Natural hazards include earthquakes, landslides, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, floods, storms, and even possible impacts of asteroids. Drought is a natural hazard, too, even though it moves slowly. Define, list and explore impacts of drought on humans and wildlife. Most natural hazards occur on a short time frame of seconds, minutes, hours or days. Communities and societies tend to respond quickly and collaboratively to rebuild in most cases after short term hazards.
Droughts tend to drive communities apart.
Natural hazards can present personal and societal challenges because misidentifying the change or incorrectly estimating the rate and scale of change may result in either too little attention and significant human costs or too much cost for unneeded preventive measures. Risk analysis considers the type of hazard and estimates the number of people that might be exposed and the number likely to suffer consequences. The results are used to determine the options for reducing or eliminating risks. Droughts are recurring natural hazards that do not have an expected cyclic time frame. Studying historical droughts of various time frames and severity can show the effects on agriculture, hydrological systems and society.