EAR 106 Risk Assessment Research Project. Natural Disasters

I have already uploaded the requirement, which included the essay format and content. The writer only need to write the essay, and don't need to care about the presentation part and Power Point.

EAR 106 Risk Assessment Research Project

Due date: presentations during lab April 16th-29th. In your regularly scheduled lab you will hand in your written assessment AND give a 5 minute presentation on your findings. Be prepared to present beginning the week of April 15th.

As you have learned in EAR 106 this semester, there are surprisingly few places on Earth that are unaffected by natural hazards.  For this risk assessment research project, you are to assess the potential risks to your hometown (Beijing, China).  In 1-2 pages, tell us:1) What type of natural disasters could affect your hometown? (Beijing, China).  
2) What specifically would be their cause? (i.e. hurricanes, floods, landslides, faults, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc.)
3) Is the threat always present? Does it change seasonally? Is there a recurrence interval for previous events?
4) Is your home specifically at risk?  (i.e. type of building structure, location with respect to topography, etc.)
5) What steps have been taken to minimize damage for these disasters in your community?  (e.g., flood insurance, brush clearing (to minimize the risk of fires), architectural design, warning systems, emergency plans, etc.)
6) Are there steps you think could be taken to prevent/mitigate damage to your community?  What are the easy/cheap solutions?  What are the expensive/difficult solutions?  Do you think any of these are worth doing?
7) If you are lucky enough to have been raised in an area without any threat of disaster, then explain the following:
a. Describe why no disasters can affect your area
b. Discuss how people in your hometown might cope if a natural disaster affected a major resource supply point for your area (e.g. dam failure of a major water reservoir, oil pipeline burst, port destruction, power plant failure, highway destruction, etc.).  Pick one of these types of events and describe what the short- and long-term effects would be.  
Potential resources that you can use (beyond your textbook and class notes of course). Talk to your family, friends, former teachers about hazards in your region. Reach out and ask your mayor, and/or congressperson for additional information on natural hazards in your area. 
Here are some resources to get you started:
NATIONWIDE
FEMA Flood maps and weather hazard maps (handy web site for all kinds of hazards)
• http://hazards.fema.gov/

 USGS active fault maps https://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/qfaults/map/#qfaults http://earthquakes.usgs.gov/qfaults/usmap.html
• Earthquakes https://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/hazmaps/USGS volcanic hazard maps (follow the links on this site to get maps of your local volcano)
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vhp/hazards.html
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/Where/WhereHaz.html#UShazards
Zero in on hazards in your region by researching the State Geological Survey websites- (e.g., New York State Geological Survey) and local city/county web pages. 

Report Guidelines
• Your report is NOT to exceed 2 pages of text, double spaced, using 12-point font and 1 inch margins. References may be on an additional page. You may also include diagrams, figures and/or tables as additional pages.
• Identify the natural hazards in your area.
• Identify possible risk reduction strategies/measures to increase resilience/emergency preparations.
• Assess/discuss how appropriate your identified risk reduction options are. This might include assessing what are the positive and negative aspects of each option? It is unlikely that only option is required, so how might multiple risk reduction options be used to increase resilience (i.e. use an integrated approach)?






Typical Science Essay/Report format:

1. Abstract (usually only used in journals or long reports) - basically a summary of your entire article and the main findings. Given the length of your report you do not have to include an abstract.
2. Introduction - Present your topic, project objectives or hypotheses (if required), background information (i.e. tectonic setting, why are you writing this?), set the scene.
3. Results/Data Presentation -The facts and figures, observations. This section needs to be objective and you shouldn't speculate or interpret - leave that for the discussion section. In an essay or report, this format is sometimes not so clear cut, especially as you are totally presenting others’ work, not your own. Separate presented data, facts and figures from interpretations as it is easier to read.
4. Discussion - Interpretations, comparisons with other known (usually well published) examples. How does the data fit into the bigger picture? What does it all mean? What is the significance? 
5. Conclusion – Outline your main findings/points.
6. References - you MUST reference all sources of information.


Presentation guidelines
In your regularly scheduled lab you give a 5 minute presentation(power point, google slides, etc.) on your findings. Be prepared to present beginning the week of April 15th.

1. Introduction - Present your topic, project objectives or hypotheses (if required), background information (i.e. tectonic setting, why are you writing this?), set the scene.
2. Results/Data Presentation -The facts and figures, observations. This section needs to be objective and you shouldn't speculate or interpret - leave that for the discussion section. In an essay or report, this format is sometimes not so clear cut, especially as you are totally presenting others’ work, not your own. Separate presented data, facts and figures from interpretations as it is easier to read.
3. Discussion - Interpretations, comparisons with other known (usually well published) examples. How does the data fit into the bigger picture? What does it all mean? What is the significance? 
4. Conclusion – Outline your main findings/points.
5. References - you MUST reference all sources of information.