3RD QUARTER – WEEK 1

DISASTER READINESS AND RISK REDUCTION

LESSON 1 & 2

Most Essential Learning Competency:

Explain the meaning of disaster.
Differentiate the risk factors underlying disasters.

IT’S A DISASTER

Disaster is "a sudden, calamitous occurrence that causes great harm, injury, destruction, and devastation to life and
property”. It disrupts the usual course of life, causing both physical and emotional distress as well as an intense feeling of
helplessness and hopelessness. A preceding definition of disaster stresses that two
elements are affected – life (whether human or animal) and property. The effects vary – it maybe a minor damage (like
broken windows and doors), major damage (like torn rooftops, collapsed walls), total destruction (like completely destroyed
houses and structures rendering them useless and inhabitable) and the worst of all, death. (Asian Disaster Preparedness
Center, ADPC, 2012)

Disasters are often a result of the combination of the exposure to a hazard; the conditions of vulnerability that are
present, and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce or cope with the potential negative consequences.
Its impacts may include loss of life, injury, disease, and other negative effects on human physical, mental, and social
wellbeing, together with damage to properties, destruction of assets, loss of services, social and economic disruptions, and
environmental degradation.

The damage caused by disaster cannot be measured. It also differs with the kind of geographical location, climate, earth’s
specific characteristics, and level of vulnerability. These determining factors generally affect the psychological, socio –
economic, political, and ethnic state of the affected area.

Risk and Disaster Risk

Risk has various connotations within different disciplines. In general, risk is defined as “the combination of the probability
of an event and its negative consequences” (UNISDR, 2009). The term risk is thus multidisciplinary and is used in a
variety of contexts. It is usually associated with the degree to which humans cannot cope (lack of capacity) with a
situation (e.g., natural hazard).

The term disaster risk refers to the potential (not actual and realized) disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods,
assets, and services which could occur in a community or society over some specified future time period.

Disaster risk is the product of the possible damage caused by a hazard due to the vulnerability within a community. It
should be noted that the effect of a hazard (of a particular magnitude) would affect communities differently (Von Kotze,
1999:35).

It can also be determined by the presence of three variables: hazards (natural or anthropogenic); vulnerability to a hazard;
and coping capacity linked to the reduction, mitigation, and resilience to the vulnerability of a community.

Classification of Disasters:
Disasters can be divided into 2 large categories:
A. Natural - a natural phenomenon is caused by natural forces, such as earthquakes, typhoon, volcanic eruptions,
hurricanes, fires, tornados, and extreme temperatures. They can be classified as rapid onset disasters and
those with progressive onset, such as droughts that lead to famine. These events, usually sudden, can have tremendous
effects.
B. Man-Made - Disasters caused by man are those in which major direct causes are identifiable intentional or non-
intentional human actions.

Subdivided into three categories:

1. Technological/industrial disasters - Unregulated industrialization and inadequate safety standards increase the risk for
industrial disasters.
Example: leaks of hazardous materials; accidental explosions; bridge or road collapses, or vehicle collisions; Power cuts

2. Terrorism/Violence - the threat of terrorism has also increased due to the spread of technologies involving nuclear,
biological, and chemical agents used to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Example: bombs or explosions; release of chemical materials; release of biological agents; release of radioactive agents;
multiple or massive shootings; mutinies

3. Complex humanitarian emergencies - the term complex emergency is usually used to describe the humanitarian
emergency resulting from an international or civil war. In such situations, large numbers of people are
displaced from their homes due to the lack of personal safety and the disruption of basic infrastructure including food
distribution, water, electricity, and sanitation, or communities are left stranded and isolated in their own homes unable to
access assistance.
Example: conflicts or wars; genocide
RISK FACTORS

Disaster Risk as defined in the first module, has three important elements such as:
1. Exposure - the “elements at risk from a natural or man-made hazard event (Quebral, 2016).
2. Hazard - a potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life or injury,
property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation (Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United nation, FAO 2008).
3. Vulnerability - the condition determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which
increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazard (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
nation, FAO 2008).

Reduction of the level of vulnerability and exposure is possible by keeping people and property as distant as possible from
hazards. We cannot prevent natural events from occurring so we should focus on addressing the reduction of vulnerability
and exposure by identifying the factors which underlie disasters. Risk Factors are processes or conditions, often
development-related, that influence the level of disaster risk by increasing levels of exposure and vulnerability or reducing
capacity.

The following are also taken into consideration when risk factors underlying disaster are involved:
Severity of exposure - which measures those who experience disaster first-hand which has the highest risk of
developing future mental problems, followed by those in contact with the victims such as rescue workers and
health care practitioners and the lowest risk are those most distant like those who have awareness of the disaster only
through news.
Gender and Family - the female gender suffers more adverse effects. This worsens when children are present at home.
Marital relationships are placed under strain.
Age - adults in the age range of 40-60 are more stressed after disasters but in general, children exhibit more stress after
disasters than adults do.
Economic status of country - evidence indicates that severe mental problems resulting from disasters are more
prevalent in developing countries like the Philippines. Furthermore, it has been observed that natural disasters tend to
have more adverse effects in developing countries than do man caused disasters in developed countries.

Magbool, Irfan, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, ADPC, 31 December 2012,

https://www.adpc.net/igo/contents/adpcpage.asp?pid=1266&dep=RIG

Factors which underlie disasters:

1. Climate Change - can increase disaster risk in a variety of ways – by altering the frequency and intensity of hazards
events, affecting vulnerability to hazards, and changing exposure patterns. For most people, the expression “climate
change” means the alteration of the world’s climate that we humans are causing such as burning of fossil fuels,
deforestation and other practices that increase the carbon footprint and concentration of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. This is in line with the official definition by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) that climate change is the change that can be attributed “directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the
composition of the global atmosphere, and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable
time periods”.

International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, “Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction”, September 2008
https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/dra/vcp/documents/7607_Climate-Change-DRR.pdf

2. Environmental Degradation - Changes to the environment can influence the frequency and intensity of hazards, as
well as our exposure and vulnerability to these hazards. For instance, deforestation of slopes often leads to an increase in
landslide hazard and removal of mangroves can increase the damage caused by storm surges (UNISDR, 2009b). It is both
a driver and consequence of disasters, reducing the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological needs. Over
consumption of natural resources results in environmental degradation, reducing the effectiveness of essential ecosystem
services, such as the mitigation of floods and landslides. This leads to increased risk from disasters, and in turn, natural
hazards can further degrade the environment.

Prevention Web. Editor, “Environmental Degradation”, Prevention Web. The Knowledge Platform for Disaster Risk
Reduction, 12 November 2015 https://www.preventionweb.net/risk/environmental-degradation

3. Globalized Economic Development - It results in an increased polarization between the rich and poor on a global
scale. Currently increasing the exposure of assets in hazard prone areas, globalized economic development provides an
opportunity to build resilience if effectively managed. By participating in risk sensitive development strategies such as
investing in protective infrastructure, environmental management, and upgrading informal settlements, risk can be
reduced. Dominance and increase of wealth in certain regions and cities are expected to have increased hazard exposure
(Gencer, 2013).

Prevention Web. Editor, “Globalized Economic Development”, Prevention Web. The Knowledge Platform
for Disaster Risk Reduction, 12 November 2015 https://www.preventionweb.net/risk/globalized economic-development

4. Poverty and Inequality - Impoverished people are more likely to live in hazard exposed areas and are less able to invest
in risk-reducing measures. The lack of access to insurance and social protection means that people in poverty are often
forced to use their already limited assets to buffer disaster losses, which drives them into further poverty. Poverty is
therefore both a cause and consequence of disaster risk (Wisner et al., 2004), particularly extensive risk, with drought
being the hazard most closely associated with poverty (Shepard et al., 2013). The impact of disasters on the poor can, in
addition to loss of life, injury and damage, cause a total loss of livelihoods, displacement, poor health, food insecurity,
among other consequences. Vulnerability is not simply about poverty, but extensive research over the past 30 years has
revealed that it is generally the poor who tend to suffer worst from disasters (DFID, 2004; Twigg, 2004; Wisner et al.,
2004; UNISDR, 2009b).

Prevention Web. Editor, “Poverty and inequality”, Prevention Web. The Knowledge Platform for Disaster
Risk Reduction, 12 November 2015 https://www.preventionweb.net/risk/poverty-inequality

5. Poorly planned and Managed Urban Development - A new wave of urbanization is unfolding in hazard-exposed
countries and with it, new opportunities for resilient investment emerge. People, poverty, and disaster risk are
increasingly concentrated in cities. The growing rate of urbanization and the increase in population density (in cities) can
lead to creation of risk, especially when urbanization is rapid, poorly planned and occurring in a context of widespread
poverty. Growing concentrations of people and economic activities in many cities are seen to overlap with areas of
high-risk exposure.

6. Weak Governance - weak governance zones are investment environments in which public sector actors are unable or
unwilling to assume their roles and responsibilities in protecting rights, providing basic services and public services.
Disaster risk is disproportionately concentrated in lower-income countries with weak governance (UNISDR, 2015a).
Disaster risk governance refers to the specific arrangements that societies put in place to manage their disaster risk
(UNISDR, 2011a; UNDP, 2013a) within a broader context of risk governance (Renn, 2008 in UNISDR, 2015a). This reflects
how risk is valued against a backdrop of broader social and economic concerns (Holley et al., 2011).

Prevention Web. Editor, “ ”Prevention Web. The Knowledge Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. Nov.
12, 2015 https://www.preventionweb.net/risk/weak-governance