Geog 1350 notes

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1350

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Geography

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Oct 30, 2023

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Practice examples for things are usually on the slides for that week Week 1 Wednesday, Jan 11 Ways of Knowing ● Goals of Western Natural (physical) Science ○ Understand and explain stuff ● Testable hypotheses (Scientific method, design method) ● Inductive and deductive logic ○ Inductive Logic – “conclusions are developed from the accumulating evidence of experience and the results of experiments” ● Deductive Logic – “making initial assumptions and drawing logical conclusions from those premises” ● Uncertainty ○ Accuracy – relative position of an observation to the actual or true value ● Precision – repeatability of an observation Maps ( Textbook 1.4 ) ● There are many different types of maps ( Textbook 1.3 Thematic, Topographic, Dynamic) ○ Topographic ■ Illustrates shape and character of Earths surface ● Map elements and reading basics ○ Essential features found on ( almost ) all maps ■ Title ■ North arrow/direction ■ Legend (symbols) ■ Scale (distance) ■ Labels (cities, rivers, features) ■ Grids and index ■ Citation ● UTM system ○ Instructions are usually on the specific map

Scale (is a ratio) ( Textbook 1.3 ) ● Fractional scale ● Bar scale ● Representative scale Contour Lines (Isolines) ● Used on a map to represent elevation ● Any point on a single line is the same elevation ● To determine the elevation of a point not on a line interpolate between other contour lines ● Contour intervals are stated on the map ○ Intermediate contours (thinner lines on map) ○ Index contours (thicker lines on map) ● Closer together = steeper ● When they cross a stream they point up-stream ● Wen finding elevations on a map ○ Use benchmarks (example has a brown dot with the written elevation at the point) ○ Remember the rule for crossing streams (line creates an arrow upstream ^) ○ Remember the shape of hills ● Examples/practice on slides Colours ● Blue = water ● Green = natural cover (forest, parkland, veg) ● Green/Blue with a pattern = wetland (usually) ● White = bare rock/agriculture/unclassified ● Pink = urban/developed ● Red = roads Friday, Jan 14 Topography & How Topographic Maps Are Made ( Textbook 1.4 ) ● Drones ○ Rapid data collection ■ Not really analysis you still have to do that ○ Highly detailed (compared to satellite/airplane)

○ Ability to access poorly accessible areas (e.g. after a disaster) Geomatics: Mapping disasters ● Preparation and mitigation planning ● Process analyses and pattern recognition ● Communicates areas impacted by disasters ● Helps to understand the geopolitical landscape ● GIS = Geographic Information System Before and After Surveys ● Remotely collected data (satellite, airplane, drone) allow us to evaluate change over time ○ Landslide impact ○ Tsunami inundation ○ Flooding ○ Wildfire extent ● Photographs (in addition to other data) can be used to classify and characterize the change Mapping and Disasters - Review questions ● What are the key map elements? ● What are contour lines? ● How are topographic and other types of maps made? ● How might maps and drones be used in understanding hazards? Natural Disasters ( Textbook 1.5 Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes) ● They are natural ○ Disaster - is a hazardous event that occurs over a limited time span in a defined geographic area, when loss of human life and property is significant we say a disaster has occurred ○ Catastrophe - is a massive disaster that requires significant expenditure of money and time for recovery to take place ● Types ○ Earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslides, hurricanes, tsunami, wildfires, tornados, floods, heatwave, drought ○ Severity ○ Long-term vs short-term damage Impact on GDP and Democracy - Princeton Study ( Study ) ● Human population growth, expected increase in deaths due to natural disasters ○ But where this occurs is not uniform across the planet

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● Princeton Study (van der Vin et al (2007)) demonstrated the relationship between Democracy, GDP, and deaths caused by natural disasters ● It isn’t random Losses - 1970-2016 ● Human cost ○ Deadliest losses (in terms of lives lost) ■ ~Half due to earthquakes ■ ~1⁄4 due to hurricanes ○ Contained within a belt from China and Bangladesh through India and Iran to Turkey ○ None in US or Canada ● Economic cost (which may lead to additional human costs) ○ Most expensive losses (from an insurance company perspective) were due to weather-related events ■ 31 out of 40 greatest disasters ○ Most are in the US & Europe ■ These are wealthy places and typically better insured Human Population Growth ( Textbook 1.5 [Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes] [Human Population+1]) ● Exponential growth ○ Rate ~1.2% per year ○ Net increase of ~2.6 people per second ● Doubling time ○ ~85 years Disaster vs Hazard ● Natural hazards are inevitable, but natural disasters are not ○ Disaster -> event or process that destroys life and/or property ○ Hazard -> process that could lead to danger ● Understanding the risks and working to avoid these risks is our best path to avoiding disaster ○ Consider what is meant by mitigation? Predicting Disaster (Textbook

● Is it even possible? ○ Stock market examples ● Chance ○ Flipping for it ○ Probability ● Recurrence intervals ● Return period vs Probability ● It isn’t totally random ○ Many factors control the behaviour of natural hazards ○ Cyclic events - events that come at evenly spaced times ■ Every x many months or years ○ Overlapping cycles make the resultant extremes non-cyclic ○ “Human factor” - population density, preparedness, resiliency Something to Think About ● What words do you see/read in the media most often when a natural disaster has occurred? ● Why do you think those words are most common? ● What is the difference between disasters and hazards? ● How are disasters quantified - do we need a unified system? ● What does exponential growth mean? Recurrence Intervals - Specific to Floods & Earthquakes (Lecture : - : ) ● Magnitude and frequency are inversely proportional - big events don’t happen all the time ● Probability that an event of a given magnitude will occur at any time ○ The average amount of time between events of similar magnitude in a given location. For example, the number of years between megathrust type earthquakes (M9 or grater) off the coast of B.C is 300-600 years. ○ In the case of rivers, we often think about the magnitude of the largest daily flow in a year (peak runoff) ○ The 100-year event (largest runoff in 100 years), has the chance to occur once in 100 years ■ 1/100 -> 1% probability ■ Works for other phenomena e.g. volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfire ● Practice/Examples on slides

● CFS = cubic feet per second (ft3/s), typically used in the US and sometimes in the UK ● Metric units are cumecs (cubic metres per second = m3/s Return Periods and Predictions ● Estimates the time between events of similar magnitude (e.g. flood, fire, earthquake) ● We can use this to estimate the magnitude of longer return periods ● It is a probability and estimate not a certainty ○ Only as good as the data we have ○ Depends on the length of the record ■ And how similar the future is to the past ○ Depends on the amount of variability in the record Something to consider ● What helps to make reasonable predictions about magnitude and frequency for a hazard (e.g. flood)? Week 2 Wednesday, Jan 19 Structure and Composition of Tectonic Plates ( Textbook 2.2 ) ● Lithosphere (Earths crust - 2 types) ○ Cool, ridged, brittle ○ Tectonic plates ■ Continental Crust ● Granitic, usually 20-70km thick ■ Oceanic crust ● Basaltic, usually 5-10km thick ● Denser than granitic crust ■ Alfred Wegner ● Asthenosphere ○ Hot, weak, plastic ○ The top part of the mantle-ish ● Mesosphere ○ Hot but stronger due to high pressure

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○ Mantle (upper and lower) ● Outer core ● Inner core ● Temperature and pressure increase with depth ● Boundaries (3 different types) ( Textbook 2.6 ) ○ Divergent margins ■ Rift Valley ■ Oceanic Ridge ○ Convergent margins (depends on crust type) ■ Subduction - two different plate types ■ Collision - the same crust (mountains) ○ Transform fault margins ■ Sliding against one another