multi hazardous environment case study haiti

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Analysis of multiple natural hazards in haiti (nathat).

• Govt. Haiti

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Report prepared by the Government of Haiti, with support from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations System

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was rocked by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that caused unprecedented hu-man, social, economic, and environmental destruction across the country and the Latin American and Caribbean region. This earthquake ranks among the most deadly and devastating in the world's recent history and deals a crippling blow to Haiti's recovery process. The earthquake compounded the hy-drometeorological and political upheavals of the past two decades, causing the population additional suffering and presenting an impediment to the restoration of stability and renewal of Haiti's develop-ment momentum.

This study aims to identify the spatial and temporal scope as well as the relative intensity of the most severe natural hazards in Haiti. Evidently, the degree of precision and effectiveness of the results of this study directly depend on the quantity and quality of data available. It is hoped that the analyses presented will help to steer emergency recovery efforts and risk management, in addition to land use and development planning. However, these results are preliminary and will be subject to ongoing re-view in the coming months.

The most imminent natural hazards have been associated with precipitation caused by polar fronts from the northern hemisphere, in addition more rainfall is expected from tropical cyclones and waves, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, convective and orographic activity. El Niño/ENSO has had the tendency to delay the arrival of the rainy season and if extended, can even create drought conditions. Models also indicate that El Niño activity could increase the number and intensity of cyclones; howev-er, it is not possible to predict the route the cyclones will take and if they will approach or even hit the island of Hispaniola.

It is also clear that other natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, torrential mudflows, drought, and tsunamis must always be taken into account. As a result, the vision for risk management, which includes emergency management, should be centered around a multi-hazards situation.

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Why is Haiti vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters?

Poor infrastructure, deforestation and failure to prepare for earthquakes and storms put the island at very high risk

Haiti, which is feeling the force of Hurricane Matthew , with winds of 145mph and 3ft of rain, is all too accustomed to natural hazards and disasters.

The Caribbean country is regularly battered by tropical storms and floods and has also been struck by powerful earthquakes.

During the hurricane season eight years ago, Haiti was hit by four storms – Fay, Gustav, Hannah and Ike – which killed more than 800 people and devastated nearly three-quarters of its agricultural land. It also suffered dire flooding in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007. In 1963, Hurricane Flora killed 6,000 people in Haiti and Cuba.

In January 2010, a devastating earthquake flattened parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. It killed at least 90,000 people and displaced more than 1.5 million . In its wake there was a cholera epidemic, unwittingly introduced by UN peacekeepers , which has claimed about 10,000 lives.

Laurent Lamothe, who was Haiti’s prime minister between 2012 and 2014, described the earthquake as an Armageddon moment that “literally set us back 50 years”.

Despite the huge amount of aid money promised in the aftermath of the disaster, very little of it was channelled through Haitian organisations, leading to accusations that it was badly targeted and did little to help the country recover and prepare for future catastrophes.

It also remains dangerously exposed to environmental threats such as floods and mudslides, because of staggering levels of deforestation. Many people, especially in Port-au-Prince, live in shanty towns whose flimsy huts cling to steep and exposed hillsides.

Its vulnerability to disasters, however, and its ability to cope with them are down to far more than simple geography.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has suffered decades of political instability, corruption and violence , leaving its infrastructure severely compromised.

According to Dr Matthias Garschagen from the United Nations University , the scientific director of the annual World Risk Report , the impact of hazards such as earthquakes and hurricanes depends on everything from planning laws to basic infrastructure.

“The disaster potential we see in Haiti in these very minutes and hours is not only driven by the strength of the hazard, which is very strong of course, but also by the real lack of coping capacity and the very high fragility and susceptibility within society,” he said.

“We’re talking very basic infrastructure – sanitation, healthcare centres and evacuation shelters.”

Such fundamental provisions, added Garschagen, were only as good as the government institutions supporting them.

“This is where Haiti has its greatest weaknesses: weak institutions, to a certain extent very inefficient institutions, and a high level of corruption so that even the limited resources that are there are not as powerful as they could or should be.”

Earlier this year, the UN’s head of disaster planning said the world’s failure to prepare would have “inconceivably bad” consequences as climate change fuels a huge increase in catastrophic droughts and floods and the humanitarian crises that follow.

In 2015, earthquakes, floods, heatwaves and landslides left 22,773 people dead, affected 98.6 million others and caused $66.5bn (£47bn) of economic damage (pdf). The international community, however, spends less than 0.5% of the global aid budget on mitigating the risks posed by such hazards .

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Multi Hazardous Environment case study: Haiti

Subject: Geography

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

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Complete case study notes of Haiti as a multi hazardous environment. Includes details of 2 different natural hazards that have effected Haiti, their impacts and responses to these impacts.

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Earthquakes and tsunamis - Eduqas Case study: Haiti Earthquake, 2021

Earthquakes are caused by the release of built-up pressure at plate boundaries. They can destroy buildings and infrastructure. Tsunamis can also occur, with equally devastating and deadly effects.

Part of Geography Hazardous landscapes

Case study: Haiti Earthquake, 2021

On 14th August 2021 a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Haiti in the Caribbean. The plate boundaries around Haiti are complex. The North American Plate lies to the north and the Caribbean Plate to the south. The earthquake took place at a conservative plate boundary, where the Caribbean plate moved eastwards. The focus was only 10 km deep, and the epicentre was 125 km from the capital Port-au-Prince.

Increased vulnerability – Physical Factors

• Landslides affected the area close to the epicentre, some of which were sizeable. This made it difficult to access some parts of the country.
• A 3 m high tsunami was recorded around the capital, Port-au-Prince.
• Tropical Storm Grace brought heavy rainfall, which hampered relief efforts and caused further problems with mudslides and flooding.
• Liquefaction occurred along many coastal areas and the seaport of Cayes. Liquefaction is when the vibrations from an earthquake cause the ground surface to lose strength and begin to flow like a liquid. More than 50,000 people were affected by liquefaction.
• Social - More than 2,000 died, at least 12,000 were injured and 332 were still missing five days after the earthquake. The delivery of essential aid supplies were hampered by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Grace. Hospitals, schools and homes were destroyed.
• Economic – The estimated cost of damages from the earthquake is around US$1.6 billion. This amounts to 9.6 per cent of Haiti’s GDP.
• Environmental – Hundreds of landslides took place, which destroyed local ecosystems and habitats . Further damage was caused when heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Grace turned the landslides into mud, leading to widespread flooding.
• 332 people were still missing five days after the earthquake.
• Hundreds of landslides took place, which destroyed local ecosystems and habitats.
• Heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Grace turned the landslides into mud and led to widespread flooding.
• The United Nations and charities, such as the Red Cross and CAFOD, sent aid. However, the delivery of essential supplies was hampered by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Grace.
• Temporary shelters were provided by the International Organization for Migration. These helped people who had lost their homes.
• The World Food Programme increased their provision of hot meals for school children. This helped to deal with food shortages.
• Temporary hospitals were constructed to help the injured. They also provided routine care, for example, some pregnant women gave birth safely within the temporary facilities.
• The estimated cost of damages from the earthquake is around US$1.6 billion. This amounts to 9.6 per cent of Haiti’s GDP

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3.1.5.7 Case studies

Case study of a multi-hazardous environment beyond the UK to illustrate and analyse the nature of the hazards and the social, economic and environmental risks presented, and how human qualities and responses such as resilience, adaptation, mitigation and management contribute to its continuing human occupation.

Case study at a local scale of a specified place in a hazardous setting to illustrate the physical nature of the hazard and analyse how the economic, social and political character of its community reflects the presence and impacts of the hazard and the community’s response to the risk.

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