DRRR: COURSE MATERIAL 1

Types of Hazards
•Biological Hazards
BASIC CONCEPT OF DISASTER AND DISASTER RISK • Geological Hazards
Introduction to Different types of Disasters • Hydrometeorological Hazards
• Man-made and Technological Hazards
OBJECTIVES
• Define hazards Biological Hazards
• Give the examples of the types of hazards •Phenomenon of organic by biological vectors/agents,
• Explain the impact of various hazards on including exposure to pathogenic microorganisms,
different exposed elements. toxins and bioactive substances.
• Natural, usually from living sources.
Natural processes
• Endless interaction that shape our planet and support Geological Hazards
life. •Natural processes originate from the solid earth
• Includes: Plate tectonic, Atmospheric Processes, geosphere.
Biological Accumulation, and Human Activities.
Hydrometeorological Hazards
Differentiate: Hazard vs. Disaster •Phenomenon of atmospheric, hydrological or
Hazard - A dangerous phenomenon, substance, human oceanographic nature.
activity or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or • Involved with the atmosphere and/or hydrosphere.
other health impacts, property damage, loss of
livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, Man-made Hazards
or environmental damage. •originating from technological or industrial conditions,
including accidents, dangerous procedures,
Disaster - A serious disruption of the function of a infrastructure failures, or specific human activities.
community or a society involving widespread human,
material, economic, or environmental losses and DRRR: COURSE MATERIAL 2
impacts which exceeds the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own resources.
DISASTER AND ITS EFFECTS

Disaster
A damaging event that occurs suddenly and involves
loss of life and property.

Types of Disasters:

Natural Disaster
-Can destroy a whole community in an instant.
-Sample: Volcanic Eruption, tsunami, earthquakes and
Typhoon

Man-Made Disaster
-caused by human being
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- Sample: Bomb explosion, terrorism attacks, leakage of Psychological Perspective
poisonous chemicals, pollutions, industrial accidents Victims of disasters may suffer from Post-Traumatic
and epidemics. Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other serious mental health
problems which are not being given much attention by
Effects of Disaster the authorities or even by the victims themselves.
1.Displaced Population
2.Health Risks Psychological Perspective
3.Food Scarcity Filipinos are generally known as “matiisin”,
4.Emotional Aftershocks resourceful, optimistic and prayerful.
The culture of “malalampasan din natin ‘to” belief
Some Ways to plan ahead of a disaster and “bahala na ang Diyos” syndrome give hope to
1. Check for hazards at home most Filipinos are in the midst of a disaster.
2. Identify safe place indoors and outdoors
3. Educate yourself and family members Economic Perspective
4. Have disaster kits/ supplies on hand Disasters affect the economic condition of a
5. Develop an emergency communication plan community because they reduce local and
6. Help your community get ready international trade. It can also partially or totally
Practice the Disaster Preparedness Cycle. paralyze a country’s transportation system.

Political Perspective

DRRR: COURSE MATERIAL 3

Natural disasters are commonly thought to be less
politically argumentative than armed conflicts, yet a
BASIC CONCEPT OF DISASTER AND DISASTER RISK closer look shows that both effects of a natural disaster
DISASTERS FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES and the resulting distribution of humanitarian aid are
profoundly linked to politics.
Disasters come in different forms and intensity. People who have trust in political institution will assess
Nobody knows when it will strike and how it will the government’s risk assessment as credible and
happen. Therefore, everybody must know how to accept their hazard policies (Johnson 1999)
determine possible disasters and anticipate possible
damages in order to prepare oneself from the potential Biological Perspective
harms that it may cause. The disturbing effects caused by a prevalent kind of
disease or virus in an epidemic or pandemic level is
Perspective known as a biological disaster.
• point of view. A. Epidemic level
• is the way that one looks at something. B. Pandemic level

The Different Perspectives of Disaster

●Physical Perspective
DRRR: COURSE MATERIAL 4
●Psychological Perspective BASIC CONCEPT OF DISASTER AND DISASTER RISK
●Socio-cultural Perspective VULNERABILITY TO DISASTER
●Economic Perspective
●Political Perspective Vulnerable
●Biological Perspective -susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm
-at risk; in danger
Physical Perspective
Vulnerability
Natural disasters greatly affect the physical • the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility
infrastructural facilities, agricultural productivity and of being attacked or harmed.
even loss of life and cause damage to property. • state of being at risk.
•Vulnerability is also situation specific.
This means that if a specific province is prone to
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earthquake, it does not mean that all evacuation centers to provide temporary housing for
localities in that province are vulnerable to it. victims when disaster occur.
• The vulnerability of different towns or cities or even

DRRR: COURSE MATERIAL 5

provinces differ in the way they prepare for the hazard
and the amount and type of resources they have in
order prevent and manage it. BASIC CONCEPT OF DISASTER AND DISASTER RISK
VULNERABILITY OF DIFFERENT ELEMENTS
Vulnerability EXPOSED TO HAZARDS
•It is also hazard specific.
•A community that is vulnerable to Vulnerability
earthquake hazard does not necessarily •the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility
mean that it is also vulnerable to typhoons. of being attacked or harmed.
•Hazards have different traits that can •state of being at risk.
influence the disasters possible to happen
Vulnerabilities of different elements are determined
Factors Affecting Vulnerability on one’s due to its exposure to particular and specific hazard.
Community
Physical Vulnerability
1. Population density near a hazard event
• Population differs from population density. • includes population density levels, place of a
• Population refers to the number of individuals settlement, the site design, and materials used for
inhabiting a particular space at the same time. If infrastructure and housing. When hazardous events
people are well distributed, there is lesser effect occur, normally physical elements are severely
of disaster. damaged.
• Population density refers to the number of
individuals living in an area in relation to the size •For example, UP Visayas buildings were totally
of an area. If population density is high, it means destroyed during the super typhoon Yolanda in 2008
that the number of individuals is high but the leaving the structure totally damaged. Another example
space is very small. In that case, if fire broke out is the decreased in population density like what
in that area, there is little space for the happened in Baguio during the 1990 earthquake in North
population to escape quickly and easily. So, Luzon when a lot of people were injured and died.
crowded communities have higher vulnerability
to hazards. Social Vulnerability
•happens due to inability of people, organization, and
The primary consideration is not the population size societies to prevent severe effects from hazards
but the population density. because of the expected behavior in social
interactions, institutions, and system of cultural values.
2. Capacity and efficiency to reduce Disaster Risk.
• Community that is less vulnerable has the For example, during typhoon the line of communications
capacity to reduce disaster risk because; were cut off when cell sites shutdown or disruption of
• It can provide accessibility and availability of transport system due to inability of small vehicles to pass
services and facilities during and after the through the flooded areas or unpassable roads and
disaster. bridges.
• It has the ability to anticipate, adapt, and
respond to possible disasters. With some difficulties in the delivery of services such as
• Is it appropriate to say that The Philippines is less relief goods and medicines, a lot of problems occurred
vulnerable to typhoon? like shortage of food and spread of infectious diseases.
• Nowadays, our country has advanced Therefore, when social elements were exposed to
technology to predict super typhoon and several hazard, these may lead to disruption of normal processes
municipalities already provided and activities in the community.

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 Level of Economic Vulnerability •It is an archipelagic country with many small
•is based on the economic status of individuals, islands where some areas are below sea level.
communities, and nations. The poorer the country, the
more vulnerable to disasters because they lack the funds •It has the longest shoreline in the world at
or budgets to build sturdy structures and put other 32,400 km making it vulnerable to storm surges.
engineering measures in place which protect them from
being affected by disasters. •It is still a primary agricultural and fishing economy.

-So, we can say that Philippines is more vulnerable to an •With poor institutional and social capacity to manage,
event such as earthquake compared to Japan. Though respond, and recover from natural hazard events.
both countries are exposed to earthquake hazard
because both are located in the Pacific ring of fire, but •With high level of poverty
due to differences in economic status, Japan is more
resilient because of its ability to afford changes in •Aside from typhoon, it is also at risk to volcanic
architectural and engineering designs of building and eruptions, quakes, and floods.
infrastructures to make them less vulnerable to
earthquake.

Environmental Vulnerability
•caused by natural resources depletion and destruction.
Organisms like humans, animals, and plants are all
dependent on the environment for survival.

•Human activities like deforestation, burning of fossil

fuels, and kaingin affect the natural abilities of the
environment to protect itself from any natural hazard
due to absence of trees which may cause landslide and
flashfloods.

Quantifying Vulnerability
•used in estimating how much mitigation and
preparedness measures will be applied.
Computation is based on the previous hazard
events and severity of their effects.

•Vulnerability can be expressed as: 0 = lowest

degree of vulnerability and 1 as the highest
degree. Vulnerability of people is the ratio of
casualties or injured to the total population.
Vulnerability of buildings is expressed as a
repair cost or degree of damage.

The Philippines has high vulnerability

due to the following reasons:

•It lies in the Pacific typhoon belt and we are

visited by an average of 20 typhoons every year.

•Rugged nature of the landscape makes it

vulnerable to landslide, mudflows, and other disasters.

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