ai

• Elements that may be exposed to hazards:

  • Physical elements such as roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure in areas prone to flooding, landslides, or erosion
  • Social elements such as people, communities, and institutions
  • Economic elements such as businesses, industries, and financial systems
  • Environmental elements such as forests and natural areas in areas prone to landslides or flooding
• Vulnerability:

  • The characteristics and circumstances of a community, system, or asset that makes it susceptible to the damaging effects of hazards
  • Vulnerability arises from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors
  • Zero vulnerability can prevent a disaster even in the face of a super typhoon hitting a highly populated area
• Factors of vulnerability:

  • Physical vulnerability includes people with disabilities, children, seniors, medication-dependent individuals, and women
  • Social vulnerability includes ethnic minorities, aboriginal or indigenous people, homeless or street people, incarcerated individuals, and marginalized groups
  • Economic vulnerability is highly dependent on the economic status of individuals, communities, and nations
  • Environmental vulnerability includes natural resources depletion, rapid urbanization in hazardous areas, and increasing informal settlers
• Vulnerable sectors:

  1. Agriculture and Food sector in the Philippines highly dependent on a constant water supply and unpredictable growing seasons

  2. Watersheds: Forestry, Biodiversity, and Water resources in major river basins in the Philippines

  3. Coastal and Marine Resources in the Philippines

  4. Human Health with infectious diseases that are climate-sensitive
• Philippine vulnerabilities to natural disasters:

  • Philippines placed third out of 173 countries assessed for exposure to hazards
  • 8 out of 10 cities most exposed to natural hazards are in the Philippines
  • Reasons for high vulnerability in the Philippines include frequent typhoons, rugged landscape prone to landslides, long shoreline vulnerable to storm surges, primary agricultural and fishing economy, poor institutional and social capacity to manage disasters, high poverty levels, and risks of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and floods
• Developing countries more vulnerable to natural disasters due to poorly constructed buildings, poor sanitation, rapid population growth/high density population, limited resources for disaster response and rebuilding, and lack of economic safety nets
• Quantifying vulnerability:

  • Used to estimate mitigation and preparedness measures
  • Expressed as a ratio of casualties/injured to the total population for people and as repair cost or degree of damage for buildings
• Effects of disaster:

  • Medical effects include traumatic injuries, emotional stress, epidemic stress, and indigenous diseases
  • Damage to critical facilities like communication installations, hospitals, and water facilities
  • Disruption of transportation due to broken bridges and impassable roads
  • Economic impact from destruction of critical facilities disrupting economies
  • Global environmental changes leading to more hazards like wildfires and mudslides
  • Social and political impacts affecting developing countries the most
• Human factors and the severity of natural disasters:

  • Wealth, education, governance, gender, age, and technology all influence vulnerability and the severity of natural disasters
• Human effect of natural & man-made disaster:

  • Displaced populations, health risks, food scarcity, emotional aftershocks
  • Primary effects are the direct results of the disaster
  • Secondary effects result from primary effects
  • Tertiary effects are the long-term effects of natural disasters