Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction

    Subdecks (1)

    Cards (125)

    • Disaster
      A sudden, calamitous event, bringing great damage loss, destruction and devastation to life and property
    • Disaster risk
      Likelihood of loss of life, injury or destruction and damage from a disaster in a given period of time
    • Components of disaster risk
      • Probability
      • Severity
    • Hazard
      A process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation
    • Classification schemes for hazards
      • Biological hazards
      • Environmental hazards
      • Geological or geophysical hazards
      • Hydrometeorological hazards
      • Technological hazards
    • Vulnerability
      Inability to resist a hazard or to respond when a disaster has occurred
    • Exposure
      Situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production capacities and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas
    • Natural hazard
      Threat of an event that will likely have a negative impact
    • Natural disaster
      Negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community
    • Anthropogenic hazard (human-induced hazard)

      Induced entirely or predominantly by human activities and choices
    • Human-made disaster

      Has an element of human intent, negligence, or error involving a failure of a man-made system
    • Examples of anthropogenic hazards/human-made disasters
      • Hazardous materials
      • Power service disruption and blackout
      • Nuclear power plant and nuclear blasts
      • Radiological emergencies
      • Biochemical weapons
      • Cyber attacks
      • Explosions
      • Civil unrest
    • Severity of exposure
      • High risk - those that go through the disaster themselves, direct contact
      • Medium risk - those in close contact with victims
      • Low risk - those who only had indirect exposure
    • Gender and family
      • Greater stress to female members than male
      • Disaster recovery is stressful when children are present, women have spouses, family members are extremely distressed, and family members lack support
    • Age
      • Adults aged 40-60 likely to be more distressed after disasters
      • Children show more severe distress after disasters
      • High stress in parents in lieu of disaster recovery
    • Other factors specific to the survivor
      • Were not functioning well before the disaster
      • Have had no experience dealing with disasters
      • Must deal with other stressors after the disaster
      • Have poor self-esteem
      • Think they are uncared for by others
      • Think they have little control over what happens to them
      • Lack the capacity to manage stress
    • Other factors predicting worse outcomes
      • Bereavement (death of someone close)
      • Injury to self or another family member
      • Life threat
      • Panic, horror, or feelings like that during the disaster
      • Being separated from family (especially among youth)
      • Great loss of property
      • Displacement (being forced to leave home)
    • Developing countries
      • Severe mental health impacts after disasters
    • Low or negative social support
      • Social support can weaken after disasters
      • Social support will focus on immediate family members
      • Social support will take time depending on the aftermath of the disaster
    • Displaced populations
      • Large influx of refugees can deplete basic resources of a certain area: food and water supplies, healthcare, transient housing, education, other basic services
    • Healthcare risks
      • Water-borne diseases, water-related illness
      • Virus infection
    • Food scarcity
      • Destroyed crops
      • Damaged warehouse
    • Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) Nov. 2013
      • Strength (290 kph)
      • Eastern Visayas were not prepared for such magnitude
      • Storm surge reached most of Tacloban City - no natural barriers, mangroves were depleted, removed
    • Areas/locations exposed to natural hazards
      • Coastal areas - storm surge, tsunami or tidal waves
      • Reclaimed areas - flooding, sinkhole
      • Near fault lines - earthquake
      • On foot of denuded mountains - mudslide/landslide
      • Near volcanoes (danger zones) - volcanic eruption-pyroclastic materials, lahar, lava flow
      • River banks - flooding, flash floods
      • Open fields - thunderstorms, hailstorm, typhoons, forest/grass fires
    • Areas/locations exposed to man-made hazards
      • Near oil depots - oil spill, pollution
      • Near mining projects - toxic wastes, landslides
      • Near chemical plants - chemical waste, pollution
      • Near nuclear power plants - nuclear waste, exposure to high levels of radiation
      • Near factories - factory waste, pollution
      • Unsafe building structures - fire, structure collapse
      • Public places - crimes, acts of terrorism
    • Disaster from different perspectives
      • Physical perspective (physical damages)
      • Psychological perspective
      • Socio-cultural perspective
      • Economic perspective
      • Political perspective
    • Physical perspective
      • How many families affected-displaced, injury, deaths?
      • How many damaged, collapsed houses, building, infrastructures?
      • Damage extent e.g. agriculture, other resources?
    • Psychological perspective
      • Emotional effects - shock, blame, anger guilt, grief, sadness, helplessness
      • Cognitive effects - impaired concentration and decision-making ability
      • Physical effects - fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, decreased appetite
      • Interpersonal effects - social withdrawal, distrust, decreased satisfaction
    • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

      Disorder that develops when a person has experienced or witnessed a scary, shocking, terrifying, or dangerous event
    • Socio-cultural perspective
      • Social conditions - age, gender, wealth, ethnicity
      • Cultural settings - language, beliefs, traditions, customs
      • Communities may have different priorities and notions of natural hazards and risks, affecting their response
    • Economic perspective
      • Direct economic cost - negative impacts on assets, production factors, output, employment
      • Indirect economic cost - breadwinner loses a job due to isolation and/or the workplace is affected
    • Political perspective
      • Politics are deeply wedded to both the impact of a natural disaster and subsequent delivery of humanitarian assistance
      • Political considerations - who is most at risk, who can intervene, what actions will be taken, who will benefit
    • Disaster
      A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts
    • Disaster risk
      The potential loss of life, injury, or destroyed or damaged assets which could occur to a system, society or a community in a specific period of time, determined probabilistically as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity
    • Perspectives on disaster
      • Socio-cultural
      • Economic
      • Political
      • Environmental
    • Socio-cultural perspective
      • Considers social conditions (age, gender, wealth, ethnicity) and cultural settings (language, beliefs, traditions, customs) that affect response to natural hazards and disasters
    • Economic perspective

      • Considers direct economic costs (negative impacts on assets, production factors, output, employment) and indirect economic costs (e.g. breadwinner loses job due to isolation or workplace affected)
    • Political perspective
      • Considers who is most at risk, who can intervene, what actions will be taken, and who will benefit from these actions
    • Environmental perspective
      • Considers wider in scale and ambition than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), consisting of 17 goals, 169 targets and 231 unique indicators to monitor progress, and covering every country in the world
    • Exposure
      The people, property, systems, or other elements present in hazard zones that are thereby subject to potential losses