Disaster Management:

Hazard Mapping, Disaster Management Cycle

Reporter: Dunevy D. Daluran

DISASTER is a serious disruption of the functioning of the community or society involving
widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts which exceeds the
ability of the affected community or society to cope up using its own resources [Sec. 3 (h), R.A.
10121]. It occurs when hazard interacts with an exposed vulnerable element.

TWO TYPES OF DISASTER:

1. NATURAL DISASTER - results from naturally occurring events brought by the dynamics of
natural forces such as floods, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, heat wave,
or landslide.
2. MAN-MADE DISASTER – influenced by human activities or sometimes inactivity; they usually
occur as a result of human negligence, anti-social intentions, unresponsiveness and apathy,
and human error among other factors.
Magnitude of the impact of disaster to
an affected community is great that it
OTHER FACTORS HAVE ALSO BEEN FOUND TO
overwhelms the capacity of victims
PREDICT WORSE OUTCOMES:
and disables their coping mechanisms.
• Loss of lives and properties
IMPACTS OF DISASTER:
• Injuries
• Destruction of communities like
• Outbreak of diseases
burying a village in a landslide
• Loss of service
• Wiping out livelihood
• Environmental degradation
• Killing villagers in a flood
• Trauma and other psychological disorders
ANOTHER DEFINITION OF DISASTER
 a phenomenon that occurs at the intersection between social activities and natural
phenomena of unusual scale (Udono, Toshiaki, 2002)

 The probability that hazard interacts with vulnerability, thus resulting into adverse
consequences is called “risk”.

 RISK is the consequences of events triggered by hazards as earthquakes, volcanic

eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, floods and drought (Brookings-Bern Project on
International Development, 2008). It is the probability that loss results when hazard
occurs
Figure 1 shows how disaster occurs. When hazard
interacts with the vulnerability of a community,
disaster occurs. Flood as a phenomenon is a hazard
that does not result into a disaster if it does not
occur in a populated area where losses of life and
property could happen. So hazard separate from
vulnerability does not create disaster. The region
where vulnerability meets hazard is where risk
arises. Risk is the combination of the probability of
the occurrence of an event and its negative
consequences. When the event (i.e. earthquake,
landslide, mudflows, etc.) occurs in an unprepared
community, disaster happens.
Risk may be expressed as the product of hazard, vulnerability and exposure:

Risk= Hazard x Exposure x Vulnerability

 EARTHQUAKE HAZARDS

EARTHQUAKE (also known as quake, tremor or temblor) is the perceptible shaking of the
surface of Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates
seismic waves.

POTENTIAL EARTHQUAKE HAZARDS

The following are different hazards that normally, result from the occurrence of an earthquake:

1. Ground Shaking or Ground Motion

2. Ground or Surface Rupture
3. Liquefaction
4. Earthquake-induced ground subsidence and lateral spreading
5. Tsunami
6. Earthquake-induced landslide
 VOLCANIC HAZARDS

VOLCANOES can be exciting and fascinating because of their natural formation, but they can
also be very dangerous.

VARIOUS VOLCANOES-RELATED HAZARDS

• LAHARS are a specific kind of mudflow made up of volcanic debris
• ASH FALL volcanic ash consists of fragments of pulverized rock, minerals and volcanic gas,
created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter.
• PYROCLASTIC FLOWS contain a highly density mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash and volcanic
gas.
• VOLCANIC GASSES magma contains dissolved gasses, which provide the driving force that
causes most volcanic eruptions.
• BALLISTIC PROJECTILES volcanic eruption can propel rock fragments on ballistic trajectories
that may differ from the wind direction. Those are known ballistic projectiles.
 BASIC CONCEPT OF HAZARD
DEFINITION OF HAZARD

Hazard could be a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition that

may lead to the loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihood
and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damages [Sec. 3(v), RA 10121].
Hazard could be natural like typhoons and droughts and it could be man-made like industrial
accidents and fire. Man-made could be unintentional like a fire caused by faulty wiring or
intentional like a fire cased by bombing or by an arson.
 GENERAL QUALIFICATION OF HAZARDS

There are many different ways of classifying hazards. One is to consider the extend to which
hazards are natural.

1. NATURAL HAZARDS such as earthquakes or floods arise from purely natural processes in the
environment.
2. QUASI-NATURAL HAZARDS such as smog or desertification of natural processes and human
activities.
3. TECHNOLOGICAL (OR HUMAN-MADE) HAZARDS such as the toxicity of pesticides to
agricultural (lands, accidental lands, accidental leaks of chemical from chemical
laboratories/radiation from nuclear plant).
 TYPES OF HAZARDS

Hewitt and Burton (1971) provided by typology of hazard as follows:

I. ATMOSPHERIC (single element) (combined element/events)

• Excess Rainfall • Hurricanes
• Freezing Rain • Glaze Storms
• Hail • Thunderstorms
• Heavy Snow Falls • Blizzards
• High Wind Speeds • Tornadoes
• Extreme Temperature • Heat/cold spells
II. HYDROLOGIC
• Floods-river and Coastal Area
• Wave Action
• Drought IV. BIOLOGIC
• Rapid Glacier Advance • Epidemic in humans
• Epidemic in plants
III. GEOLOGIC • Epidemic in animals
• Mass Movement • Locusts
Landslide
Mudslide V. TECHNOLOGIC
Avalanches • Transportation accident
• Earthquakes • Industrial explosion and fire
• Volcanic Eruption • Accidental release of toxic elements
• Rapid Sediment Movement
 CLASSIFICATION OF HAZARD (ADPC, 2009)

1. BIOLOGICAL HAZARD: process or phenomenon of organic origin or conveyed by biological

vectors and may cause illness, death, environmental damage, loss of livelihood and services.
(Examples: outbreak of epidemic diseases, plant or animal contagion, insect or animal
plagues or infestation)

2. GEOLOGICAL HAZARD: geological process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury
or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihood and services, social and
economic disruption, or environmental damage. (Examples: earthquakes, volcanic activity,
mass movements, landslides, rockslides, surface collapse, debris or mudflows).
3. HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL HAZARDS: process or phenomenon of atmospheric,
hydrological, or oceanographic nature that may cause loss of life, injury or other health
impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption,
or environmental damage. (Examples: typhoons, hurricanes, thunderstorm, hailstorm,
tornado, blizzards, heavy snowfall, avalanche, coastal storm surges, floods, droughts, heat
waves, and cold spells).

4. SOCIO-NATURAL HAZARDS: the phenomenon of increased occurrence of certain

geophysical and hydro-meteorological hazard events, such as landslide, flooding, land
subsidence and drought, that arise from the interaction of natural hazards with
overexploited or degraded land and environment resources. In socio-natural hazards,
human activities tend to increase the occurrence of certain hazards beyond their natural
probabilities. (Examples: the destruction of mangroves by human activities could lead to
more severe impacts of storm surges, erosion or degradation of coastal regions. Likewise,
destruction of wetlands and converting them into subdivisions eliminates natural
catchments leading to severe flooding during rainy seasons).
5. TECHNOLOGICAL HAZARDS: a hazard originating from technological or industrial conditions,
including accidents, dangerous procedure, infrastructure failures or specific human activities,
that may cause loss of life, injury, illness or other health impacts, property damage, loss of
livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.
(Examples: industrial pollution, nuclear radiation, toxic wastes, dam failures, transport
accidents, factory explosions, fires and chemical spills. It could also arise directly as a
consequence of the occurrence of natural hazards like nuclear radiation from damaged
nuclear reactors caused by a tsunami or earthquake).
 VULNERABILITY

DEFINITION OF VULNERABILITY

Vulnerability refers to the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or

asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of the occurrence of hazard (ADPC,
2009). Vulnerability may arise from physical, social, economic, and environmental factors
such as poor design and construction of buildings, inadequate protection of assets, lack of
public information and awareness, limited official recognition of risks and preparedness
measures, weak implementation of policies, and disregard of wise environmental
management. Vulnerability is a characteristic which is independent form exposure to
hazards. The combination of exposure and vulnerability could result to a disaster.
 FACTORS THAT ARE CONTRIBUTORY TO VULNERABILITY ARE CATEGORIZED AS
FOLLOWS

1. GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS: Examples: physiological characteristics of coasts like slope,

elevation, and shoreline feature; being located within the ring of fire, geographic isolation.

2. CLIMATIC FACTORS: Examples: increase or drop in temperature which could affect the elderly
and the sickly, drought.

3. SOCIAL FACTORS: Examples: rapid urbanization, social unrest, political instability, population
density, gender, age, literacy, education, insurance, health.
4. ECONOMIC FACTORS: Examples: poverty, livelihood, property, vehicles, ad communication
system.

5. PHYSICAL FACTORS: Examples: house, road, bridges, cyclone shelters, transport and
communication system.

6. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: Examples: environmental degradation, access to and availability

of natural resources, quality of ecosystem services, desertification, siltation

7. DEVELOPMENT-RELATED FACTORS: Examples: type of development activity, location, process

followed.