Therefore it is society's decision to start fracking that then causes or increases the likelihood of these hazards, despite knowing the dangers and recommendations against it (Peduzzi and Harding, 2012). This is also seen with flooding where despite strong recommendations against building on flood plains by various organizations such as the Thames trust (Thamesexplorer, n.d) that the building still continues "200,000 homes were built on flood plains between 2001 and 2011" (Wills, 2014). Society has become increasingly urbanized and still builds using impermeable rock which inevitably will lead to more surface water and therefore higher risk of flooding. .
Another decision made by society which has caused natural hazards is the building of dams which is accused of causing earthquakes. The Zipingu dam according to scientists was a substantial factor in the 2009 Sichuan earthquake because it was built 500m away from the fault line, increasing pressure with the weight of water and increasing the probability of a major earthquake (Naik 2009). As with earthquakes dams built by society can have a negative effect and cause floods e.g. Farakka Dam, India. Lots of rainfall, meant the floodgates of the dam were opened stopping the dam from bursting but increasing the discharge of the river in Bangladesh which then caused a major flood (WWF international, 2001). Also often building dams results in deforestation which in turn means less water interception and hence higher risk of flooding. Its society's decision of building more dams and more fracking means more pressure on the physical environment.
There is also the issue of climate change and global warming where the increase in temperatures is causing ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise and freak weather conditions all of which increase the flooding risk and severity. It can be argued if we believe that humans are causing global warming through increasing carbon dioxide emissions that its society's decision to not act rapidly or sufficiently to stop the emissions that they're ignoring the risk of them and therefore increasing the disaster scale e.