Ecological consequences of earthquake

Each day, at least two large natural disasters take place on the planet, affecting the lives of people. There are now about 450 cities worldwide with a population of more than 1 million inhabitants. Of these, 50 cities have a population greater than 3.5 million and 25 cities have populations greater than 8 million. Some sobering statistics underscore the physical and financial risk of disaster to mega cities in the developing world: about 50 percent of the world's largest cities are situated along major earthquake belts or tropical cyclone tracks; and the average number of victims is 150 times larger during disasters than in the developed world. Cities like Istanbul, Dhaka, Manila, Cairo, Mexico City, Katmandu, Bogotá, Algiers, Tehran and many others are threatened by earthquakes .An earthquake in these cities would cause a catastrophe of unheard proportions. The concern over the risk to mega cities, particularly in the developing world, is their growing vulnerability caused by their hyper-concentrations of population, dependence on complex and aging infrastructure, and unprepared local institutions. The risk of natural disasters occurring in mega cities is growing. To develop a coherent set of international standards to assess urban vulnerability and devise approaches for mitigation. Vulnerability will be assessed along four dimensions: - Physical - Organizational - Cultural/Social - Economic Proper planning by local governments can reduce the human and financial loss to cities. In 2002 the Government of the Russian Federation has approved the Federal Program “Seismic safety of the Russian territory” (2002-2010). This paper provides an overview of global environmental problems related to earthquakes and researches of seismic hazard in Russia.