A tectonic hazard is defined, by the IB, as ‘a major hazard event that causes widespread disruption to a community or region that the affected community is unable to deal with adequately without outside help’. This definition may be seen as quite subjective, as it is hard to measure the capacity a community or region has to cope with a disaster. However, it is clear to see that the socioeconomic impacts of tectonic disasters have changed overtime as our world has become increasingly globalised.
Firstly, socioeconomic impacts are a combination of social and economic effects, regarding how the welfare and wealth of an economy is affected. Tectonic disasters can play a huge role in affecting both of them, for example a social consequence may be death and an economic consequence might be buildings being destroyed. But the question is, how have these impacts changed overtime?
Interestingly, in the past the social consequences of a tectonic disaster were far higher than the economic impacts. There are several reasons for this. One of these is the fact that the majority of economic assets were worth a lot less. For example, prior to the industrial revolution where the main industry was agriculture, global economies did not boast the possession of expensive technology, machinery or high-rise buildings – simply because these did not exist. Therefore if a tectonic disaster did occur, the economic consequences were relatively nowhere near as high as they might be today. Another reason to support this claim is that in the past, communities were, arguably, much more vulnerable to social consequences than they are today. This is a very general and perhaps controversial point because it does not factor in any anomalies, such as small tribes, e.g. In the Amazon Rainforest, who are not globally connected to the rest of the world, therefore the social impacts upon these communities would be similar to those of the past. Furthermore health care was not at all what it is today, so many people in the past were a lot more vulnerable than they perhaps may be now.
In today’s society, the major loss tends to be economic. Systems have been implemented to try and decrease social loss, such as warnings before tectonic events (like the tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean), improved Heath care and disaster management schemes. However economic losses are ever increasing with the rise of expensive assets, including buildings, technology and machinery, and there is only so far protection of these can go.
Yet this assumption assumes that conditions worldwide are all equal and this is far from the truth. The reality is that many countries in the world are still developing, so in countries like these, including Haiti and China, we will still see a huge social loss still, but with an increasing economic impact too. A key factor adding to economic losses in countries like these are the levels of government corruptness. In areas prone to tectonic disaster, such as along the San Andreas Fault in California, buildings are built to be earthquake proof with steel frames, cross-bracing and strong, deep foundations. Yet in emerging economies like the ones mentioned above, it is difficult to ensure the safety of buildings due to corrupt government officials taking bribes to pass building codes as safe – this has been a huge problem, especially in the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. But improvements are constantly being made and with the rapid emerging economies across the world, we are likely to see a fall in social effects, but a rise in economic consequences.
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