ASSIGNMENTS
Geography of Hazards

Assignment Schedule

Submisison Policy, Late Policy, and Plaigiarism: Material will typically be handed in at the beginning of class. There will be a 5%/day penalty for material handed in late (not including weekends, clock starts "ticking" at the end of class). Please slip late submissions under my office door. Unless otherwise stated, material should be presented on letter size paper and stapled together. Please do NOT use any sort of folder, binder or protective cover (they are cumbersome).

And now some messages from our lawyers (same as on main page)...

plagiarism
“Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site:
http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.
For a full set of regulations please visit this website: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/exam/crsout.pdf"

Turnitin.com
"All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism. All papers submitted will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com"

course ID = 2132943
course password: cutter
NOTE: The figures will be removed from the document by Turnitin.  Do not worry about this, it is the text that concerns us most.

Marking Conventions: If you are curious to know what all the symbols on your marked papers mean, please go here to find out. The marking notation link on the main menu to the left on all pages takes you to the same place.

Assignment 1: Recent Disasters Trends

Objectives

In class you have seen a number of graphs and tables concerning disasters over both time and space.  However, many of these charts are aggregated for the entire world.  The purpose of this assignment is for you to use a well-respected international database - EM-DAT to explore recent trends and to explore if the the spatial patterns are consistent with theory.  This assignment will also reinforce the limitations of calculating disaster trends.  You will use Excel (or your favourite spreadsheet software) to assist you with this assignment.

Tasks

1. If you are new to Excel - this lab may help.
2. Open and explore the EM-DAT spreadsheet provided. <<<spreadsheet for your assignment download it and save it to your hard drive.
3. Select two countries minimum - at least one "developed country" and one "developing country" (you can use them all if you like but this will require extra organization and/or calculation. The tradeoff is that using all countries will likely provide more interesting patterns).  For example you could sum all developing and 
4. Select a disaster group - you can use either natural, technological, both separately or combine them.
   
5. OPTIONAL remove columns you will not use.  The minimum columns you will need are the year, country, dis_group, no_killed, total_affected, total_dam.  You may choose to keep others.  The rest you can delete to simplify your spreadsheet.
6. Create new columns and generate subtotals.  The spreadsheet is already sorted by year, then by country, then by disaster group, create a new column next to each of the no_killed, total_affected, and total_dam columns You might want to open this example calculation and graph spreadsheet with the type of graphs I expect in your assignment.  There are comments throughout that might help (click the coloured triangles in the corners of some cells).  If you want to generate per capita values - particularly for the spatial comparisons, here is a link to 2005 population data by country.  I provide an example of how to use this data in the example calculation and graph spreadsheet.
7. Create graphs from the data - the example calculation and graph spreadsheet will provide some help but this is not the ONLY way you can represent the data.  See questions 1 and 2 below for further guidance on what to represent.

Questions

1. What is the spatial pattern (variation by country) of deaths, damage and affected for the data you chose?  (HINTS: The graphs at the deaths and damage links in the previous sentence represent one way to show country differeces, but a bar graph for all years could also be created. Give all charts titles,  insert them into the text of your answer, and refer to each chart by title in the answer.  Provide subheadings for each answer - this is not an essay, but answers to questions using full sentences.)
2. What is the temporal (yearly) pattern of deaths, damage, and affected for the data you selected?  (HINT: The graphs at the deaths and damage links above represent the best way to show temporal differences.)
3. Cite an academic journal or textbook (e.g.:(Smith, 2003)) on disasters/hazards to assess whether these trends correspond with past data (e.g., Are "developing" hardest hit by disasters for these particular countries.  Are there differences for deaths, damage, and affected as predicted by the literature?)(HINT: you can use any recognized citation format, but I recommend APA)
4. Comment on the limitations of the data.

Submit

1. Your spreadsheet of data (max 4 pages) and any graphs or tables (no max, but be reasonable) you produced to answer the questions.
2. Answers to the questions (max. 1000 words which is about 4 pages double spaced)
3. Your completed assignment electronically to turnitin.com:

   course ID = 2462026
   course password: hazards
   NOTE: The figures will be removed from the document by Turnitin.  Do not worry about this, it is the text that concerns us most.

All of this should be presented on letter size paper and stapled. Please do NOT use any sort of folder, binder or protective cover (they are cumbersome and unnecessary).

Marking

15 marks 3 style + 12 content

style (3/15 marks)

1. title page (-1)
2. reference list (-1) (yes, reference the data too)
3. spelling/grammar (-2 max) - up to two marks can be lost, the first few are free, from then on marks are lost at the TA's discretion
4. formal style (-2 max) - other formal style issues (e.g., slang, acronyms, contractions) TA's discretion
5. turnitin.com (-1) - if you do not submit to turnitin, you can type up and sign a statement that you understand what plagiarism is and that you did not plagiarize your paper.

content (12/15 marks)

1. spreadsheet and companion figures (4)
2. responses to questions (8)

em-dat spreadsheet file: in-class example (sample, for reference)

Assignment 2: Understanding Hazards in Context

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to further hone your critical thinking skills regarding hazards and disasters, their impacts, and how we adjust to them. One of the drawbacks of assignment 1 is that it is highly reductionist, in the sense that you only see the summary numbers concerning these tragic events.  This assignment will focus more on how those numbers are actually felt on the ground in places that experience disaster.    You will review one type of hazard/disaster in a formal essay.  You are required to use primarily academic literature: journal articles and books - which can be supplemented with other reference materials.  The primary goal of this assignment is to understand some of the key issues studied by academics concerning hazards/disasters.  Where possible cite empirical papers (research studies) as opposed to only theoretical papers (summaries of the literature).

Tasks

1. Identify a hazard/disaster type that interests you.  Here are some examples:
   
   • Hurricane Katrina (hurricane hazard/disaster)
   • Walkerton (E-coli hazard/disaster)
   • Urban pesticide use  (chemical technological hazard)
   • Chernobyl (nuclear radiation hazard/disaster)
   • 2004 Indonesian tsunami (earthquake/tsunami hazard/disaster)
   • Bhopal (chemical technological hazard/disaster)
   • Three Mile Island (nuclear radiation hazard/disaster)
   • lots more - when in doubt, ask
2. Find academic journal artiicles/books about this hazard/disaster type.  Geobase is a good journal article database to start your search.
3. Write an essay that discusses how academics write about this hazard/disaster.  What are the central issues: early warning? emergency preparedness? loss sharing? Take a specific position - that is formulate a thesis - in your paper in your introduction. An example of a thesis might be: "The majority of the literature on the industrial disasters like Bhopal disaster focuses on failures in technological systems rather than population vulnerability, prevention and mitigation as outlined by Author, year. This former is unhelpful for managers and workers in similar situations worldwide, but in low income countries in particular.  This essay will emphasize how the latter issues need more attention by researchers."

Submit

1. Your essay (typed, double-spaced, formal style, title page, reference list, MAX 1000 words which is about 4 PAGES not including title and references etc.).
2. Your essay to turnitin.com
   
   course ID = 2462026
   course password: hazards
   
   
   In lieu of a turnitin report (note below, you lose 1 mark if you do not submit) you can submit a signed, dated page attesting to appropriate citation and overall lack of plagiarism in your essay - "I do hereby certify that...etc etc". You will not lose the mark if you submit one or the other.  Turnitin is preferred.

All of this should be presented on letter size paper and stapled. Please do NOT use any sort of folder, binder or protective cover (they are cumbersome).

Helpful Hints

1. Form and explicitly state identifiable argument(s) - you are given a lot of room to create your argument based on your review of the literature.   See point 3 above.
2. Find authoritative work on your hazard - find papers that are cited frequently by other authors in the field.  The Web of Science can be used to do this.
3. Use journal articles and books - yes, reports, internet sources etc. may be used, and may be relevant, but for the (social) "scientific" state of the art, journals are good because they are typically peer reviewed by other scientists before they are published. Further, journals are the main source of up-to-date research in the area as books typically take years to publish. Books are very good for synthetic work - that is, they typically summarize empirical research and theory. Many books are peer reviewed, but it is often difficult to tell if this is the case.
4. focus, Focus, FOCUS - you are given a lot of leeway in this assignment - some would say, "you have been given just enough rope to hang yourself". Thus, keep your messages/arguments focused. Do not simply retell what you see in the articles. The best papers will not simply summarize, they will synthesis and interpret. Show the reader what can be learned by reading current research on this hazard/disaster type.
5. Subheadings - I am a big fan of subheadings, and you will notice most journal articles and book chapters have them. 
6. Reference List - You should include in your reference list all scholarly articles that you cite in the text of your essay. 

Marking

25 marks 5 style + 20 content

style (5/25 marks)

1. title page (-1)
2. reference list (-1)
3. introductory paragraph (-1) - introduce the purpose of your paper, state your position on the degree to which the two domains overlap, and provide a roadmap for the rest of the paper
4. concluding paragraph (-1) - revisit your main point about paper quality, summarize, comment on potential directions for future research in this area
5. spelling/grammar (-2 max) - up to two marks can be lost, the first few are free, from then on marks are lost at the TA's discretion
6. formal style (-2 max) - other formal style issues (e.g., slang, acronyms, contractions) TA's discretion

content (20/25 marks)

1. Introduction - 2 marks - give a clear context and road map for the paper.
2. Remaining Content - 16 marks
3. Conclusion - 2 marks - summarize, conclude and point out potential implications
4. Turnitin Report missing? - ( -1) - you need to submit report OR a signed, dated document attesting to appropriate citation and overall lack of plagiarism - "I do hereby certify that...etc etc". For more info, see the Submit section above.