This document discusses vulnerability in disasters. It defines vulnerability as the characteristics and circumstances that make a community, system, or asset susceptible to harm from hazards. Factors that affect vulnerability include population density near hazards, and a community's capacity to reduce disaster risk. There are different types of vulnerabilities - physical, social, economic, and environmental. The document then discusses how to recognize vulnerabilities to specific hazards for different elements. It provides examples of physical, social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities. The document also discusses hazards, exposures, and vulnerabilities in actual situations.

1. Vulnerability in
Disaster
Prepared by : Ma’am Ronna Mae F. Farinas

2. Vulnerability
Describes the characteristics and
circumstances of a community,
system or asset that make it
susceptible to damaging effects of
the hazard.

3. Factors affecting
vulnerability of
one’s community

4. 1. Population density near a hazard event.
 Population differs from population density.
 Population refers to the number of
individuals inhabiting in a particular space
at the same time.
 Population density refers to the number of
individuals living in an area in relation to the
size of an area.

5. 2. Capacity and efficiency to reduce Disaster
Risk
Community that is less vulnerable has the capacity
to reduce disaster risk because;
1. It can provide accessibility and availability of
services and facilities during and after disaster.
2. It has the ability to anticipate, adapt, and
respond to possible disaster.

6. Recognize
Vulnerabilities of
Different Elements
Exposed to Specific
Hazards.

7. 1. Physical Vulnerability
Physical vulnerability includes
population density levels, place of a
settlement, the site design, and materials
used for infrastructure and housing. When
hazardous events occur, normally physical
elements are severely damaged.

8. 2. Social Vulnerability
Social vulnerability happens due to
inability of people, organization, and
societies to prevent severe effects from
hazards because of the expected behavior
in social interactions, institutions, and
system of cultural values.

9. 3. Economic Vulnerability
Level of economic vulnerability is based on the
economic status of individuals, communities, and
nations.
Social and economic vulnerability can be combined also
known as socioeconomic vulnerability.

10. 4. Environmental Vulnerability
Environmental vulnerability is caused by
natural resources depletion and
destruction.

11. The Philippines has high vulnerability due to the following
reasons:
• It lies in the Pacific typhoon belt and we are visited by an
average of 20 typhoons every year.
• Rugged nature of the landscape makes it vulnerable to
landslide, mudflows, and other disasters.
• It is an archipelagic country with many small islands
where some areas are at below sea level.
• It has the longest shoreline in the world at 32,400 km
making it vulnerable to storm surges.

12. • It is still a primary agricultural and fishing
economy.
• With poor institutional and social capacity to
manage, respond, and recover from natural
hazard events.
• With high level of poverty
• Aside from typhoon, it is also at risk to volcanic
eruptions, quakes, and floods.

13. Hazards, Exposure,
and Vulnerabilities
from Actual Situations

14. Hazard is a harmful condition, substance,
human behavior or condition that can cause
loss of life, injury or other health effects,
harm to property, loss of livelihood and
services, social and economic disruption or
damage to the environment.

15. Exposure is the presence of elements at risk or
chance of being harmed from a natural or man-
made hazard event. Elements include the
individuals, households or communities,
properties, buildings and structures, agricultural
commodities, livelihoods, and public facilities,
infrastructures and environmental assets present
in an area that are subject to potential damage or
even losses.

16. Vulnerability means the characteristics
and circumstances of a community, system,
or asset, that make it susceptible to the
damaging effects of a hazard and inability
of a community to prevent, mitigate, prepare
for and respond to hazardous events.

17. Risk implies the probability of possible
adverse effects. This results from the
interaction of social and environmental
systems, from the combination of physical
danger, and exposed item vulnerabilities.

18. Disaster is a serious disruption to the
functioning of a community or society which
causes widespread human, material,
economic or environmental losses that
exceed the capacity of the community or
society concerned to cope with the use of
their own resources.

19. Disaster is a serious disruption to the
functioning of a community or society which
causes widespread human, material,
economic or environmental losses that
exceed the capacity of the community or
society concerned to cope with the use of
their own resources.

20. Physical elements
Buildings: Urban land use,
construction types, building
height, building age, total
floor space, replacement
costs.
Monuments and cultural
heritage
Population
Density of population,
distribution in space,
distribution in time, age
distribution, gender
distribution, handicapped,
income distribution
Essential facilities
Emergency shelters,
Schools, Hospitals, Fire
Brigades, Police,
Socio-economic aspects
Organization of population,
governance, community
organization, government
support, socio-economic
levels. Cultural heritage and
traditions.

21. Transportation
facilities
Roads, railway, metro,
public transportation
systems, harbor facilities,
airport facilities.
Economic activities
Spatial distribution of
economic activities, input-
output table, dependency,
redundancy,
unemployment, economic
production in various
sectors.
Life lines
Water supply, electricity
supply, gas supply,
telecommunications,
mobile telephone
network, sewage system.
Environmental
elements
Ecosystems, protected
areas, natural parks,
environmentally sensitive
areas, forests, wetlands,
aquifers, flora, fauna,

22. 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.
Mitigation is the action of reducing something's
severity, seriousness, or painfulness.

23. Hazard and Its
Types

24. Hazards can be categorized in different types:
1. Natural hazards - arise from natural processes
in the environment.
e.g. earthquakes, tsunami, landslides, volcanic eruptions and
floods
2. Quasi-natural hazards- arise through the
interaction of natural processes and human
activities.
e.g. pollution or desertification, smog and fog

25. 3. Technological (or man-made) hazards- These
arise directly as a result of human activities.
e.g. accidental release of chemicals, toxic and
pesticides to floral and fauna

26. Hazards Signs
and Symbols

27. Technology or Man
Made Hazards Signs
and Symbols

28. - Flammable
- Self-heating
- Emits Flammable Gas
- Pyrophoric
 FLAME
 HEALTH HAZARD
- Reproductive toxicity
- Respiratory sensitizer
- Target organ toxicity
- Aspiration toxicity

29. - Explosives
- Self-reactives
- Organic Peroxides
 EXPLODING BOMB
 SKULL AND
CROSSBONES - Fatal or toxic
- Acute toxicity

30. Natural Hazards Signs and Symbols

31. Quasi-Natural Signs
and Symbols

32. - Aquatic toxicity
 ENVIRONMENT
- Air toxicity

33. Hazard: Its Impact,
Identification and
Risk Assessment

34. A hazard is defined is simply a condition or
a set of circumstances that present a
potential for harm.
Hazards are divided into two broad
categories: health hazard (can cause
occupational illnesses) and safety hazard
(can cause physical harm or injuries).

35. On the other hand, risk refers to the
potential for loss, damage or destruction a
hazard can cause while vulnerability refers
to the characteristics of a community or
system that make it susceptible to the
possible damaging effects of a hazard.

36. What are the Different Impacts of Hazards?
One way to classify hazard impacts is by means of general
impact themes namely:
• Danger to life which includes physical and psychological
harm and diseases
• Denial of access like energy, water, communication and
transport access
• Damage to the physical environment like buildings and land

37. Six (6) more specific types of hazard impacts.
1. Physical impact
- Physical injuries (bone fracture, wounds, bruises)
- Destruction and loss of vital infrastructure like
transportation system, roads, bridges, power lines
and communication lines.
- Wide spread destruction of housing and buildings

38. 2. Psychological impact
- Grief and psychological illness
- Marital conflict
- Depression due to loss of loved ones and properties
- Chronic anxiety
3. Socio- cultural impact
- Displacement of population
- Loss of cultural identity
- Forced of adoption of new sets of culture
- Ethnic conflicts

39. 4. Economic impact
- Loss of job due to displacement
- Loss of harvest and livestock
- Loss of farms, fish cages and other source of food
- Loss of money and other valuables
5. Environmental impact
- Loss of forest due to forest fires
- Loss of fresh water due to salination
- Disturbance of biodiversity
- Loss of natural rivers

40. 6. Biological impact
- Epidemic to people, flora and fauna
- Chronic and permanent illness caused by
biological agents
- Proliferation of different viral diseases

41. Identification of
Hazards and Risk
Assessment

42. Hazard identification is the process of determining
all physical and nonphysical agents in the
workplace or specific environment.
Risk assessment is a way to determine which
hazards and risks should prioritized by taking into
consideration the probability and severity of
impact.

43. Below are the steps in hazard identification and risk
assessment.
1. Identify the hazards. Use the following methods:
a. Observation - use your senses of sight, hearing, smell
and touch - combined with knowledge and experience.
b. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) - obtain them from
manufacturers and suppliers. It gives information on
possible harm from hazardous substances and
precautions that need to be taken.

44. c. Hazard and risk surveys - interview other
people about their safety concerns as far as the
workplace is concerned. Utmost consideration
should be given to children or visitors who could
be at risk.
d. Discussion groups - are useful for identifying
hazards and recommending solutions.
e. Safety audits – a committee must be assigned
to periodically check safety in the area.

45. 2. Assess the Risk. Once a hazard has been
identified, the likelihood and possible severity of
injury or harm will need to be assessed before
determining how best to minimize the risk. High-
risk hazards need to be addressed more urgently
than low- risk ones.

46. Table 1. Risk Assessment Scoring Matrix

47. 3. Make the changes. Once risks are assessed, the
next step is to make decision for some necessary
changes. These changes include removing the
hazard and replacing it with something less
hazardous, engineering modifications like
installation of exhausts, safety barriers and safety
exits, modification of procedures, etc.

48. Table 2. Risk assessment and control measures to
counter risks

49. 4. Checking the changes made.
It is essential that these changes made are
monitored and checked. It must be monitored if
the changes done are being followed consistently
and if these changes contribute to the
improvement of safety management in the
workplace. This last step has to be done
periodically to accurately assess the effectiveness
of the entire process.

50. THANK YOU!!!
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