What is Risk?
The risk in geography is defined as the likelihood of a hazard event occurring and creating the loss. It is the actual exposure of something of human value to a hazard and is often measured as the product of the probability of an event happening and potential loss.
Difference between Hazard and Disaster?
Hazard is a naturally occurring or human induced process which has a potential to create a loss. Disaster is an actual event which has severely impacted people, communities, and systems. Hazard is primarily understood in a physical dimension whereas disaster has social dimensions. For instance, avalanche or flood in a remote Himalayan mountain is just a hazard but if it impacts downstream population and societies, it becomes a disaster.
Hazard, Risk and Disaster in Nepali context:
Nepal is situated in an active tectonic belt. The Indian tectonic plate is submerging towards Tibetan plate and hence still raising. As it is the youngest mountain in the world, natural processes are active in the region. Hence, landslides, floods, earthquakes, snow avalanche, soil erosion etc. are common which is further intensified by the concentrated south Asian monsoonal process. In addition, more than 30 million people are living in the country. As most of the high mountain regions are not livable due to permanent snow, population are concentrated in marginal locations of hills and southern plains of the country. The dependency of the people in the limited resources has exposed them to disproportionate risk to natural disasters. The recent development pattern such as road construction and infrastructure development has added more risks. These crisscrossed mountains are hampered by such processes. As a result, the landslide is the deadliest disaster in terms of natural hazard mortality while people often consider that earthquake and floods are notorious. The natural process and exposure of the societies to the natural process make the Nepal one of the vulnerable countries in the world.
A rural house destroyed by April 25, 2015 Earthquake
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