12 Weathering hazards
- 13 Hazards associated with karst
- 14 Soil erosion
- 15 Desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions
- 16 Dune migration and encroachment
- Part II Processes and applications of geomorphology to risk assessment and management
- Index
- References
4 - Mountain hazards
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Processes
- 2 Regional seismic shaking hazards in mountains
- 3 Volcanic hazards and risks: a geomorphological perspective
- 4 Mountain hazards
- 5 Review and future challenges in snow avalanche risk analysis
- 6 Landslide hazards
- 7 Catastrophic landslides and sedimentary budgets
- 8 Landslides and climatic change
- 9 The hazardousness of high-magnitude floods
- 10 Flood hazards: the context of fluvial geomorphology
- 11 Geomorphology and coastal hazards
- 12 Weathering hazards
- 13 Hazards associated with karst
- 14 Soil erosion
- 15 Desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions
- 16 Dune migration and encroachment
- Part II Processes and applications of geomorphology to risk assessment and management
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction to mountain geomorphic hazards
Mountain geomorphic hazards defined
A geomorphic hazard results from any landform or landscape change that adversely affects the geomorphic stability of a site or drainage basin (Schumm, 1988) and that intersects the human use system with adverse socio-economic impacts (White, 1974). If there are no people affected, there is no hazard and if the landform or landscape is unchanged there is no geomorphic hazard. Barsch and Caine (1984) have described the distinctive relief typologies of major mountain systems. Mountain geosystems are not exceptionally fragile but they show a greater range of vulnerability to disturbance than many landscapes (Körner and Ohsawa, 2005) and their recovery rate after disturbance is often slow. During the past three decades, the world's population has doubled, the mountain regions' population has more than tripled and stresses on the physical and biological systems of mountain regions have intensified many fold. The combination of extreme geophysical events with exceptional population growth and land use modifications underlines the urgency of better understanding of these interactions and working out the implications for adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of drivers of change on landforms and landscapes. Geomorphic hazards intensify and risks multiply accordingly.
The major drivers of change and ‘key’ vulnerability
The three drivers of environmental change in mountains are relief, as a proxy for tectonics (Tucker and Slingerland, 1994), hydroclimate and runoff (Vandenberghe, 2002) and human activity (Coulthard and Macklin, 2001).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Geomorphological Hazards and Disaster Prevention , pp. 33 - 48Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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