Mitigation of Earthquakes
Disasters are bound to strike at a given time and they more often find us unaware, this is the sole reason why the majority of the disasters that happen are usually fatal and destructive. This then calls for the need to try as much as possible to prevent these disasters and in particular in our cities. This is due to the fact that in the cities there are large populations that live close to each other or work in offices crammed together hence the likelihood of a disaster turning absolutely fatal if and when it strikes.
There are various aspects that act to exaggerate the magnitude of a disaster in many cities that turns these disasters into deadly tragedies. One of the most predominant reasons is the poor planning that is found in many cities today. There is a common trend of massive building built on the path of natural disasters or settlements located on these dangerous paths hence exposing the population living in such regions even more to such disasters. A typical example is the living too close to rivers and the larger water bodies like seas such that during the rainy seasons when the rivers break their banks or a tsunami occurs, there is a likelihood of a disaster happening (Ginger Voight, 2011). The danger in this has been experienced in Nebraska mid-2011 when snow melt combined with rainfall led to massive bursting of the banks by the Missouri River, an incident...
To avoid such calamities, there is need to draw out a legal distance that each home must keep from the river for safety purposes.
The other trap in the urban population lives with on a daily basis is the crowded nature of the cities in particular the buildings. In the event that there is a natural catastrophe like earthquakes or tsunami, there is a difficulty in evacuating such a population amidst the congested streets, fallen buildings as well as cut off roads. In the event of floods, the raging waters will be channeled through the narrow streets hence increasing the pressure with which it flows through the city and turning a natural catastrophe to a destructive huge humanitarian disaster (The Guardian, 2010). This is a phenomenon that is very typical of the Asian cities that are populated in terms of both the people and the buildings. One instance is the incident that befell New Zealand city of Christchurch where many were trapped in rubbles and several and died due to the congested nature of the city (Paul Chapman, 2011). This was the same fate that befell Port Au Prince in Haiti where the congested buildings coming down killed more people than in the rural areas where the population was sparsely populated.
Another very significant aspect that many cities overlook yet is a precursor to disaster in the event of even very slight…
