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GEOGRAPHICAL PROCESSES RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS NATURAL DISASTER.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
So what is a geographical process?
A geographical process is a process which changes the geography of a certain region.
A bushfire will need these components to occur:
Heat (high air temperature,) dry air (low humidity,) oxygen (wind,) fuel (vegetation.)
HEAT:
A chance of bushfire is when the temperature is over thirty-seven degrees Celsius. There is a very small chance of bushfires when air temperature is less than twenty degrees Celsius.
DRY AIR:
Relative humidity, (RH,) is the amount of dampness in the air. Low RH is the most dangerous, and can seriously affect the occurrance of bushfires.
OXYGEN:
Bushfires are highly probable when wind speeds are higher than 50 kilometres per hour. They push flames in all directions, dry out vegetation (which makes bushfires travel faster,) bends flames, blows burning objects and rubbish onto unburnt areas (thus spreading the fire,) and supplies oxygen to increase bushfires.
FUEL:
A fire can only burn if there is vegetation. The denser the vegetation, the more dangerous the bushfire will be. Double the amount of fine fuel will double the height of the flames, as well as its speed, and this quadruples intensity. Different types of vegetation will affect the bushfires at different levels. Vegetaion lets the fire flow more easily, and smoothly.
Some geographical processes which affect bushfires are slopes and human input.
Slopes inclining upwards make the fire's speed higher, in fact a bushfires speed doubles every 10% increase in slope, whereas, going downhill noticeably slows down a bushfire. As a flame goes slowly down a slope, its height increases four times when it reaches flat land, and when fire travels up an opposite slope, their height quadruples yet again. Droughts can also help trigger bushfires, because they already have high air temperature and dry air. Human geographical processes can be: cultured gardens, complex shaped buildings. These send the bushfires coming back, although some building features can slow danger of bushfires down, as well as its manageability.
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