Basic Concept of Disaster and Disaster Risk
 Capacity refers to the combination of all
What is disaster?
 A disaster occurs if there is a serious disruption
of the functioning of a community because of a
widespread destruction. Disaster can be also be
defined in terms of loss.
Two Types of Disaster:
1. Natural Phenomenon - is an observable event
which naturally happens around us.
2. Man-made - are activities carried out by man.
 Loss; is greater than; community resources -
disaster
What is Disaster Risk?
 Disaster Risk is the product of the possible
damage caused by a hazard due to the
vulnerability within a community.
 There are three factors that may increase or
decrease disaster risk or your chances of
suffering from a disaster:
1. exposure to hazard,
2. vulnerability, and
3. capacity to cope.
What is a Hazard?
 Hazards are things or events around us that can
cause harm or damage to humans, property or
the environment.
What is Exposure?
 Exposure refers to people, property, systems or
other elements present in the hazard zones.
What is a Vulnerability?
 Vulnerability refers to the characteristics and
circumstances of a community, system or asset
that increases the chances of suffering from a
disaster.
What is a capacity?
strengths, attributes and resources available
within a community or organization that can be
used to handle a bad situation or a disaster.
What is Risk Factors?
 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.
Risk 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.
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.
3. Globalized Economic Development – It
results in an increased polarization between
the rich and poor on a global scale.
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
5. Poorly planned and Managed Urban
Development -A new wave or urbanization is
unfolding in hazard-exposed countries and
with it, new opportunities for resilient
investment emerge.
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.
7. Geographical Location -The Philippines is
one of the most vulnerable countries in the
world to natural disasters.
 Effects of Disasters on one’s life
The common effects of disasters on one’s life
are the following:
1. Displaced Populations
 One of the most immediate effects of
natural disasters is population displacement.
 When countries are ravaged by earthquake
or other powerful forces of nature, many
people need to abandon their homes and
seek shelter in other regions.
 A large influx of refugees can disrupt
accessibility of health care and education,
as well as food supplies and clean water.
2. Health Risks
 Severe flooding can result in stagnant
water that allows breeding of waterborne
bacteria and malaria carrying mosquitoes.
 Injuries and death can be attributed
directly to volcanic eruption, earthquakes,
tsunamis, and the like.
 Cholera and other communicable diseases
outbreak, usually occur as a disaster
aftermath.
3. Food Scarcity
 Flooding in agricultural land and even
drought would result to damage crops which
eventually cause thousands to be hungry.
4. Emotional aftershocks or stress reactions
 Vulnerable members of the community such
as the children, the sick, the elderly, the
disabled, and the like would experience
trauma over what they had witnessed.
/ Great damage caused by a disaster can be
reduced if everyone will take responsibility in
anticipating its effects. Here are some ways on how
to plan ahead of a disaster.
1. Check for hazards at home.
2. Identify safe place indoors and outdoors
3. Educate yourself and family members
4. Have Disaster kits/supplies on hand.
5. Develop an emergency communication plan.
6. Help your community get ready.
7. Practice the Disaster Preparedness Cycle
Disasters from Different Perspectives
1. Physical Perspective. This refers to the great
physical damage in a community’s infrastructure, its
people, and their properties.
 This may affect agricultural productivity
and even lead to life and damage to
property.
 The following pictures are some of the
physical effects of a disaster.
2. Psychological Perspective. This refers to the
serious mental health conditions that may be
suffered by victims of disaster. This is called Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
 Victims would be in a state of shock. They
tend to deny the loss and try to escape
from reality.
Psychological Effects of a disaster:
 distress
 hopelessness
 intrusion/avoidance
 emotional effects
 hatred/revenge
 cognitive effects
 lack of trust
3. Socio-cultural Perspective. This refers to how a
certain culture or group of people looks at a
disaster.
 The pandemic showcases “katatagan”
(resiliency) among Filipinos, like those who
lost their jobs, shifted to online selling and
other marketing strategies.
 Socio-cultural effects of disasters:
 change in individual roles; and
 disruption of social relationships and
personal connections.
4. Economic Perspective. This refers to the impact
of the disaster on the economic condition of a
community.
 Disaster affects the economic condition of
a community because they reduce local and
international trade.
 Economic effects of disaster:
 loss of life
 unemployment
 loss of property
 loss of crops
5. Political Perspective. This refers to how the
political system of the country sees the impact of
the disaster.
 Disaster can have major consequences for
political stability and governance legitimacy.
 Political effects of a disaster:
  People’s doubt on the government’s
credibility (Johnson, 1999); Effects of Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability to
 Low level of trust on public Disaster Risks
institutions (McCaffey, 2004); and
 Due to the loss of confidence on  Hazard are things or events around us that can
those in authority, people take cause harm or damage to humans, property or
measures on their own. the environment.
6. Biological Perspective. This refers to how a  Exposure is the presence of elements at
community is affected by a disaster, either risk or chance of being harmed from a
epidemic level or pandemic level. natural or man-made hazard event.
 Epidemic level. A sudden outbreak of a  Vulnerability refers to the characteristics and
circumstances of a community, system or asset
disease in a certain geographical area. e.g.
that increases the chances of suffering from a
dengue
disaster.
 Pandemic level. An outbreak of a disease
 Risk. Implies the probability of possible
that has spread across countries or
adverse effects.
continents. e.g. Swine flu, COVID-19
 Disaster. Is a serious disruption to the
 Effects of Biological disaster:
functioning of a community or society which
 loss of life
causes widespread human, material,
 unemployment
economic or environmental losses that
 loss of property
exceed the capacity of the community or
 loss of crops
society concerned to cope with the use of
their own resources.
Vulnerability is a state of being at risk.
 Disaster Risk. Is there for considered as
1. Situation Specific. This means that if a
the combination of the severity and
specific province is prone to earthquake, it
frequency of a hazard, the numbers of
does not mean that all localities on that
people and assets exposed to the hazard,
province is vulnerable to it.
and their vulnerability to damage.
2. Hazard Specific. A community that is
vulnerable to earthquake hazard does not
necessarily mean that it is also vulnerable to
typhoons.

Types of Vulnerability:
1. Physical Vulnerability
Disaster risk has many characteristics. In order
2. Social Vulnerability
to understand disaster risk, it is essential to
3. Economic Vulnerability
understand that it is:
4. Environmental Vulnerability
 Forward looking: The likelihood of loss of
life, destruction and damage in a given
Vulnerability relates to a number of factors,
period of time.
including;
 Dynamic: it can increase or decrease
1. Physical Factors
according to our ability to reduce
2. Social Factors
vulnerability
3. Economic Factors
 Invisible: it is comprised of not only the
4. Environmental Factors
threat of high-impact events, but also the
frequent, low-impact events that are often
hidden.
 Unevenly distributed around the earth:
hazards affect different areas, but the
pattern of disaster risk reflects the social
construction of exposure and vulnerability in
different countries.
 Emergent and complex: many processes,
including climate change and globalized
 economic development, are creating new, Table 1. Man-Made Hazard Signs and Symbols
interconnected risks.

How can we lessen Disaster Risk?

 Mitigation is the action of reducing
something's severity, seriousness, or
painfulness.
 Disaster mitigation measures are those
that eliminate or reduce the impacts and
risks of hazards by means of proactive
measures taken before an emergency or
disaster takes place.

Table 2. Natural hazards and Symbols

Hazards and their Different Types

What is Hazard?
Hazard is any source that can cause harm or
damage to humans, property or the
Environment.

Table 3. Quasi-Natural Signs and Symbols

Different types of Hazard and Its Examples:
1. Natural Hazards. They arise from natural
processes in the environment natural.
 Geologic Hazards. A geologic hazard is an
adverse geologic condition capable of
causing damage or loss of property or life.
 Atmospheric Hazards. These a real so
natural hazards but processes operating in
the atmosphere are mainly responsible.
 Other Natural Hazards. These are hazards
that may occur naturally, but do not fall into Types of Hazards Impact
either of the categories above. 1. Physical Impact
2. Quasi-Natural Hazard. It arises through the 2. Psychological Impact
interaction of natural processes and human 3. Socio-cultural Impact
activities. 4. Environmental Impact
3. Technological or (man -made) Hazards. These 5. Economic Impact
arise directly because of human activities. 6. Biological Impact
 EARTHQUAKES: Earthquake Hazard Maps
HAZARDS and RISKS
What are Hazard Maps?
What is an Earthquake?  Hazard Maps are maps that highlight areas
 Earthquakes are the perceptible shakings that are affected by or are vulnerable to
of the surface of the Earth resulting from particular hazard.
the sudden release of energy in the Earth’s
crust that creates seismic waves. Magnitude Versus Intensity
 Magnitude of an earthquake refers to the
What are the various potential earthquake amount of energy released, measured by the
hazards? amount of ground displacement or shaking.
 Earthquake hazard is anything associated  Intensity is the strength of an earthquake
with an earthquake that may affect the as perceived and felt by people, objects,
normal activities of people. environment and structures in the
surroundings.
1. Ground Shaking
 It is used to describe the vibration of the
ground during an earthquake that is caused
by the body and surface waves.
2. Ground Rupture
 It is a visible breaking, fissuring and
displacement of the Earth’s surface due to
the earthquake’s push and pull movement of
the ground that resulted to the tearing and
pushing the ground apart and upward along
the trace of the fault.
3. Liquefaction
 It is a phenomenon that occurs due
earthquake motion, vibrations or water
pressure within the mass of soil that cause
its strength and stiffness to reduced
turning loosely packed water -saturated soil
particles that lose contact with one another
and turns to liquify form.
4. Earthquake – Induced Ground Subsidence
 It occurs in various ways during earthquake
like sinking, settling, downward displacement
of rocks, sediments, and other ground
surface materials.
5. Tsunami
 It is also known as a seismic wave, in which
there is a series a huge sea wave triggered
by a violent displacement of the ocean floor
caused by underwater earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions or landslides.
6. Earthquake – Induced Landslide
 It happens when an earthquake occurs in
which there is a transmission of ground
seismic wave that can cause shaking and
vibration ground surface that triggers the
collapse of potential landslide in areas with
steep slopes.

Parts of Earthquake Hazard Map
1.Title. Every map needs a title. The title indicates
the theme of the map, explaining what
represented in the image you see.
2.Data Frame. Is the portion of the map that
displays the data layers. This section is the
most important and central focus of the
map document.
3.Map Scale. Explains the relationships of the data
frame extent to the real world. This can be
shown either as a unit to unit or as one
measurement to another measurement.
4.Legend. Serves as the decoder for the symbology
in the data frame. Therefore, it is also
commonly known as the key.
5.Citation. The citation portion of a map
constitutes the metadata of the map. This
is the area where explanatory data about
the data sources and currency, projection
information any caveats are placed.
6.Inset Map. Is a smaller map featured on the
same page as the main map. It is used as a
locator map that shows the area of the main
map in a broader, more familiar geographical
frame of reference.
3. Pyroclastic Flows and surges – are turbulent
mass of ejected fragmented volcanic
material.
4. Lahar – is a destructive mudflow on the slope of
a volcano.
5. Volcanic Gases – These are gases and aerosols
released into the atmosphere, which include
water vaper, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur,
carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride,
hydrogen fluoride.
6. Debris Avalanche or Volcanic Landslide – is a
massive collapse of a volcano, usually
triggered by an earthquake or volcanic
eruption.
7. Ballistic Projectiles – are volcanic materials
directly ejected from the volcano’s vent
with force and trajectory.
8. Tsunami – are sea waves or wave trains that
generated by sudden displacement of water
(could be generated during undersea
eruptions or debris avalanche).

Different Types of Volcanic Hazards

What are Volcanic Hazards?

 Volcanic Hazards are phenomena
arisingfromcolcanicactivitythatposepotentia
lthreattopersonsorpropertyinagivenareawith
ina given period of time.

Volcanic Hazards and their Impacts

1. Lava Flows – stream-like flows of incandescent
molted rock erupted from a crater or
fissure.
2. Ashfall or Tephra Fall – are showers of
airborne fine-to-coarse-grained volcanic
particles that fallout from the plumes of a
volcanic eruption.