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Relationship Between Hazard, Exposure, & Vulnerability

Hazard refers to a harmful condition that can cause loss of life, injury, or damage. Exposure is the presence of people or assets that could be harmed by a hazard. Vulnerability describes the characteristics of a community that make it susceptible to damage from hazards due to an inability to prevent, mitigate or respond to hazardous events. The risk of disaster results from the interaction between hazards, exposure, and vulnerability. A community can be exposed to a hazard but not necessarily vulnerable, depending on its ability to reduce risks and respond to hazardous situations.

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Yen Santos
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55 views

Relationship Between Hazard, Exposure, & Vulnerability

Hazard refers to a harmful condition that can cause loss of life, injury, or damage. Exposure is the presence of people or assets that could be harmed by a hazard. Vulnerability describes the characteristics of a community that make it susceptible to damage from hazards due to an inability to prevent, mitigate or respond to hazardous events. The risk of disaster results from the interaction between hazards, exposure, and vulnerability. A community can be exposed to a hazard but not necessarily vulnerable, depending on its ability to reduce risks and respond to hazardous situations.

Uploaded by

Yen Santos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ST.

ALOYSIUS GONZAGA PAROCHIAL SCHOOL


Tupaz St., Poblacion, Guinayangan Quezon
Tel No. 717-6948│0910-072-6330
Email: [email protected]

MODULE 4: Relationship Between Hazard, Exposure, & Vulnerability

LINKS BETWEEN HAZARD, VULNERABILITY, AND EXPOSURE

Hazard is a harmful condition, substance, human behavior or condition that can cause loss of life,
injury or other health effects, harm to property, loss of livelihood and services, social and economic
disruption or damage to the environment. Any risk which is imminent is threat.
Exposure is the presence of elements at risk or chance
of being harmed from a natural or man-made hazard
event. Elements include the individuals, households or
communities, properties, buildings and structures,
agricultural commodities, livelihoods, and public
facilities, infrastructures and environmental assets
present in an area that are subject to potential damage or
even losses. The more a community is exposed to hazard
factors, the higher is the disaster risk or higher chance
disaster occurrence.
Vulnerability means the characteristics and
circumstances of a community, system, or asset, that
make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard
and inability of a community to prevent, mitigate,
prepare for and respond to hazardous events.
Risk implies the probability of possible adverse effects. This results from the interaction of social
and environmental systems, from the combination of physical danger, and exposed item
vulnerabilities.
Disaster is a serious disruption to the functioning of a community or society which causes
widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses that exceed the capacity of the
community or society concerned to cope with the use of their own resources. It results from the mix
of hazards, risk conditions and inadequate capability or measures.
Exposure and vulnerability, on the other hand, are distinct. A certain community can be exposed but it
does not mean that it is vulnerable. Buildings and structures in Japan are exposed to earthquake, but
they are not vulnerable since their architectural and engineering designs are earthquake proof or
resistant. However, to become vulnerable, it must be exposed to hazard first. Exposure to hazard can
make a community vulnerable. But not all communities that are exposed to hazard can be considered
vulnerable. Vulnerability depends on the preparedness and readiness to a hazard of the
community. It depends mostly on how they mitigate, respond, and recover. If a certain community
has the ability to reduce the vulnerability by reducing the risk, the said community is already
considered as less vulnerable or resilient.

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