2. Our local hazards

Consider the impacts of a natural hazard on the social, economic, structural/infrastructure, cultural, physical, health, ecological and geographic aspect of your community. This is a think-pair-share activity exploring global and local natural hazards and the impacts on people. Students use the quiz section and then as a class or in groups think-pair-share.

Think-pair-share:

1. List as many natural hazards as you can. Possible answers: flood, storm, bushfire, tsunami, landslide, earthquake, cyclone, tornado, hurricane, heatwave, drought, snow storm, avalanche and/or volcano.

2. Identify the hazards that are most likely to occur in your local area. Possible answers: The most common natural hazards in Tasmania are floods, storms and bushfires. Other answers could also be landslide, earthquake, heatwave and tsunami.

3. Describe the impacts that these hazards can have on people and property in your community.
   Possible answers: loss of life, injury to people and animals, property damage and destruction. Homelessness, loss of business, trauma and stress, poverty, destruction of roads, no power, no food, health issues from sewage getting into drinking water, being isolated and cut off, pets are lost or die, natural assets like our World Heritage areas are destroyed, bridges are destroyed, insurance premiums will go up.

Students use a digital map tool to assess the level of potential hazard exposure of their community, home/property and school and answer questions in a short quiz. A demonstration on how to add data set layers the the LISTMap and zoom into locations will most likely be required before students undertake the activity and quiz. Tips on LISTMap (printable guide in attachments at the top of the page) and adding data set layers:

• Go to LISTMap.
• Click on the ‘Layers’ tab in the top right hand side, then click ‘Add Layer+’.
• Type in the ‘Search for’ area to load layers. The layers you will need to search for are a range such as fire history and flood. Many options appear in drop boxes and to add layers click the green + button.
• Added layers appear in the right hand column where layer transparency adjustments and other data layer information can be found. Here layers can also be deleted from the map by clicking the red – button.

Choose bushfire or flood depending on your interest or the hazard most likely to impact your area.

Bushfire

• Go to LISTMap.
• Click on ‘Layers’, ‘Add Layer’ then in the ‘Manage Layers’ box search for ‘fire history’ click + on green plus button.
• Your added data set layers are now on the map of Tasmania. You can now zoom to your location (school and/or home) on the map for the activity to respond to the quiz questions.

Quiz questions:

1. Has there been a bushfire in your area in the past 60 years?
2. What year did it happen? How close did it come to your school or house?
3. Could there be a bushfire in your area in the future?

Flood

• Go to LISTMap.
• Click on ‘Layers’, ‘Add Layer’ then in the ‘Manage Layers box search for ‘flood’ click + on the inland waters drop box and click on the green plus to add the ‘floodplain’ layer. Other flood layers can be added such as ‘TasWater Flood Inundation Summary’, ‘Coastal Vulnerability – Rocky Shores’ ‘June 2016 Flood HWM Flood Extent’.
• Your added data set layers are now on the map of Tasmania. You can now zoom to your location (school and/or home) on the map for the activity to respond to the quiz questions.

Quiz questions:

1. Is there a flood risk in your area?
2. How close could a flood impact your school or house?
3. Could there be a flood in your area in the future?

RiskReady aims to improve community resilience to natural hazards. It will improve your understanding of natural hazard risks to your school or home property and help you plan to mitigate the risk of damage. Enter your address in the search bar of RiskReady to see results for your property.

Click here to go to RiskReady

We can learn a lot about the history of disasters in our area by talking to friends, neighbours and relatives.

For homework the students are to interview a family member or neighbour about a local hazard event or disaster and write an overview about the event using a template worksheet. They will need to find out information about disaster history such as the where, when, what, who, how and why of the incident.

Homework activity Disaster Survival Story template.

Recap on the lesson with reference to the identified local hazards and the impacts on your local community from activity one of this lesson. The lesson learning intentions:

• KNOW: The different types of natural hazards.
• UNDERSTAND: How local hazards can impact a community.
• DO: Identify which hazards are most likely to occur in the local area using maps to determine which locations could be impacted.

What type of natural hazard could impact our school?