Essay topic: Discuss the risk management of natural hazards using a range of examples to support
your answer. See the detailed guidelines below.
Restrictions:
• Do not discuss the 2011 Tohoku earthquake/tsunami case study that was discussed during
Tutorial 2. If you do so, you will be penalised for not following the essay guidelines.
• Remember that biological and extra-terrestrial types of natural hazards are out of scope for
this module. Do not discuss these types of natural hazards.
Length: 1500 words (Allowance: +/-10%)
Figure captions and the Reference List are not included in this word count.
Submission deadline: 5pm Friday 5th April 2024.
Submission method: Your essay should be submitted as a Word (.docx) or PDF (.pdf) file to
Brightspace. Go to My Learning > Learning Materials > Assignment submission > Essay to upload your
document and submit. No other file formats will be accepted. This digital submission method will
provide a time and date of submission.
Guidelines:
The essay should use two or more case studies (examples) to explore aspects of the risk
management of natural hazards. In the lectures we looked at some of these themes (e.g. nature of
the hazard, exposure, vulnerability, frequency/magnitude relationships, costs, mitigation etc.) and in
the tutorial you looked at how risk and risk management is experienced by different sectors of
society. These themes/perspectives from the lecture and tutorial may help you frame your essay, but
you may also come across ideas in your reading/research that you think are appropriate and/or more
suitable. The key is to develop a clear and informed narrative that is fully supported by the literature.
Note that you are NOT being asked to write this essay exclusively from the perspective of your
tutorial role.
The case studies can focus on a single type of natural hazard (e.g. geohazards like earthquakes) or
they can focus on different types of natural hazards (e.g. geohazards and meteorological/hydrological
hazards). The important thing is that you use more than one case study and that you develop your
arguments and insights by using the evidence from the case studies, as well as more general
information you may have gathered from the lectures and your reading.
All source material (books, peer-reviewed journal articles, online resources etc.) must be
appropriately referenced using the Harvard referencing system. This means including both in-text
citations and providing a Reference List at the end of the essay.
As this is a longer assignment, you are encouraged to focus on high quality sources for your
information. A variety of source material should be used. Aim to include some peer-reviewed journal
articles to support your arguments, rather than just relying on websites.
You may (but don’t have to) include figures where appropriate. Figures should be clearly labelled
(Figure 1, Figure 2 etc.), with an accompanying caption (description of what the figure shows) that is
positioned immediately below the figure. Include an in-text citation for the source of the figure in the
caption. Figures must be referred to in the text (e.g. Figure 1 shows…)
