Video: Reducing the risk of tectonic hazards: Protection and planning

﻿Hi, everyone! Welcome to today's session. So, I am really excited because this is the last lesson in the series that we've been doing on plate tectonics and tectonic hazards. What we're going to be having a look at today is two more management strategies for dealing with tectonic hazards. We're going to have a look at protection and planning and how they can mitigate or prevent the kind of impacts and effects that we've seen of tectonic hazards. Now what I would like you to have for today's session is a pen and a pencil, might want some colouring pencils, and a piece of paper. As ever, as I say at the start of each session, put your phone away, shut the door, make sure you're somewhere nice and quiet, and let's crack on. Okay, let's make a start on our final session on tectonics. What we're going to be having a look at is how can protection and planning reduce the risk of hazards? Please can I ask you to write the title, which is how can protection and planning reduce the risk of hazards? It's a question so it's going to need a question mark at the end. And then, let's mark a start. Okay. We started last session by looking at the four different strategies that can be used to help manage and reduce the effect of natural hazards. Those four strategies were monitoring, prediction, protection, and planning. Last session we focused on monitoring and prediction. This section, session? This session we are going to work on protection and planning. Again, the aim of all of these management strategies is to reduce the number of deaths, reduce the number of people that are injured, reduce homelessness afterwards, and unemployment. So there's a real focus on the social and the economic issues. What I'd like you to have a look at before we start is this amazing building. Some of you might have seen this before. This is called the Transamerica Pyramid. The Transamerica Pyramic is an example of an earthquake-proof building and in a second we're going to have a look at exactly how we can build buildings to withstand major earthquakes. Let's make a start. What protection can we put in place to reduce the risk of tectonic hazards? Here we've got another building that is an earthquake-proof building. This is in Yokohama, which again is in Japan. Japan sits on three tectonic plate boundaries, which is why they're so focused on building buildings to withstand earthquakes. And actually, there is a law that no building in Japan is allowed to be built unless it can withstand a certain size earthquake, which is pretty important because they suffer them quite frequently. What they can do are three main things. There's lots of different things but three main ones that we're going to focus on today. These buildings are always built with reinforced concrete. That reinforced concrete is amazing because it can essentially absorb some of the earthquake's energy, which prevents it from cracking and collapsing in the same way that a normal building would. They also strengthen their buildings with steel frames and they essentially they have steel frames around the outside that look like this. Those steel frames make the building stronger and again less likely to collapse. The other really cool thing is that the buildings are fitted with monitors and those monitors can detect the energy from an earthquake. What happens then is they have an automatic valve that shuts off gas and electricity which can prevent fires. This is really important, because back in 1990, I want to say five, which was the year that I started school. There was a huge earthquake in Japan. There were large fires as a result of the gas pipes being damaged and then the electricity cables being damaged and the sparks from the electricity cables created fires. In Japan what they've done is they have put in these protection strategies to stop that from happening. You can tell I'm a little bit excited about this. I think this is mega cool technology. What I'm going to ask you to do is this. I'm going to ask you to draw a diagram of an earthquake-proof building. You can see that I've got a very, very simple one up on the screen for you to copy. As I said, there are lots of things that they can do but we're going to focus on the three that we've just talked about. Reinforced concrete, steel frames, and the automatic valves. What I'd like you to do is to draw the diagram and then to annotate it with those three pieces of information. Reinforced concrete, which can absorb an earthquake's energy. Steel frames to strengthen the building. Automatic valves to turn off the gas and electricity valves. What that means though is I'm also setting you a challenge for today's session. Because what I want you to do is for each of those annotations, I want you to then add an explanation of how that would reduce the risk. What is it about the reinforced concrete that I mentioned earlier that lowers the risk for people in the building or around the building? What are the steel frames actually do, what's their purpose? And then why is it that they have these valves to turn off the gas and electricity? Pause the video now. Draw your diagram. And then add those annotations but please take on that challenge, linking it to how that then protects people's lives. I'll see you back here in just a minute. Okay. Here you can see my annotated diagram. The way I laid this out was that I did the annotations that I put up on the screen in the grey and then I added my explanations in the pink. Let's go through this. In fact before we do, check out my arrows. They point directly to what it is that I'm talking about. You see the arrow where it says steel frames to strengthen the building? That literally points directly to that steel frame. That's really important because when you are annotating a diagram, you need to be as accurate as possible with those arrows to show that is what you are actually talking about. First one, reinforced concrete, which can absorb an earthquake's energy. And then I've put, this can prevent the building from collapsing and therefore save people from being crushed. It's pretty important and especially in places like Japan that are incredibly densely populated, often those hi-rise buildings, there will be thousands and thousands of people that live or work in them. So it is incredibly important that they keep those buildings upright to stop people from being crushed. Then I've put automatic valves to turn off gas and electricity valves This prevents fires breaking out. So think about what I told you about the earthquake that happened in Japan in '95. That was a major problem. So they've taken action to protect people because the last thing that you need after an earthquake taking place is then a fire outbreak. Then we've got steel frames to strengthen the building. This can prevent the building from collapsing and people being injured. So you can see there, I've used the same explanation as I did for reinforced concrete but I've given a different reason. This time I haven't said people being crushed. What I've said is people being injured. Again, I've added the annotation and explained exactly how that is going to help manage the risk. If you haven't got those explanations, pause the video now and add them in. Okay, so then we've looked at protection. We're now going to have a look at planning. How can planning reduce the risk of tectonic hazards? There are lots and lots of different ways that governments and people can plan for tectonic hazards and these are the four things that I think are the most that we understand. Future developments must not be put in high risk areas. This is actually something that they did in Christchurch in New Zealand, which experienced an earthquake in 2010. What they then said was that actually we're not going to allow any more building in areas that might suffer from an earthquake. They moved the entire city centre off the fault line that lies through the centre of Christchurch and they now have a different city centre. It's quite incredible. Also you can train your emergency services. What that means is preparing them for what they might need to do if there is an earthquake. It might be that you train them in how to use tools that would allow you to rescue people from collapsed buildings. Or it might mean that they're trained to deal with the type of injuries that might come from those kind of collapsed buildings, so it might be crush injuries, something like that. The next one is my favourite and this is a photograph, this links to the photograph. What they can do is educate people about what to do in the event of a hazard. You guys at school, when you were at school, will probably have taken part in fire drills. You have to do at least one a year. But what happens in Japan and in other places around the world, they don't necessarily do fire drills. They do earthquake drills. You can see all the people in this picture are all knealt down with their hands on their heads to protect them from falling debris. I'm going to tell you two things that could save your life here. If you ever do find yourself in an earthquake, there are two things that you should do. One, get under a table. Okay, because tables are strong and then if any part of the roof collapses, it can save your life. The other thing that you can do is to stand in the doorframe of a building. Now the doorframe is the strongest part of any building and it's the area that won't collapse in an earthquake. Two things that could save your life. I have a quite a funny story about this because a few years ago I was travelling in Guatemala, which is in Central America. I was with my friend and there was an earthquake. My friend Gemma, amazing, she jumped straight between the doorframe and she stayed there and she was in the safest part of the building. I, the geography teacher, the person that should know better, decided to hide under the bedcovers and actually I wasn't in a very safe place at all. Luckily that was only a really small earthquake so I wasn't hurt. Everything was fine but I was pretty embarrassed afterwards. So people can be educated. This is me educating you right now about what to do in the event of an earthquake. The other thing is they can plan evacuation routes. What they can do is put in key areas that people could then escape should they need to as a result of a tectonic hazard. They do that really well in Hawaii. They have a lot of tectonic activity in Hawaii. What they do is they have specific routes that are available for people to use should there be a tsunami, which is triggered by either the volcanoes or the earthquakes that they experience. They're really well sign posted. They direct people towards higher land. So again, they plan which can help to then save people's lives. Okay. What I would like you to do. Just check everything that we've done so far. Is I want you to decide whether each of the following is an example of protection or whether it's an example of planning. Buildings have steel cages to present, prevent them from collapsing during an earthquake. Emergency services are trained to respond to hazards. People are educated about what to do in the event of a hazard. Automatic valves are put in to turn off gas and electricity to prevent fires. Pause the video. Write those sentences out and then categorise them as either protection or planning. Okay, let's go through the answers. Buildings have steel cages to prevent them collapsing during an earthquake. That is a form of protection. Emergency services are trained to respond to hazards. That's planning. People are educated about what to do in the event of a hazard. That one's also planning. And then automatic valves are put in to turn off gas and electricity to prevent fires. That is protection. So give yourself a tick for each one of those that you think that you got correct and then let's move on to the main part of today's session. Before we do the main part, it's important that we are really clear on all of the management strategies. So I've put on the screen the four different options for managing hazard risk and a little description of each underneath. I would like you to decide which one goes with which. Which one is monitoring, which one is prediction, which one is protection, and which one is planning. Right, pause the video if you need to. Think about this and then we'll come back and go through it in just a minute. Okay, so did you get? Monitoring is measuring ground deformation, changing gases, and seismic activity. Prediction involves trying to forecast when a volcano will erupt. Protection, buildings are designed in a way to withstand hazards. Planning, educating people on what to do if a natural hazard occurs. Give yourself a tick for each of those that you got correct and then as I say, let's start the main task which is the last of all the main tasks that you have done over the course of these sessions. I'm actually going to ask you about your opinion. That's a beautiful thing because we all think something different and that is absolutely okay. The question that I'm asking you is this. In your opinion, what are the most effective strategies for managing the risk of natural hazards? I want you to imagine that this is worth six marks. So I've given you an opening sentence and then I've given you two paragraphs that I want you to write afterwards, and I've given you the opening sentences as well. Let's go through this so I can show you exactly how to lay it out and then you're going to have a go. There are four main strategies for managing hazard risk. These are dot, dot, dot. We just went through them. What are those four strategies? In my opinion, the most effective strategy for managing hazard risk is. So when I say most effective, what I'm asking you to do is to pick the one that you think is the best at managing tectonic hazards. Then you're going to use your next sentence starter to help you start your next paragraph. So something is an effective strategy because. Then you're going to explain what it is and then they second part, this lowers the risk of a hazard affecting people, and then you're going to tell me how. How does it protect people? Then the second paragraph is something is another effective strategy. This lowers the risk because. It doesn't matter which of the four strategies you choose because this is about your opinion and what you think. Pause the video now. Use the success criteria, the sentence starters to help you. We'll come back in a second and I can show you what I wrote, and then we're nearly at the end of the session. Okay. Now you've had a go at writing your answer. Let's have a look at mine. Now remember, this is my opinion. You may have a different opinion to me. But what we're looking for is that you've laid it out in the same way that I have. There are four main strategies for managing hazard risk. These are monitoring, prediction, protection, and planning. If you've got that then that is worth one mark because you've identified those four strategies. And then because I asked you what your opinion was, I'm going to give you a mark for saying which one you think is the most important. In my opinion, the most effective strategy is protection. You could've said any of the others and got yourself a mark. Then I've gone on and I want you to look at the way this is structured. Protection is an effective strategy because buildings can be designed in a way which prevents buildings from collapsing and prevents fires. So I've been quite sneaky there, 'cause I could've just said prevents buildings from collapsing but I also show off and yeah, I show off. I used prevents fires as well. Then I added the explanation and the explanation was then about how it protects people so, if buildings can withstand earthquakes, it means the people inside will not be injured or killed by falling debris. There's that posh word that I love again. It just means essentially falling rubble and brick. Then my last paragraph. Monitoring is another effective strategy although only in the case of volcanoes. So it's really important there that I said monitoring only works for one type of tectonic hazard. Then ground deformation can be monitored and if the shape of the ground changes, areas can be evacuated, saving people's lives. So again, that second part of my answer was linking to the fact that it saves people's lives and the strategy would be evacuation. Right, so what I would like you to do is I'd like you to go through your own answer. I want you to highlight any of the key things that you've written the same way that I have so they stand out and give yourself a mark. If you need to add anything or you want to steal anything from my answer, that is not a problem. I'm happy to share. And then that brings us almost to the end. Okay, so that brings us to the end of our session and in fact the end of this series. What we looked at today was how can protection and planning reduce the risk of hazards? Specifically what we talked about was how buildings can be built to withstand earthquakes. And then we had a look at planning strategies, so educating people, teaching emergency services how to respond, things like that. The last thing that I'm going to ask you to do please, is to go through the notes that you've made today. Highlight the three things that you think are the most important that you've learned. Key terms, anything that you want to remember. Hopefully you want to remember it all. And then we are done. It's been my absolute privilege to be able to teach this to you. I hope you've enjoyed these sessions and hopefully I'll see you soon.

Exit Quiz: Reducing the risk of tectonic hazards: Protection and planning

Completed: Reducing the risk of tectonic hazards: Protection and planning

Examine the strategies for reducing the risks associated with tectonic hazards - protection and planning.

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Reducing the risk of tectonic hazards: Protection and planning

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