The PAR model and Park's model explained for tectonic hazards

Short answer: The PAR model and Park's model help you explain tectonic disasters. PAR shows how hidden social pressures make people vulnerable before a hazard strikes. Park's model shows how quality of life falls and recovers afterwards. Use PAR for causes and Park for recovery, then judge between them.

Hazard, disaster, vulnerability and resilience

A hazard is a natural event that threatens people or property, such as an earthquake. A disaster happens when a hazard meets a vulnerable population and causes serious loss. Edexcel's Topic 1 content covers these terms and the hazard risk equation [1].

Vulnerability means how likely people are to be harmed. Resilience means how well they can resist and recover. Both depend on factors such as income, housing, healthcare, education, governance, population density and isolation [1].

A common form of the risk equation is: present risk = hazard × vulnerability ÷ capacity to cope. This is a standard textbook form, not Pearson's own wording. It shows why the same earthquake can kill few people in one place and many in another.

For marks, this is AO1 knowledge. Define each term in one sentence, then use it in your explanation.

The PAR model: how pressure builds into disaster

PAR stands for Pressure and Release. Blaikie and colleagues are the usual originators. Edexcel lists it in section 1.4b, with the complex links between the hazard and its wider context [1].

Picture two forces pressing on a population. One is a chain of social conditions. The other is the hazard. A disaster happens where they meet.

The chain has three links:

• Root causes: deep, long-term features such as unequal access to power, resources and wealth, and the political and economic system.
• Dynamic pressures: processes that turn root causes into risk, such as rapid urbanisation, population growth, weak institutions and lack of training.
• Unsafe conditions: the visible result, such as poor housing, low income, fragile land and little preparation.

Release means reducing the pressure. You do this by tackling each link: better governance, safer building codes, and preparedness.

This is AO2 work. You apply the chain to a place, so you explain why a hazard became a disaster there. Always name a located example.

Park's model and the hazard management cycle

Park's model is a graph. The vertical axis shows quality of life or normal functioning. The horizontal axis shows time. Edexcel section 1.8c asks you to use it to compare the response curve of hazard events in areas at different stages of development [1].

The curve follows a pattern. Quality of life drops when the event hits. Relief comes first, with emergency aid and rescue. Rehabilitation follows, restoring basic services. Reconstruction comes last and rebuilds longer term.

The curve can end above, level with or below the starting line. A wealthy, well-prepared area often shows a shallower drop and a faster return. A poorer area may fall further and recover more slowly, because it has fewer resources to rebuild.

The hazard management cycle is different. It has four stages: response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness [1]. It is a loop, so lessons from one event shape the next. Park's relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction stages overlap with the response and recovery stages of the cycle. PAR links more closely to mitigation and preparedness, because release means reducing risk before the next event.

The PAR model and Park's model compared

Each model also has a strength. PAR links social causes to a hazard event, so it explains why the same hazard has different outcomes in different places. Park's model makes recovery over time easy to compare, because you can place the curves for two areas side by side.

Three limits apply to all of them. They simplify. They are static, so they show one pattern rather than change in real time. They are hard to measure, because you cannot put exact numbers on root causes or quality of life.

Those limits are your evaluation. A strong answer says what a model explains well, then what it leaves out.

How the models earn marks

Paper 1 (9GE0/01) lasts 2h15, carries 105 marks and is 30% of the A-level. It includes 12-mark and 20-mark extended writing [1]. Tectonics sits in this paper.

These figures come from Edexcel's specification [1]. Paper 1 rewards AO2 most, so applying a model matters more than describing it. In Edexcel's June 2019 Paper 1 mark scheme, 20-mark essays split as AO1 5 and AO2 15 [2].

The command word matters too. Assess means use evidence to decide the relative significance of factors, and say which matter most [1]. You must reach a judgement.

IAL students: the same models help in Unit 4 Option 1, Tectonic Activity and Hazards [3]. You build a portfolio of located examples in advance, so choose cases from countries at different levels of development [3].

A worked 12-mark paragraph

Assess the extent to which vulnerability, rather than the size of the hazard, explains the scale of tectonic disasters. (12 marks) A CC practice question, in our own words.

Notice how the paragraph states a judgement first, uses each model for a different job, and ends with a limit. That is AO1 knowledge applied through AO2 judgement. In the exam, replace the general points with a named case and its evidence.

Common mistakes

• Describing without applying. Listing the PAR boxes earns little. Link each box to a named place.
• Mixing up the models. PAR explains causes before the event. Park's model shows recovery after it.
• Ignoring the hazard. The risk equation includes the hazard itself. Do not argue that vulnerability is the only factor.
• Drawing Park's curve without comparison. Edexcel asks you to compare areas at different stages of development [1]. Use two contrasting places.
• No judgement. Assess needs a decision about which factors matter most [1]. Finish with a clear verdict.

A real case: Türkiye, February 2023

The World Bank estimated that the 6 February 2023 earthquakes, of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.5, caused $34.2 billion in direct physical damage in Türkiye. That is about 4% of 2021 gross domestic product (GDP, the total value of goods and services a country produces) [4]. Recovery and reconstruction costs could be about twice as large [4].

Use this for Park's model. The cost of the later stages may exceed the damage itself, so the curve's recovery phase can be long. About 1.25 million people were left temporarily homeless [4].

Use it for PAR too. Five provinces account for 81% of the damage [4]. That suggests unsafe conditions were concentrated in particular places. You would need further evidence to explain why.