Explanation

Hazard is a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition 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. Any impending danger is hazard.

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. The more a community is exposed to hazard factors,
the higher is the disaster risk or higher chance disaster occurrence.

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

. While exposure and vulnerability on the other hand are distinct. A certain community can be exposed
but it does not mean that it is vulnerable. Buildings and structures in Japan are exposed to earthquake, but they
are not vulnerable since their architectural and engineering designs are earthquake proof or resistant. However,
to become vulnerable, it must be exposed to hazard first.

Exposure to hazard can make a community vulnerable. But not all communities that are exposed to
hazard can be considered vulnerable. Vulnerability depends on the preparedness and readiness to a particular
hazard of the community. It depends mostly on how they mitigate, respond and recover. If a certain community
has the ability to reduce the vulnerability by reducing the risk, the said community is already considered as less
vulnerable or resilient.
Name:
Year and Section:
ACTIVITY 1: Make an Emergency Escape Plan in your house. (note: the rubrics is the bases of your score)
Examples were given below.

Rubrics
CATEGORY 5 3 2 1
Relevance All graphics are All graphics are All graphics relate Graphics do not
related to the topic related to the topic to the topic relate to the topic
and make it easier and most make it
to understand easier to
understand
Originality With exceptional One or two of the Graphics made No graphics made
degree of student graphics reflects based on the by the student are
creativity in their creativity of the designs of others included
work. students
Required Elements The escape plan All required All but 1 are Several required
includes required elements are included on the elements are
elements as well included on the escape plan missing
as additional escape plan
information
Attractiveness The escape plan is The escape plan is The escape plan is The escape plan is
exceptionally attractive in terms acceptably distractingly messy
attractive in terms of design, layout attractive though it or very poorly
of design, layout and neatness may be a bit designed
and neatness messy
Total Score
Hazards can be classified in many different ways. Natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami, landslide
and floods arise from natural processes in the environment. Quasi-natural hazards such as pollution or
desertification arise through the interaction of natural processes and human activities. Technological (or man-
made) hazards which are the toxicity or pesticides to fauna, accidental release of chemicals or radiation from a
nuclear plant. These arise directly as a result of human activities.

A typology based on Hewitt and Burton (1971) would appear as follows.

Geologic Atmospheric
*Earthquakes -Typhoon or hurricanes
- Vibrations - Thunderstorm
-Ground Rupture -Excess rainfall
-Liquefaction -Tornados
-Earthquake induced landslide -Freezing rain (glaze)
-Tsunami - Hail
*Volcanic Eruption - Heavy snowfalls
-Lava flow - High wind speeds
-Volcanic gas -Extreme temperatures
-Pyroclastic flow - Lightning
-Tephra fall
-Volcanic debris
-Avalanche
* Rainfall induced landslide
* Sinkhole
Hydrologic Biologic
-Floods – river and coastal -Epidemic in humans
-Wave action -Epidemic in plants
-Drought -Epidemic in animals
-Rapid glacier advance -Locusts
Man made
- Transport accidents - Nuclear accidents
- Industrial explosions and fires - Collapse of public buildings
- Accidental release of toxic chemicals
Name:
Year & Section:

Activity 2: Let’s Try This: Hazard and its causes

Indicate whether the following hazards are natural (N) or human-made (HM) in their origin. Link them to possible causes.
1. Flooding
2. Storm surge
3. Volcanic eruption
4. Epidemic to humans
5. Radioactive pollution
Hazard Cause Origin
Let’s Learn

Hazard quantification method considers the following questions

 How long does the hazard occur?( Duration)

 How often does the hazard occur? ( Frequency )
 What is the strength? ( Magnitude)
 How fast does it occur?( Speed)
 What is the chance it occur?( Probability)
 How manageable are the effect?( Manageability)

Duration depends on how long the hazard affects an area. The greater the event, the bigger the possible
potential destruction. Example areas affected by a transport accident are more limited than a tsunami or house
fires.

How often an area hit by calamity is called frequency. Majority of hazards have return periods on a human
time-scale. Examples are volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo occurs every 50 years has a return period of 50
years and is referred to as 50 year eruption. This reflects a statistical measure of how often a hazard event of a
given magnitude and intensity will occur.

Magnitude is an important characteristic for analyzing hazards since only occurrences exceeding some defined
level of magnitude are considered hazardous. For example, earthquakes is described on its strength and an
indication how destructive it can be In some cases hazards may be coupled, as in the landslide caused by an
earthquake or the typhoon

Speed tell us how faster a hazard can be. Some hazards are predictable some are not. Example tornados
usually occur without warning same as earthquake, flash flood, and landslide. While signs are seen in volcanic
eruption, tsunami and typhoons

Probability same as frequency it takes about the returning period of a hazard. For example, a recurrence
interval of once a year for a flood suggests that in any year, a flood of that magnitude has a 100 % chance of
occurring. And a volcanic eruption has a return period of 20 years means that there are 5% probability of
occurrence.

Manageability is how we manage the effect of a hazard. Easy manageability is needed if the preparedness
plan is properly implemented while difficult manageability if large damage was caused.
Name:
Year and Section:

Activity 3: Lets study and Analyse “Hazard Matrix”

Accomplish the Hazard Matrix below by providing the possible characteristics of the given hazards.

Example:

Intensity/ magnitude
Type of hazard

Manageability
Probability
Frequency

Duration

Speed
Easy if proper
Epidemic in 50% passes in
Once a year 2 months In 1 week High medication
humans the community
was given

Your turn!

Intensity/ magnitude
Type of hazard

Manageability
Probability
Frequency

Duration

Speed

1. Landslide

2. Earthquake

3. floods

4. typhoons

5. fire
Common long term impacts of natural hazards

1. Physical
- Death people
- Destruction and loss of vital infrastructure like transportation system, roads, bridges, power lines
and communication lines.
- Wide spread loss of housing and buildings

2. Psychological impact
- Grief and psychological
- Marital conflict
- Depression due to loss of loved ones and properties
- Chronic anxiety among children severely affected

3. Socio- cultural impact

- Displacement of population
- Loss of cultural identity
- Forced of adoption of new sets of culture
- Ethnic conflicts

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 valuable

5. Environmental impact
- Loss of forest due to forest fires
- Loss of fresh water due to salination
- Disturbance of biodiversity
- Loss of natural rivers

6. Biological
- Epidemic to people, flora and fauna
- Chronic and permanent illness
- Mental disorder
- Proliferation of different viral diseases
 Let’s Learn
Hazard Identification and Assessment

1. Risk assessment associated to risk mapping.

A methodology to determine the nature and extent of risk by analyzing potential hazards and evaluating existing conditions of
vulnerability that together could potentially harm exposed people, property, services, livelihoods and the environment on which they
depend. UNISDR (2009) (adapted by Philippines DRR Law, 2010):

2. Hazard Assessment is sometimes called Hazard Evaluation or Hazard Analysis (UNDRO, 1991). Hazard Assessment is the
process of estimating, for defined areas, the probabilities of the occurrence of potentially-damaging phenomenon of given magnitude
within a specified period of time. UNDRO

Hazard assessment approaches

1. Quantitative approach
In this approach mathematical functions or equations are used to denote relationships between variable considered to quantify
the hazard based on historical records.

2. Qualitative approach
This method uses ranking such as ‘high’, ‘moderate’ and ‘low ‘to assess a hazard event. Where there is a lack of enough data for
quantitative evaluation, or if a variable cannot expressed as numerical it is appropriate to use , this qualitative ranking to take
hazard mitigation decisions.

3. Deterministic approach
It is a more subjective approach that consider past record. . A past event is carefully chosen and related characteristics and the
consequences are described. Past impact data can be combined with current conditions and potential exposure levels and impact.

4. Probabilistic approach
It is an objective approach based on the estimated probability of an event. It provides an estimate of the probability of each hazard
affecting an area or region. Probability for each hazard may be categorized as ‘high’, ‘moderate’ or ‘low’. Probability of occurrence
can be calculated through research on past events.
Name:
Year & Section:

Activity 3: Let’s Study and Analyze “Advantages and Disadvantages”

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using various methods of hazard approaches?

1. Quantitative Approach
A. Advantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

B. Disadvantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Qualitative approach
A. Advantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

B.Disadvantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

3. Deterministic Approach
A. Advantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

B. Disadvantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

4. Probabilistic Approach
A. Advantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

B. Disadvantages
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________