Hazard Report

Greece is a beautiful country and very popular during their tourist season which are the months of June through early September. It has many islands and peninsulas surrounded by many mountains and the beautiful ocean. Not many tourists that visit know about the natural hazards that can occur during their wonderful vacations. They suffer from earthquakes, flooding, wildfires, landslides, and extreme temperatures. The most dangerous of them all in Greece are earthquakes and flooding because of how common they are and what a big impact the hazards have on the country.

Between the years of 1950 through 2023 there have been 80 earthquakes per year due to the location of Greece being on the Aegean sea. Greece is in the middle of the Eurasian and the African tectonic plates. The island of Crete is the most prone to earthquakes, the island has suffered from 10 earthquakes in the time span of four months. Earthquakes from 4.1 magnitude- 5.1 magnitude; 9 km depth through 50 km depth ( Earthquake Track, 2024). There have been earthquakes reaching 7.2 inches magnitude. Even if the earthquakes are small, a tourist that does not know how often they occur could easily panic. Recommendations to address earthquakes is to keep the people informed in weathercasts or news outlets and how they need to act during an earthquake. Drop, cover, hold on and cover your head and neck with your arms. Avoiding windows, mirrors, tall unstable furniture. Greece has a General Secretariat for Civil Protection which studies plans, organizes and coordinates the country’s policy that deal with public awareness, talking about the issues and how to prevent those issues whether they’re man made or natural disasters such as an earthquake (GCSP, 2021).

As stated before Greece is surrounded by many beautiful mountains and one of the reasons for flooding is due to mountainous terrain. That happens with steep slopes which equals quick runoff of water from heavy rainfall leading to rivers and teams to rise. Although that is one cause of flooding, the main cause is deforestation and urbanization. In the start of the 19th century 40% of Greece was covered with forest compared to the present where only 18% is covered (Climate Change, 2024). There is no coincidence that Athen being the most urbanized part of Greece, has the most flood damage. Greece wants to “work with nature, not against it” , states Aimili Pistrika who is a senior water engineer. That means widening rivers, connecting the rivers with floodplains which then makes riparian forests (forest by bodies of water) and removing structures that were man made obstructing river flow, and having more agriculture production plus not using carbon emissions. Research from Nature Based Infrastructure Global Resource Centre reported that nature based solutions have a higher long term(25 years) benefit-to- cost ratio(2.9) compared to the hybrid or the traditional grey infrastructure approach (EuropeanInvestmentBank, 2024).

When it comes to earthquakes in Greece I would mainly focus on the island of Lefkada. The seismic activity from compressive forces is going in an east-west direction, perpendicular to the coast of western Greece. In 2015 a big earthquake hit that zone and left two people dead with dozens of people injured also causing property damage. Greater Athens is at high risk for flooding in Greece. As stated before it is the most urbanized area in Greece that has suffered the most flooding with 179 casualties within the past 100 years (ClimateChange, 2024).

If I had the chance to construct a house in Greece it would be in the city of Patras that has the least amount of natural hazards compared to other areas in Greece, especially the island of Crete. The cost of living is less expensive compared to other cities in Greece and due to flowing river and big port there is plenty of work. There is a lot of history surrounded by the amazing culture filled with fun night times. The city of Patras will experience earthquakes but they are very small, the lowest being Mag 1.7 and the strongest being 3.5 which happened November 27, 2024 (VolcanoDiscovery, 2024).