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Geography Exam Question Practice

I received the title 'To what extent do states of economic development influence the way people respond to natural hazards'. But I dont know where to start and what sort of information to include.

Introduction -> Differences between LEDCs and MEDCs -> No differences between LEDCs and MEDCs -> Conclusion

That sort of structure Im thinking, but what do I include under the different titles?

Reply 1

crafty bison

Include various case studies. It might be an idea to pick one particular TYPE of hazard (e.g. volcano) and look at four or five case studies for it: an MEDC that handled it as you'd expect, an LEDC that handled it as you'd expect, an NIC, an MEDC or LEDC (or both) that handled it much better/worse than you'd expect.

Reply 2

ali567149

'To what extent do states of economic development influence the way people respond to natural hazards'

Personally i would begin by addressing the three key areas that i can pick out of the question.
1. what is a natural hazard? are they indeed natural or all acts of man?
2. what is peoples response to the hazard? this is asking about risk perception.
3. how does the economic status of a person or region impact the risk perception of a person? this could also be how does the economic development of a region impact the response to a natural hazard at a government level.

i did a similar paper for my uni course looking at the onset impacts and response of a complex emergency. I would recomend you have a look at the following books as they are recognised as the mose relevent on this topic. You might be familiar with a few of them.

Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I., and Wisner, B., (1994) At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability, and disasters. London: Routledge.
This is the best book on hazards. There has been a second edition published in 2004 i think. it raises the issue of vulnerability to a particular hazard causing a disaster, there is a Pressure and Release Model in both editions that is very useful tool for analysis and understanding.

Hewitt, K. (1997) Regions of Risk: A Geographical Introduction to Disasters. Harlow, UK: Longman. A good book looking at risk and its impacts. Ulrich Beck's Risk Society is the top book on the subject of risk but does not totally focus on disasters like this one.

Quarantelli, E. L. (1998) What is a disaster? : perspectives on the question. London: Routledge.

Hope this has been of some help. Though the best bet is to ask your teacher as they will be able to tell you the aim of the question and what sort of areas you should be looking at.