By the abbreviation of emergency situations (emergency situations) they mean a certain negative situation that has developed as a result of the impact on the environment of certain factors. The territory of their distribution can vary from a small area to entire cities, countries or, theoretically, even the entire globe. Depending on the origin, such situations are divided into several groups. Each group, in turn, may contain descriptions of several similar emergencies at once.
The causes of extreme situations can be various accidents at factories and enterprises (especially those involved in the chemical, military or other potentially hazardous industries). Also here it is necessary to list catastrophes and natural disasters, adverse or abnormal natural phenomena, other accidents of anthropogenic and anthropogenic origin. As a rule, the occurrence of emergencies entails multiple negative consequences: to one degree or another, damage is caused to the natural environment, human health, or their property.
Types of natural emergencies
A natural emergency has the same general criteria as other types of emergencies. In particular, it can be local or spread over a rather large territory. One of the characteristic features is its spontaneous occurrence. These include potentially hazardous geological phenomena (subsidence, volcanic activity), peat and forest fires, intense meteorological phenomena (such as storms, large hail, hurricanes, snowfall, monsoon rains or tornadoes). Also, emergency situations of a natural nature include hydrological accidents (flooding), mass pests, infectious epidemics among animals and people, changes in the composition of the air or water environment.
In most international classifications, environmental emergencies, which include environmental pollution, are allocated as a separate group. The reasons for this decision lie in the mixed origin of environmental disasters: a direct influence of a person plays an important role here, while a blizzard or a hurricane occurs regardless of the impact of anthropogenic factors. But in the CIS countries everything is united in one category. So, such disasters should also be attributed to emergency situations of a natural nature. Thus, there are only two main groups: industrial and natural emergencies.
Classification of emergencies of a natural nature in Russia
Despite the high development of science and technology, man continues to remain unprotected before the forces of nature as well as at the dawn of his appearance. This is especially pronounced in times of disaster, when the element breaks into our usual, established way of life and completely changes it. An analysis of emergencies over the past decades gives disappointing forecasts. According to scientists, every year the number of victims of such emergencies only increases (on average, by 8.5 percent). Natural disasters themselves have become more destructive by 4.3 percent. And this is despite a fairly developed system for predicting and preventing similar events in the world.
In addition, in our time it is already obvious that anthropogenic impact nevertheless has an indirect effect on the occurrence of emergency situations. Tragic and seemingly random natural disasters can be caused by our own thoughtless actions. Thus, deforestation over time led to an increase in the frequency of floods in Russia and significantly expanded the area of distribution of this dangerous phenomenon.
In total, there are about 30 natural phenomena in our country that pose a potential threat to people. The greatest destructive force of them are storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. Heavy rains, earthquakes, landslides and avalanches are especially dangerous in mountainous areas. And forest fires have to be fought annually in the taiga. Due to the insufficiently developed warning system, many of the phenomena described above become even more dangerous.
According to statistics, most often we have emergencies of atmospheric origin (28%), earthquakes (24%) are in second place, and seasonal floods (19%) are in third place. At the same time, about forty percent of the entire territory of Russia are considered full-fledged seismic hazard zones. It is known that an earthquake is one of the worst natural disasters, which can be very difficult to predict. In most cases, this fails. The situation is complicated by the fact that some large radiation and chemically hazardous objects are located in these areas .