Groundwater Risk and Disaster Management

• Published in: Groundwater Hydrology pp. 615 - 673
• Main Authors: Karamouz, Mohammad, Ahmadi, Azadeh, Akhbari, Masih
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom CRC Press 2020; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 2
• Subjects: Groundwater Flood; Water Disaster; Drought Management; System Failure; Groundwater Drought; Groundwater Vulnerability; CDI; Monitoring Land Subsidence; Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites; Environmental Risk Analysis; Pumping Level; Drought Vulnerability; Risk Quantification; Water Table; DRASTIC Index; Drought Indicators; Hazardous Materials Control Research Institute; Drought Triggers; Palmer Drought Severity Index; DRASTIC Model; Water Table Fluctuation Method; Groundwater Systems; Vadose Zone; Gps Leveling
• ISBN: 9780367211479; 0367211475
• DOI: 10.1201/9780429265693-10

This chapter discusses risk as an overlay of hazard and vulnerability. It describes disasters as the realization of risk. Risk assessment includes a wide variety of disciplines and the perspectives of engineers, hydrogeologists, environmental scientists, chemists, microbiologists, geologists, geographers, and public administrators. There are two basic elements associated with risk assessment. These elements are risk quantification or estimation and risk evaluation. Risk assessment can be used as a tool in evaluating the potential impacts on public health of hazardous materials in remote or disposal facilities. In dose-response assessment, a mathematical relationship between the toxic materials that humans are subject to and the risk of an unhealthy response to that dose is obtained. The method of extrapolating from the high doses to the low doses is the most debatable aspect of dose-response curves for carcinogens. Risk mitigation can be structural and nonstructural measures used to limit the adverse impacts of natural and technological hazards as well as environmental degradation.