ИСТИНА

In recent years, the number and severity of natural-technological accidents and disasters are increasing all over the world. The term “natural-technological” applies to both human-induced intensification of natural risks and technological accidents triggered by any natural process or phenomenon. The growth of natural-technological events is caused, on the one hand, by the observed increasing in the activity and dimensions of various natural hazards and, on the other hand, by the much more complicated structure of modern technological systems prone to natural hazard impacts, as well as by increasing advancement of economic activities and population into areas at natural risk. A distinctive feature of natural-technological events is their multihazardous and synergistic nature. Usually it is very difficult to deal with the consequences of such multihazardous events, because one has to cope not only with the primary aftermaths of natural disasters, but also with the secondary effects of a number of simultaneously or successively triggered technological accidents, which can be even much more serious. These mutual impacts of natural hazards on the technosphere and human-induced impacts on the environment are the more severe the higher are the population density and concentration of industrial facilities and infrastructure (especially, hazardous objects, such as nuclear power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants, piplines, etc.) in affected areas. The author created a database of natural-technological accidents occurring in Russia. The collected information allowed us to analyze the main causes and triggers of such accidents, their distribution in place and time and reveal “weak spots” to cope with.