Earth Catastrophies and Disasters (GEO9)

Blog Final      Kenya is a country located on the eastern coast of Africa. The geography of Kenya is widely varied displaying: temperate, dry, arid, semi-arid, and desert regions as well as snowy mountains encircled by lush forests. Great variation in environments entails a similarly great variation of environmental hazards, disasters and catastrophes.   The natural disasters that Kenya is most affected by are droughts and floods.  The climate of Kenya is generally sunny, dry and temperate. The country experiences two rainy seasons per year;  masika lasts from the middle of March to May - this is the period with the heaviest rains,  vuli is a short period of rain lasting from November to December. The country experiences a prolonged dry season that extends from May to October. Kenya's climate is one of extremes with lengthy droughts punctuated by periods of intense rain. Climate change continues to force these periods to intensify, droug...

 Coastal Erosion in Kenya    Some natural processes contribute to coastal erosion in Kenya. Increased loading/deposition of sediment by the Tana and Sabaki rivers have contributed to recession of the Malindi shoreline; roughly five-hundred meters of the shoreline has been observed to have receded over twenty-seven years due to the formation of flood plains and dunes via sediment accretion.     Kenya faces an increased rate of coastal erosion due to human influence. Human settlement and development of infrastructure along the coast has caused the shoreline to recede by ten meters in the Diani-Bamburi area, this recession of the shoreline occurred over the span of ten years. A major contributor to the damage of the shore line has occurred due to current flows being modified by seawalls built for beachfront tourist resorts. The seawalls are causing other portions of the beach to erode more quickly than they would naturally. Shifting currents along with a reced...