Introduction to

Disasters and
Disaster Risks
Lesson 1
What are Disasters?
• The term “Disaster” is derived from the French word “Desastre”
meaning a bad or an evil star.
• Disaster is a serious and tragic event that causes loss of lives, human
suffering, and great damages to properties and environment.
• According to World Disasters Report 2013, Philippines being nestled
along the Pacific Ring of Fire, disasters such as typhoons and
earthquakes are normally experienced all year-round and Philippines
is in fact the World’s Third Most Prone to Disasters.
What is Disaster Risk?
• According to United Nations International Strategy on Disaster Reduction
(UNISDR), disaster risk is the potential loss in lives, health status,
livelihoods, and various assets which are often challenging to quantify.
However, by having knowledge on the scientific and local context behind
hazards, disaster risks can be assessed and mapped.
• Disaster risks can be categorized as either intensive or extensive.
• Intensive risks involves the exposure of large number of people in a specific
geographic area to extreme events that can further lead to catastrophic
disaster impacts involving high mortality rate and asset loss.
• Extensive risks is concerned more on the exposure of dispersed
populations to various hazards of low or moderate intensity.
What is Disaster Risk?
• Disasters can be considered as “acute” or “slow” at their onset.
• Natural disasters with acute onset include events such as earthquake,
flood, hurricane or typhoon, tornado, fire, tsunami or storm surge,
avalanche, volcanic eruption, extreme cold or blizzard, and heat wave.
• Disasters with a slow or gradual onset include drought, famine,
desertification, deforestation, and pest infection.
Types of Hazards

1. Natural Hazards are phenomena that may cause severe death toll,
damages to property, environment, and socio-economic condition of
communities.
Types of Natural Hazards
• Biological Hazard – This is directly linked to an organic origin caused by
exposure of living organisms to toxic substances and microorganisms
that cause sickness. Examples of a biological hazards include epidemic
diseases caused by viral and bacterial infection.
• Geologic Hazard – Events that originated in solid ground count as
major precursor. These include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and
emissions, and other secondary hazards such as landslides and
mudflows.
• Hydrometeorological Hazard – Basically, this involves phenomena that
are atmospheric, hydrological or oceanographic nature. These include
typhoons, thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and even drought.
 Types of Hazards

2. Human-induced Hazards - These are events leading up to a man-

made hazard may be the result of deliberate or negligent human
actions, but their impact can be equally as devastating.
Exposure

• Refers to people and properties that are affected by hazards.

• It can be measured by the number of people or types of assets in an
area.
• Magnitude of exposure varies depending on location and interaction
of elements.
Sensitivity
• This is the degree to which a certain community can be affected by
hazards. For instance, a community dependent on rain-fed agriculture
is more sensitive to rainfall pattern changes than a community where
mining is the primary source of income.
• According to United Nations (UN), Gender perspective in disaster risk
reduction helps gender-specific capacities and vulnerabilities to
prepare, confront, and recover from disasters.
Adaptive Capacity

• The ability of an individual or a company to withstand and adapt to

continuous environmental changes.
• Adaptive capacity of individuals and communities depend on their
access to and control over wide-ranging resources
Vulnerability
• The concept of vulnerability explains how people and the differences
among them contribute to the situation or context wherein they
operate.
• Vulnerability comes in many types, namely: social, psychological, and
physical vulnerabilities
 Social vulnerability – refers to the inability of people,
organizations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from
multiple stressors to which they are exposed.
 Psychological vulnerability – pertains to the trauma of loss that
translate to an unhealthy condition
Vulnerability
 Physical vulnerability – include physical assets such as
money and houses
• In general, the most vulnerable sectors are those who are
underprivileged because of their lack of resources, both human and
non-human, that they need to adapt to changes.
• Vulnerability can be seen in various ways:
 Economic factors – associated with levels of savings, debt, and
availability of credit and insurance
 Physical vulnerabilities – including geographical locations and
infrastructures
Vulnerability

Social vulnerability – such as education, peace and order, good

governance, health and nutrition, and religion, and culture,
among others
Impacts of Disasters
Impacts of Disasters
• The impact of disasters can be identified as Direct, Indirect and
Intangible losses on environment and society as a whole.
Impacts of Disasters

• Direct Losses:
- Include physical effects such as destruction and changes that reduce
the functionality of an individual or structure.
- Involves damages to people (death/injury), buildings, vehicles, clean-
up, and disposal cost
Impacts of Disasters

• Indirect Losses:
- Affect society by disrupting or damaging utility services and local
businesses.
- Indirect losses includes: loss of revenue; increase in cost; expenses
connected to the provision of assistance, lodging, and drinking water;
and costs associated with the need to drive longer distances because
of blocked roads.
Impacts of Disasters

• Intangible Losses:
- These includes psychological challenges caused by both direct and
intangible losses that individuals suffer from a disaster.
Social Impacts
• HOUSING:
- the destruction of houses which may be brought by floods and
earthquakes can lead to homelessness. This can further have a
long-term impact in the society.
- Renting properties is also a major source of mobility in
developing countries
- The social impact of these disruptions may bring can be long-
term and transcend into other forms of disaster impact such as
economic
Social Impacts
• HEALTH:
- Health care infrastructures in most parts of the developing
world are vulnerable to hazards because of poor facilities.
- Investments on a more long-term solution should be prioritized
rather than allocating all government funds and donations to
aid efforts after a disaster
- There is also a risk that some people can suffer from
psychological disorders because of the losses (both human and
economic) and trauma they experienced during a disaster
Social Impacts

• EDUCATION:
- One of the greatest impacts to education is the disruption of
educational services that can have long-term effects to both
students and teachers
Economic Impacts
• Natural disasters tend to have stronger impact on countries with
major debt and poverty problems. Based on history, it can be seen
that disaster cause short-term gross domestic product (GDP) decline
and vital changes in public expenditure.
• Significant portion of funds are used for: reconstruction, repair,
rehabilitation, and medical aid.
• Location is an important factor on the effect of natural disasters to
the economy.
• An area that operates in industrial and high-income economy tends to
have greater economic impact than those that have fewer assets.
Environmental Impacts

• Disasters create substantial environmental degradation and ecological

imbalance which lessens the quality of people’s lives.
• Natural disasters are by definition degrading to society. However,
disasters can be also beneficial in an ecological sense.
Written Work #1

What makes the Philippines very vulnerable to natural disaster?

(Include at least 1 – 2 facts to support your discussion. Also, include the
resources of the facts used.)
Performance Task #1
1.) Define and explain the following concepts:
a) Disasters
b) Disaster Risk
c) Hazard
d) Adaptive Capacity

2.) Differentiate intensive risks from extensive risks

3.) Enumerate and define the different types of hazards. Gives examples of each type of
hazard.

4.) What are the Impacts of disasters to communities?