Human population of our planet has been facing natural hazards for as long as it existed. Numerous events have caused loss of millions of lives and significant destructions. On the one hand, natural hazard is a great threat to the human communities all over the world. On the other side, however, these events make us learn from our mistakes and help scientists better understand the nature, protect society and get benefits of this knowledge.
Natural hazard, affected among others by human activities and technological progress, is becoming more and more vital, especially for those populations that live in high-risk regions. When watching TV we can every day evidence unusual forest fires, floods, droughts and other natural hazards that affect our daily lives. We should not forget that we are a part of this and as much as we are affected by these events, we can contribute towards the reduction of impact of human communities’ destructive activities by constant awareness and efforts.
Based on the knowledge, gathered throughout years of natural disasters and various changes in climate and nature, scientists developed technologies and methods to control and evaluate the level of hazard damage, scale and timing. With the implementation of new technologies people were able to enable better forecasting and monitoring systems that helped the humanity avoid possible victims and destructions.
The biggest achievements during the last decade were made in assessment of seismic activities and development of the earthquake systems that are significantly more resistant, than those at the times of Los Angeles Earthquake or Spitak disaster. We are more and more in control of natural hazards, but we will never be able to become superior over the nature. In order to succeed in the human’s endeavours to reduce the damage of these events we should learn to respect and protect the nature.