Urban Dwellers’ Hazard Awareness and its

Implications on Disaster Risk Reduction and

Management Towards Climate Change
Adaptation and Urban Resilience

Minerva C. Rosel 1
[email protected]

Isidoro R. Malaque III 2

[email protected]

Abstract I. Introduction
The role of urban design in disaster risk reduction and The adverse impacts of climate change on society have
management (DRRM) has taken more attention in the advent of never been more apparent in recent years, with various
the COVID-19 pandemic, as transmission rates are highest where hazards happening more frequently and threatening
cities are mostly crowded. Rapid urbanization is taking place in human civilization. While the scientific community has
Asia, making its populations most vulnerable to hazards and known this for quite a while, it was not only recently that
disasters, including this current pandemic. This paper aims to people around the world began paying attention.
assess the basic hazard awareness of the city population, Significantly, the role of urban design in disaster risk
particularly in the central business district (CBD), as a reduction and management (DRRM) is becoming more
prerequisite for urban resilience. A comprehensive survey of the important, especially during the time of the COVID-19
daytime population of Davao City’s CBD was conducted in the pandemic. All over the world, transmission rates are
latter half of 2019, focusing on the respondents’ awareness of the highest and cities are mostly crowded, facing the same
five (5) most prevalent disasters in the study area. Existing threats from other forms of urban disasters we were used to
government policies and programs on climate change adaptation such as typhoons, flooding, landslides, fire, and
and DRRM were also examined as to how they are translated into earthquakes. Minding on these known disasters, it is
community development and other forms of interventions. important to note the urban dwellers’ awareness of related
Research results show that the majority of the daytime urban hazards towards disaster risk reduction and urban
population are in their early and prime working age and despite resiliency.
their high educational background, they have low awareness of Historically, environmental awareness and movement at
hazards, and their recall of experiences in disasters is short-term. the global level went through a series of political processes.
The majority of them are not able to identify which hazard they
In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
are most susceptible to, and DRRM-related terminologies are
(IPCC) was born through the United Nations Environment
poorly understood. In conclusion, this study hoped to provide a
Programme and the World Meteorological Organization.
basis for integrating risk communication in architectural and
With a mandate from the United Nations (UN), IPCC’s task
urban design interventions toward a sustainable and resilient
was to provide a scientific basis for international climate
built environment.
policy making, with its reports playing important roles in
succeeding international treaties pertaining to global
Keywords: hazard awareness, risk communication, warming, coping with its consequences, and the need for
disaster risk reduction, urban resilience, Davao City adaptation. The establishment of IPCC took place even
before “sustainable development” became a buzzword in
_______________
1992, through the “Rio Declaration on Environment and
1 Minerva C. Rosel is currently an assistant professor and Development, and the Statement of Principles for the
Coordinator of the Diploma/MA in Urban and Regional Planning
Sustainable Management of Forests,” otherwise known as
Program, at the University of the Philippines Mindanao. As an
architect and environmental planner, she is involved in horizontal Agenda 21, then declared at the United Nations Conference
development design, park operations, and policymaking, with a on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro,
current research interest in resilient planning and design. Brazil. However, it took more than a decade for climate
2 Isidoro R. Malaque III holds a PhD in Architecture degree from change to gain popularity. It was only when former United
The University of Adelaide. He is currently an associate professor States Vice President Al Gore began a campaign to educate
and the chair of the Department of Architecture, at the University people about global warming, eventually drawing
of the Philippines Mindanao. His research interest includes informal worldwide attention through a documentary film entitled,
urbanism and socio-spatial processes in the formation of the built
An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. Consequently, in 2007, the
environment.
IPCC and Gore both received the Nobel Peace Prize “for

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Urban Dwellers’ Hazard Awareness and its Implications on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience
Rosel and Malaque III

their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge Specifically related to urban design, SDG-11 aims to “make
about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
for the measures that are needed to counteract such sustainable” (UN, 2015). However, while the reduction in
change” (IPCC, 2012). From this global political scenario, fatality rates of Philippine disasters over the years indicates
environmental awareness in relation to climate change improvement, Filipino resilience as a target within the
adaptation and disaster risk reduction management and remaining decade is still hard to measure by its operational
strategies is now part of the culture at the national and local definition.
levels.
Along with more than 178 governments adopting Agenda
21, the Philippines came up with its own national agenda II. Background to the Study
for achieving sustainable development in the twenty-first
century. As integrated into the country’s medium-term and A. Defining Resilience by Understanding
long-term development plans in 1993 and 2000, Risk
respectively, the Philippine Agenda 21 aimed for the While resilience is generally defined in reference to
sustainable development of every local government unit ecosystems, the climate change sector assumes resilience to
(LGU) in the country. By virtue of the country’s local be the inverse of vulnerability, with vulnerability being a
government code, every province, town, and city in the factor of risk. Vulnerability is determined by exposure to
Philippines is mandated to draw up its development plans climate change, sensitivity to climate extremes, and
in accordance with the significant national agenda. Over adaptive capacity to climate impacts (IPCC, 2012). In 2017,
the years, major policies have also been enacted to address the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
climate change issues and mainstream disaster risk released a handbook for local government leaders on how
reduction and management towards adaptation, for to make cities resilient. The handbook presented a
example, in the construction of low-income housing and theoretical framework for understanding risk, as a function
resettlements (Malaque III and Golimlim, 2019). Among of hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and coping capacities.
these policies are the Climate Change Act (CCA) of 2009, Risks, as defined by Gencer (2017), “are a function of the
which seeks to build resilience to climate-change-related hazard (e.g., cyclones/typhoons, earthquake, flood, or fire),
hazards, and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management the exposure of people and assets to hazards, and the
Act (DRRMA) of 2010, which “provides for the conditions of the vulnerability of the exposed population or
development of policies and plans and the implementation assets.” Depending on the institutional and individual
of actions and measures pertaining to all aspects of DRRM, capacity to cope and/or act to reduce risk and increase
including good governance, risk assessment and early resilience, since these factors are not static, thus can be
warning, knowledge building, and awareness raising, improved. Furthermore, new risks are created because
reducing underlying risk factors, and preparedness for development patterns increase exposure and vulnerability
effective response and early recovery” (Republic of the in the social and environmental realms (Gencer, 2017). As
Philippines, 2010). Furthermore, sustainable development these factors vary from city to city and are difficult to
in terms of the resilience of Filipinos amid the increasing measure, the framework presents more of a definition
occurrence of hazards remains to be seen through the rather than a mathematical equation (Figure 1).
preparedness, adaptive response, and recovery of LGUs
whenever disaster strikes. For example, in 2013, the world’s
strongest typhoon in history, internationally named
“Haiyan” (or domestically known as “Yolanda”) claimed
more than 6,000 lives across the central regions of the
Philippines. Moreover, in 2020 about the same period in
November, five typhoons came in a row all within a month,
three of which were similarly destructive – “Molave” Figure 1. Factors of Disaster Risk
(“Quinta”); “Goni” (“Rolly”); and “Vamco” (“Ulysses’)— Source: UNISDR, 2019
affecting the northern regions including the country’s
capital Manila, and recording less than 150 fatalities,
In other words, as presented in Figure 1, disaster risk
collectively (UN-OCHA, 2020). The Philippines, being most
prevails if hazard, exposure, and vulnerability are all
vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters, must consider
present. As a sample scenario, an area that is probably
climate change and its related environmental issues as
prone to flooding (hazard) cannot be considered at risk, if
priorities towards aiming for sustainable development.
there are no dwellers on the site (exposure and
Now, three decades after the declaration of Agenda 21, the vulnerability). In the same way, an informal settlement
global community is facing the challenges of the twenty- (socio-economically vulnerable) may not be considered at
first century with Agenda 2030 which is elaborated by the risk if it is not located in a flood-prone area (exposure and
17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 SDGs hazard). Numerous works of literature on sustainability
are interlinked and designed to be "a blueprint to achieve a and disaster risk reduction directly point to resilience as a
better and more sustainable future for all by 2030." means to combat risk, and their frameworks imply that

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University of the Philippines College of Architecture Issue No. 10
 Urban Dwellers’ Hazard Awareness and its Implications on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience
Rosel and Malaque III

resilience can be achieved by strengthening the the 2011 tsunami disaster in Japan were still fresh in
population’s coping capacities. people’s memories that time.
In the urban planning context, resilience is the ability of a
locality and its citizens to withstand impacts and shocks, C. Importance of Urban Dwellers’ Hazard
and to rebuild, reorganize, or transform itself when
Awareness
necessary. Since the enactment of related Philippine laws in
2009 and 2010, respectively, the CCA and DRRMA have Among the more than 1,500 towns and cities in the
strengthened and mainstreamed the comprehensive land Philippines, Tacloban City is classified as a highly
use planning processes throughout the country. Moreover, urbanized city (HUC) along with 32 other HUCs that
these national policies are reflected along with the key includes and ranks Davao City as the third in terms of
principles in urban development and housing, which population, and the first in terms of land area. The
established resilience as a foundation in planning and Philippine urban development and housing framework
decision-making for designed and built environments or acknowledges urbanization as a catalyst for growth, with
spaces such as neighborhoods, settlements, development more than half of Filipinos now living in urban areas, where
areas, municipalities, provinces, regions, and cities 75% of the country’s economic output can be attributed.
(HLURB, 2017). The referred framework also recognizes awareness as a key
strategy for the resilience and sustainable development of
B. Importance of Hazard Awareness in settlements. In addition, the framework’s strategy on
Achieving Resilience public administration, urban governance, and management
Similar to the Philippines, a neighboring country Japan is aims to ensure urban safety and security. While man-made
also frequented by hazards, particularly earthquakes. It is hazards, risks, and crime, are usually resolved through
also where the UN framework for disaster risk reduction police presence and emergency response, these can also be
was adopted in 2015, also known as the Sendai Framework addressed through greater community participation and
(UNOOSA, 2020). Learning from its experience, Japan has awareness of safety and security issues (HLURB, 2017).
long integrated disaster reduction education into its school Considering that a greater number of people now live in
systems to improve children’s risk awareness. The urban areas, in the same way, that the achievement of SDGs
effectiveness of such good practice is evidenced by some is centered on the people, all the more that hazard
successful stories, particularly the so-called “Miracle of awareness of urban dwellers must be given importance
Kamaishi”, where all school children survived the 2011 toward the achievement of sustainable and resilient cities.
great tsunami disaster, compared to an equally damaging
earthquake in 1995 that killed nearly 700 young people in
the Tohoku area. The survival of all school children in 2011 III. Aims and Objectives
is attributed to their high awareness. Since the 2011 disaster,
Considering that the Philippines ranks third among the
new tools like the “Gensai Pocket YUI,” a handkerchief
countries with the highest disaster risks in the world
printed with disaster information graphics, were proposed
(World Risk Report, 2018, as cited in Malaque III and
to augment Japan’s disaster reduction education, as
Golimlim 2019), the growing number and concentrations of
awareness needs to be maintained even outside the
populations exposed to hazards in the urban areas make
classroom and in everyday life (Suppasri, 2015). Among
HUCs as the most vulnerable cities in the Philippines. To
other strategies developed with their conditions, Japanese
explore this critical urban phenomenon, this paper aims to
initiatives were made role models in DRRM strategies by
assess hazard awareness, as a pre-condition for the
other countries.
resilience of urban dwellers of Davao City, by probing
Risk communication plays a crucial role in achieving through the daytime population of its CBD which is also
resilience, and its core lies in the population’s awareness of referred to as the Poblacion. Furthermore, the study aims
hazards. In the Philippine practice, however, risk to understand the community at risk, according to the
communication remains too highly scientific and technical population’s literacy level and proximity of residence to the
to be understood in layman’s terms. For example, in the CBD. Specifically, for this paper, the study aimed to sieve
aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, it was learned that the urban dwellers from the daytime population of the CBD
the disaster could be further attributed to the people’s lack and to investigate if perceptions differ between those who
of understanding of terms such as “storm surge” and are living in and outside of the CBD. The study also aimed
“Category 5 typhoon” (Fong, 2015). The strong winds that to enumerate and classify the hazards that the CBD
crushed thousands of properties across regions could have population is aware of and to examine if some
been better understood, and well-prepared if “Signal terminologies used in the usual risk communications, as
Number 5” was used in the announcements. In the same practiced by the authorities, are well understood by the
way, the “storm surge” that killed thousands on the coasts urban population. The final objective is to analyze if the
of Tacloban City could have been better understood and population’s literacy or educational background has
expected, if it was referred to as a “tidal wave” or “tsunami- anything to do with their hazard awareness. For the
like waves,” considering that the harrowing images from discussion, this paper focuses on the gaps in risk
communications in urban areas and attempts to
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Urban Dwellers’ Hazard Awareness and its Implications on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience
Rosel and Malaque III

recommend corresponding mitigating measures through Figure 2. Respondents’ Age Profile

urban planning interventions for the natural and built
environments.
In terms of educational attainment, for a total of 1,025
respondents obliged to this item in the survey
IV. Case Study Area and Sampling questionnaire, only five percent of the total respondents
have not completed elementary school; and 95% are literate
Davao City is the case study area, the comprehensive (Figure 3).
survey was conducted in Poblacion District - the urban area
within the political boundary of the city. A ten-question
survey questionnaire was designed covering three
components, other than respondents’ profile, to include:
housing; transportation; and disaster risk awareness.
However, this paper only covers the third component
which is urban dwellers’ awareness. For the distribution of
surveys, the study area was divided into eight zones. For
the conduct of surveys, 50 research enumerators were
deployed to cover all the zones resulting in a total of 1,026
respondents who participated in the survey. Research
respondents included the daytime population when the
survey was conducted in the Poblacion District, who either
lived in or outside of the case study area. The survey was
conducted from November to December 2019, most of
which were gathered in the first half of November. Figure 3. Respondents’ Educational Attainment
Incidentally, the region experienced a phenomenal swarm
of earthquakes around the same period from September to
December 2019.
B. Disaster Risk Awareness
In the Philippines, the high vulnerability to disaster is
V. Research Results caused by typhoons. With an average of 20 typhoons
A. Respondents’ Profile entering the Philippine area of responsibility every year, the
entire country is placed susceptible to typhoons. In order
In terms of age, a total of 1,023 respondents revealed their to find out if the respondents realized this and if they really
ages in the survey. Their responses were then tabulated and knew the dangers brought about by typhoons, this was
clustered according to their age classification based on age asked in the survey questionnaire. As shown in Figure 4,
structures or categories used by the Philippine Population “typhoon” is identified as one of the country’s most
Commission. The majority of respondents’ ages are in the common and most destructive natural hazards, among
early (15–24 years old) and prime (25–54 years old) working others that include: earthquakes, floods, and landslides;
age categories (Figure 2). This profile reflects the “youth volcanic eruption identified as other; and fire in the case of
bulge” of the entire population of the country, where there the Philippines that is mostly man-made, not natural like in
are more than 30 million Filipinos aged between 10 and 24 the case of wild forest fires in continental countries.
years old. Per the UNDHF 2017–2022 report, this young age
group comprised almost a third of the Philippine
population; thus, with the potential to be developed.

Figure 4. Hazards Identified by Number of Respondents Living in and

Outside the Poblacion District

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 Urban Dwellers’ Hazard Awareness and its Implications on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience
Rosel and Malaque III

In the aftermath of typhoon “Haiyan” (“Yolanda”) in 2013 order to find out if people understood hazard categories set
as shown in Figure 5, it was observed that many people did by the authorities, this was asked during the survey. As a
not know what “storm surge” means. This term is result, shown in Figure 7, only 23% gave the correct answer,
commonly interchanged with “tsunami” or “tidal wave”. while most of the respondents associated typhoons with
This simple misunderstanding of nomenclature poses a floods and heavy rains. On the other hand, two percent
serious threat, as evidenced by the death toll during gave incorrect answers; and 25% admitted that they did not
typhoon “Haiyan”. In order to find out the respondents’ know which of the hazards were caused by typhoons to be
knowledge of the identified hazard by identifying the associated with categories set by authorities.
correct tidal hazard associated with typhoons, it was asked
in the survey what is caused by typhoons. As a result,
shown in Figure 6, only 36% answered “storm surge”
correctly, and an additional six percent gave multiple
answers with “storm surge” also included. On the other
hand, two percent gave incorrect answers, and 39%
admitted that they did not know which of the hazards were
caused by typhoons.

Figure 7. Respondents’ Awareness of Typhoon

VI. Discussion and Conclusion

Referring to the respondents’ profile and consolidating the
respondents’ age and educational attainment, a good
literacy level among the respondents representing the
Figure 5. The MV Eva Jocelyn was among the ships washed ashore daytime population in Davao City is generally exhibited
by storm surges of Haiyan, in Bgy. Anibong, Tacloban City. The (Figure 3). With the respondents having more than the
ship has now become a memorial. minimum literacy level assumed required for coping with
everyday life, the study further examined if they are also
Source: Photo c/o Dalen Palami
equipped with the basic knowledge of natural hazards. As
shown in Figure 4, “typhoon” did not come in as the top
answer among the identified hazards. This means that
respondents were more aware of earthquakes, fire (that is
more man-made rather than natural), and flooding instead.
The graph (Figure 4) also shows the responses from both
those living in and outside of the Poblacion District, in
which case the discussion with the context of hazard
awareness may not be as significant as to relate it with other
issues on housing and transportation that imply
comparative confidence level on infrastructure.

Figure 6. Respondents’ Awareness of Storm Surge

Per practice in the Philippines in time of typhoon, the

Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical
Services Administration (PAGASA) issues Public Storm
Warning Signals (ranging from Signals 1 to 5), which
basically indicates wind speed regardless of rainfall. In
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Urban Dwellers’ Hazard Awareness and its Implications on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience
Rosel and Malaque III

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Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience
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