Basic Concept of Disaster and Disaster Risk HUMAN-MADE DISASTERS - Cyberattacks

- These disasters occur due to people’s actions - Explosion

DISASTER
A sudden, calamitous event, bringing great
damage, loss, destruction, and devastation to life
and property
TYPES OF DISASTERS
A serious disruption of the functioning of society,
NATURAL TYPES OF DISASTERS
causing widespread human, material, or
environmental losses, which exceed the ability of
the affected people to cope, using their human
resources.
Disasters occur when a hazard is exposed to a
vulnerable community.
A hazard is a threat to life, environment, or
property.
The failure to withstand the impacts of hazards is
called vulnerability.
against humans, materials, and the environment.
- Civil unrest
- These include transport and industrial accidents,
RISK FACTORs UNDERLYING DISASTERS
such as air, and train crashes, chemical spills,
building collapses, and terrorism. Elements of Disaster Risk
 Hazard – any phenomenon that can potentially
cause damage to life, property, or environment.
 Exposure – any element (people, property, or
- Agricultural diseases and pests
system) that is present in a hazard and is prone to
- Storm surge
potential loss.
- Drought and water shortage – El Niño
 Vulnerability - feature of a community that makes
- Earthquake them prone and exposed to the negative impacts
of hazard.
- Hurricanes and tropical storms
Concept of Disaster Risk
- Landslide and debris flow
- Thunderstorms and lightning

DISASTER RISK
The probability that a community’s structure or
geographic area is to be damaged or disrupted by
the impact of a particular hazard, on account of its
nature, construction, and proximity to a hazardous
area. (ADPC – Asian Disaster Preparedness Center,
2012)
HUMAN-MADE & TECHNOLOGICAL TYPES OF
NATURE/ORIGIN OF DISASTERS
DISASTERS
NATURAL DISASTERS
– These originate from the different “forces” of nature
(geological, meteorological, hydrometeorological and
biological)
- Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, and cyclones
- Tornadoes
- Tsunamis
- Wildfires
- Sinkholes
- Emergency diseases (pandemic influenza)
DISASTER RISK FACTORS
• A number of factors make it more likely that those
affected will have more severe or longer-lasting
- Hazardous materials
stress reactions after disasters. These risk factors
- Power service disruption and blackout are summarized in a study made by ADPC, 2012.
- Nuclear power plant and nuclear blast
- Radiological emergencies

- Chemical threat and biological weapons DISASTER RISK FACTORS (SGALD)

1. Severity of exposure
Injury and life threats are the factors that led most often to
mental health problems. Studies have looked at severe
natural disasters and the findings show that at least half of
the survivors suffer from distress or mental health
problems that need clinical care.
2. Gender and family
The female gender suffers more adverse effects. This
worsens when children are present at home. Marital
relationships are placed under strain. Conflicts between
family members or lack of support in the home make it
harder to recover from disasters.
3. 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.
4. Low or negative social support
Social support can weaken after disasters. This may be due
to stress and the need for members of the support network
to get on with their own lives.
5. Developing countries
Developing countries are more vulnerable to natural
disasters because people live in areas at high risk from
natural disasters (e.g., unsafe urban areas), the housing is
poorly built and can be easily damaged in the event of a
disaster, countries are not equipped with early warning
systems, and they have few assets and a weak social safety
network to help them cope with disasters.
OTHER FACTORS SPECIFIC TO THE
SURVIVOR
Recovery is worse if survivors:
• Have had no experience dealing with disasters
• Deal with other stressors after the disasters
• Have poor self-esteem • Food becomes very limited after an occurrence of
a disaster. Consequences of disaster that
• Feels no one cares for them
contribute to limited food supply are as follows:
• Think they have little control over what happens to them
• damaged farms
• Lack the capacity to manage stress
• damaged farm to
Other factors have also been found to predict market roads
worse outcomes:
• the high price of a
• Bereavement (death of someone close) limited food supply lack
of buying capacity of
• Injury to self or other family member disaster victims
• Life threat Psychological
• Panic, horror, or feelings like that during the disaster • The devastating impacts of disaster can be
traumatic for any person who has experienced it.
• Being separated from family
• Exposure to deaths and catastrophe can be
• Great loss of property
unforgettable to anyone especially to children.
• Displacement (force to leave home)..
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious
psychological condition from extreme trauma that
should be addressed as early as possible to
EFFECTS OF DISASTERS ON HUMAN LIFE (DHP)
prevent a long term emotional distress.
Displaced Population Areas/Locations Exposed to Hazards
• When countries are ravaged by earthquakes or • Exposed to Natural Hazards
other powerful forces of nature like floods and
super typhoons, many people have to abandon
their homes and seek shelter in other regions.
Health and Food
• One consequence of disaster is the threat to the
population’s health. Many consequences of a
disaster such as the following contribute to the
degradation of the population’s health.
 Exposed to Man-made Hazards
• presence of stagnant water
• lack of clean water
• lack of food

DISASTER FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
PHYSICAL PERSPECTIVE
- From this view disaster is defined as a
phenomenon that can cause damage to physical
elements such as buildings, infrastructures,
including people and their properties, e.g. houses
and environmental sources of living.
- Assessment of Disaster is focused on the following
common questions:
- How many families are affected?( displacement,
injury, death)
- How many houses are damaged or washed out?(in
case of super typhoons)
- How many buildings collapsed or are damaged? (in
case of an earthquake)
- What is the extent of damage in agricultural
SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
industry? ( crop losses, damaged fish cages,
washed out rice fields, etc.)
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Psychological research has shown that disaster can
cause serious mental health consequences for victims.
These consequences take the form of Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder and a variety of other disorders and
symptoms which have been less investigated.
One very important component of the recovery phase,
aside from relief services, is debriefing or psychological
support system
Other psychological effects of a disaster are the
following: (ECPI)
 Emotional Effects: Shock, terror, irritability, blame,
anger, guilt, grief or sadness, numbing,
helplessness, loss of pleasure derived from
familiar activities, difficulty feeling happy, difficulty
feeling loved.
 Cognitive Effects: Impaired concentration,
impaired decision-making ability, memory
impairment, disbelief, confusion, nightmares,
decreased self-esteem, decrease self-efficacy, self-
blame, intrusive thoughts, memories, dissociation
 Physical Effects: Fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia,
cardiovascular strain, startle response, headaches,
gastrointestinal upset, decreased appetite,
decreased libido, vulnerability to illness.
 Interpersonal effects: Increased relational conflict,
social withdrawal, reduced relational intimacy,
alienation, impaired work performance, decreased
satisfaction, distrust, externalization of blame,
externalization of vulnerability, and feeling
abandoned.
 People’s socio-cultural background may affect
their response to disaster at the different stages of
disaster management.
 A disaster is analyzed based on how people
respond having as parameter their social
conditions and cultural settings.
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE
 The disaster can be defined as a natural event that
causes a perturbation to the functioning of the
economic system, with a significant negative
impact on assets, production factors, output,
employment and consumption.
 One salient component of assessing the impact of
disaster from this view is defining direct economic
cost and indirect losses.
 Direct economic cost is the value of what has been
damaged or destroyed by the disaster.
POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Politics are deeply wedded to both the impact of
the natural disaster and the subsequent delivery
of humanitarian assistance.
• Political considerations before, during, and after a
natural disaster can determine who is most at risk,
who can intervene, what actions will be taken, and
who will benefit from those actions
Government interventions should be present in the
following phases of Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management:
• Prevention
• Mitigation
• Preparedness, and
• Recovery
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
 The disturbing effects caused by a prevalent kind
of disease or virus in an epidemic or pandemic
level is known as biological disaster.
 a. Epidemic Level: Biological disaster affects
large numbers of people within a given
community or area. Ex: Dengue.
b. Pandemic Level: Biological disaster affects a
much large region, sometimes spanning
entire continents or the globe ex. COVID-19
 Biological disasters can wipe out an entire
population at a short span of time.
Effects of Biological Disasters
 loss of lives
 public demobilization
 negative economic
effect
 unemployment
 hunger
Exposure and Vulnerability
❖The severity of the impacts of disasters and other
extreme weather climate events depends strongly on the
level of vulnerability and exposure to these events.
❖Understanding the multi-faceted nature of vulnerability
and exposure is a prerequisite for determining how natural
hazards and climate events contribute to the occurrence of
disasters, and for designing and implementing effective
adaptation and disaster risk management strategies
ELEMENTS EXPOSED TO HAZARD
Exposure refers to the ‘elements at risk’ from a natural or
man-made hazard event. Elements at risk include:
1. human beings;
2. dwelling or households and communities;
3. buildings and structures;
4. public facilities and infrastructure assets
5. public and transport system;
6. agricultural commodities; and
7. environmental assets
8. economic activities (intangible element)
What is vulnerability?
Vulnerability is defined as “the characteristics and
circumstances of a community, system or asset that make
it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard”
Vulnerability to Specific Hazards
There are many aspects of vulnerability, arising from
various physical, social, economic, and environmental
factors. Examples may include:
• poor design and construction of buildings;
•inadequate protection of assets;
•lack of public information and awareness;
•limited official recognition of risks and preparedness
measures; and
• disregard for wise environmental management.
FOUR MAIN TYPES OF VULNERABILITY
(UNISDR)
1. Physical vulnerability may be determined by
aspects such as population density levels,
remoteness of a settlement, the site, design and
materials used for critical infrastructure and for
housing.
2. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people,
organizations and societies to withstand adverse
impacts to hazards due to characteristics inherent in
social interactions, institutions and systems of cultural
values.
3. Economic vulnerability. The level of vulnerability is
highly dependent upon the economic status of
individuals, communities and nations.
4. Environmental vulnerability. Natural resource
depletion and resource degradation are key aspects of
environmental vulnerability. This is one aspect that
both communities and government must be sensitive
about.
Basic Concept of Hazard
•One important key to safety is understanding a
particular incident or phenomenon that may affect
people’s life.
• An ordinary incident or natural phenomenon may
turn into a hazard once it becomes active and poses
harm or danger to life and property
• This is the basic concept of hazard everyone should
be aware of.
DEFINITIONS OF HAZARDS
• Hazards are “those elements of physical
environment, harmful to man and caused by forces
extraneous to him.” (Burton et al 1978)
• A source of potential harm or a situation with a
potential to cause loss. (Standards Australia 2000)
• A natural event that has the potential to cause harm
or loss. (Asian Disaster Preparedness Center)
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF HAZARDS
1. Natural hazards such as earthquakes and floods • Floods – river and coastal area • Death of people
arise from purely natural processes in the
• Wave action • Destruction and loss of vital infrastructure like
environment.
•Drought transportation system, communication lines
2. Quasi-natural hazards such as smog or
desertification that arise through the interaction of • Rapid glacier advance • Widespread loss of housing
natural processes and human activities
3. Geologic Psychological impact
3. Technological or human-made hazards such as the
• Mass movement • PTSD
toxicity of pesticides to agricultural lands, accidental
leaks of chemicals from chemical laboratories or • Landslide  Depression
radiation from a nuclear plant.
• Mudslide • Marital conflict
• Avalanches • Chronic anxiety
TYPES OF HAZARDS HEWITT AND BURTON
• Earthquake
(1971) PROVIDED A TYPOLOGY OF HAZARDS
AS FOLLOWS: • Volcanic Eruption Socio-cultural impact
1. Atmospheric (Single Element) • Rapid sediment movement • Displacement of population
4. Biologic • Loss of cultural identity
• Excess rainfall
• Epidemic in humans • Forced adoption of new sets of culture
• Freezing rain (glaze)
• Epidemic in plants • Ethnic conflict
• Hail
• Epidemic in animals Economic impact
• Heavy snowfalls
• Locusts • Loss of job due to displacement
• High wind speed
5. Technologic • Loss of harvest and livestock
• Extreme temperature
• Transportation accident • Loss of farms, fish cages, and other sources of living
Atmospheric (Combined Elements/Events)
•Industrial explosions and fire • Disturbance of biodiversity
•Hurricanes
• Accidental release of toxic elements • Loss of natural rivers and other tributaries
•‘Glaze storm’
• Nuclear accidents Biological impact
• Thunderstorms
• Collapse of public buildings • Epidemic to people, flora and fauna
• Blizzards
• Cyber terrorism • Chronic and permanent illnesses due to nuclear radiation
• Tornadoes

•Heat/Cold Stress IMPACTS OF VARIOUS HAZARDS ON • Mental disorder developed from consumption of
DIFFERENT EXPOSED ELEMENTS contaminated foods
2. Hydrologic
Physical impact • Disturbance of biodiversity
• Proliferation of different viral and bacterial diseases