Geographic implications

Now that you have addressed the time implications component of this Topic you need to now look at what geographic implications your event may have presented.

What were the geographical implications of your chosen event? For example, was the geographical location of your event a contributing factor to the pre-impact emergency management arrangements, specifically the effectiveness of preparedness and response strategies?

What I would now like to do is take you through is a series of questions to assess whether or not there were any geographical implications that should be considered in the pre-impact phase of your selected event.

Question 1 - Did the actual location of your incident create any problems?

Question 2 - Was it a rare one off event?

Question 3 - Was it a regular occurring event?

Example

If you are addressing a cyclonic event that occurred in Northern Australia you would need to mention that the hazard is well known and seasonal (time implications) and that the greatest risk area lies north of the Tropic of Capricorn (geographical). This would imply that although there were both geographical and time implications they are known to both the residents and emergency managers, thus implying that there should be a high level of preparedness and public education as to the effects of cyclones and those strategies that need to be adopted to minimise its effects. Additionally, because of the frequency of these events, then both resources and training required to combat the event would be well catered for.

Another example would be that of a major industrial incident occurring in a built up area or central business district. Some of the problems associated with this type of event would be traffic congestion, which could hamper or delay the efforts of emergency service responders, resources (foam, special equipment, etc.), a snow ball effect of one emergency creating several peripheral ones.


Activity 4.5

learning portfolio activity Similar to Activity 4.3, what I now want you to do is consider the questions that you will need to answer in order to fully understand the geographical implications relevant to your selected event.

Click on the 'save or print this activity' link below so that you can complete the activity.

Add your questions to those provided as an initial guide and then analyse your event’s geographical implications and include the answers to those questions. Save the file on your computer in order that you can then revisit it when drafting that section of your final assignment.

Selected Event:

Category of Event:

Geographical Implication Considerations, Questions and Answers

Considerations and Questions

Answers/Comments

1. Siting of the facility - industrial incident, was it in a built up area, proximity to other hazardous storages/industries, Central Business District, schools, hospitals etc.

 

2. Remoteness of the incident from resources - did the event occur in a remote area. An example of this would be aircraft accidents (e.g. Mt Erebus disaster, 28 November 1979)

 

3. Did the incident occur in a known hazardous area (for example cyclones, flooding). Was the area in a known flood plain? Had there been flood plain mapping done to identify potentially vulnerable areas

 

4. Was there any historical data available to show that the event had occurred in this area previously? Was the event a rare occurrence that had not been identified in the hazard analysis; thus, no planning had been invested in developing strategies to either prevent or minimise its effects

 

5. Accessibility - if your event was, for example, a mining disaster, building collapse or earthquake, was access a problem?

 

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Save or print this activity

 

Assignment preparation

You should now be able to sort through all the information you have gathered in relation to the geographical implications for the pre-impact phase of your event.

Ensure that the information that you are retaining addresses the assignment requirements.


Assignment Activity 4.6

 

Commence to draft the Geographical implications part of the Time and Geographic implications section for your major assignment (Assignment 2). Review the assignment guidelines and criteria required to be addressed and use the answers to the questions you have developed above to provide the content of your Geographical implications section.


 

 

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