Tropical cyclones - case study - GEOGRAPHY MYP/GCSE/DP

Specification

Primary and secondary impacts of one named tropical cyclone.

Primary and secondary impacts

Primary impacts or effects of a natural disaster are those things which have been caused directly by the physical event. For a tropical cyclone these will include direct damage due to high winds, flooding due to heavy rainfall and storm surges, people killed during the storm, destruction of buildings:

deaths
destruction of buildings including housing and industry
flooding
destruction of transport eg roads, airports

Secondary impacts or effects are those things which follow on from the primary impacts. They might include:

long term homelessness
water pollution
loss of jobs/unemployment
insurance costs
costs to government
mass migration away from an area
water and food shortages

Case Study Research Project

Your task is to create a project on a single tropical cyclone. It can be a cyclone, typhoon or hurricane but it must have taken place within your lifetime. Your project can be electronic or hard copy and can be submitted in either format. It is an independent piece so you must submit your own, unique final piece but you are allowed to collaborate with others in conducting the research. While you can choose which storm you wish to study, it is worth considering those which are either mentioned below or in your textbook. If you wish to choose a different storm, check with your teacher.

The project must include the following:

Cover and contents (your name, title and contents; it doesn't need to be decorative!)
Introduction:
1. What is a tropical cyclone?
2. Why are they so dangerous?
3. Where do they occur worldwide?
4. What is meant by "Primary" and "Secondary" effects?
The storm track - this will include a map which will show how the storm developed and the route it followed. It is likely to include the intensity of the storm and dates.
Primary impacts - this will be much more than a list. The best work will be rich in data, will use maps to accurately show where the damage took place and will describe and explain the impacts in detail.
Secondary impacts - as above.
Management of the storm - what steps were taken to predict, prepare and plan for the event? Evaluate the success of these measures? How effective was the response after the event.

You should include references and a bibliography.