Distinct underlying causes of vulnerability to disasters:
Lesson Explain the Meaning of
5 Vulnerability
Vulnerability is defined as the decreased capacity of
an individual or a community to anticipate, cope,
resist, recover from the effect of natural or human-
induced hazard.
Vulnerability Defined
Vulnerability is a state of being at risk. According to
Republic Act 10121 also known as ‘Philippine Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010’,
vulnerability is defined as the characteristics and
circumstances of a community, system or resource that
make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.
With all the identified hazard at home, there is a
possibility that some family members might be
susceptible or prone to the accident due to the presence
of hazard.
Vulnerability is also situation specific. This means that if
a specific province is prone to earthquake, it does not
mean that all localities on that province is vulnerable to
it. The vulnerability of different towns or cities or even
provinces differ in the way they prepare for the hazard
and the amount and type of resources they have in order
prevent and manage it. To lessen vulnerability means to
make the community prepared and ready for the
possible damaging effect of the hazard. This further
means that to make the community less vulnerable, it
must be resilient. So, to develop resiliency at home, you
should first identify the hazards and be prepared all the
time for the possible outcome and respond immediately.
Vulnerability is defined as the characteristics and
circumstances of a community, system or asset that
make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.
Vulnerability is a set of prevailing or consequential
conditions arising from various physical, social,
economic and environmental factors which increase the
susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards
(United Nation International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR), 2002:24).
It can also
comprise physical,
socio-economic
and/or political
factors that
adversely affect
the ability of
communities to
respond to events (Jegillos, 1999).
• Magnitude of each disaster
For instance, in parts of the country facing the Pacific
Ocean, like Bicol region and Eastern Visayas, the
impact of tropical typhoons on their location is worst
compared to those living in Western Luzon or Western
Visayas. Such location is usually the landfall areas of
typhoons at its strongest state.
• Misallocation of resources to meet the basic
human needs of an expanding population.
Lacked adequate housing opportunities especially for
those poor families living in urban areas, placed these
people in a perilous situation during the typhoon
season of the country, where most of these people live
along the waterways of Metro Manila and slum areas.
• Increased marginalization of the population.
Usually, the marginalized sector of society are the
most adversely affected by disasters, especially the
urban poor and those living in hazard prone areas of
the countryside.
Understanding vulnerability and exposure to
disaster:
There is common consensus among disaster risk
scholars on the factors which compound or alleviate
vulnerability:
❑ Political factors
The level of vulnerability in any community can be
directly linked to the political will and commitment to
developmental concerns. Vulnerability is as much
about the exposure to a given hazard as the
decision-making linked to development which will
address conditions of vulnerability.
In our country, sets of deep-rooted socio-economic
elements which include aspects such as denial of
human rights, denial of access to power structures,
access to quality education, employment
opportunities, land tenure, availability of and access
to resources, access to infrastructure, basic
services and information, together can create and
maintain extreme levels of vulnerability.
❑ Economic factors
The economic status of the population relates not
only to the degree of losses in terms of lives,
property, and infrastructure but also to the capacity
to cope with and recover from adverse effects.
Poverty and lack of access to land and basic
services explains why people in urban areas are
forced to live on hills that are prone to landslides, or
why people settle near rivers that invariably flood
their banks. Increasingly, poverty also explains why
many women and men are forced to move from
rural areas to the cities in search of job opportunities
(UNISDR, 2009).
❑ Physical factors
Physical vulnerability refers to the susceptibility of
individuals, households and communities to loss
due to the physical environment in which they find
themselves. It relates to aspects such as access to
suitable land, land use planning, housing design,
building standards, materials used for building
houses, engineering, accessibility to emergency
services and other similar aspects. Physical
 vulnerability may be determined by aspects such as
population density levels, remoteness of a
settlement, the site, design and materials used for
critical infrastructure and for housing (UNISDR,
2002).

❑ Social factors
The level of social well-being of individuals,
households and communities directly impacts on
their level of vulnerability to hazards. Levels of
education, literacy and training, safety and security,
access to basic human rights, social equity,
information and awareness, strong cultural beliefs
and traditional values, morality, good governance,
and a well-organized cohesive civil society, all
contribute to social well- being with physical,
mental, and psychological health being critical
aspects.

A lack of awareness and access to information can

also result in increased levels of vulnerability.
Disasters can happen because people vulnerable
to them simply do not know how to heed early
warnings and to get out of harm's way or to take
protective measures. This was true in the case of
the people of Tacloban during the onset of super
typhoon Yolanda in 2013. Residents of Tacloban
were unaware of storm surge that is brought by the
typhoon. Storm surge flooded most of the city, and
many residents were washed away or drowned as
a result.

❑ Environmental factors
The key aspects of environmental vulnerability can
be summarized by the following five distinctions:
• The extent of natural resource depletion;
• The state of resource degradation;
• Loss of resilience of the ecological systems;
• Loss of biodiversity; and
• Exposure to toxic and hazardous pollutants
(UNISDR 2002:47).

Many disasters are either caused or exacerbated by

environmental degradation. Deforestation leads to
rapid rain run-off, which contributes to flooding. The
creation of drought conditions and the relative
severity and length of time the drought lasts are
mainly natural phenomena. With the rate of
deforestation and land conversion in our country, a
natural phenomenon like monsoon rains mostly
resulted to disasters.
 and can organize itself both prior to and during times of
Lesson Sector of Society’s need (UNISDR, 2009).
6 Vulnerability to Disaster

This lesson explains why some sectors are more

vulnerable to exposure to hazard and most likely to
suffer greater disaster impact than others. It will also be
discussed how different sectors find ways on how to
lessen vulnerability of the community and how it adapts
after the disaster.

Weakness and Vulnerability to Disaster

Weakness – are limitations that affects the capability of
a family or community to respond or recover from
material damages or loss of family members.

According to Anderson and Woodrow (1990) there are

three kinds of weakness:
Factors affecting vulnerability of one’s community:
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.
If people are well distributed, there is lesser
effect of disaster.
• Population density refers to the number of
individuals living in an area in relation to the size
of an area.
• The primary consideration is not the population
size but the population density.
2. Capacity and efficiency to reduce Disaster Risk.
• Community that is less vulnerable has the
capacity to reduce disaster risk because;
a. It can provide accessibility and availability
of services and facilities during and after
disaster.
b. It has the ability to anticipate, adapt, and
respond to possible disaster.
• Material or Physical Weakness – people who are
less fortunate in material wealth are more likely to
fell victims in the effects of disasters compared to
those who are well off. It is because they usually
live in shanties, has not enough savings and in poor
health conditions.
• Social and Organizational Weakness – minimal
sense of responsibility, coupled with the absence of
groups that organizes the community in the event of
a disaster can cause further weakness. In a
community the rate of risk increases if there are
people that has special needs, persons with
disability, old people, pregnant women and those
that have their own children to look for.
• Character Weakness – in times of crisis, people
should have the courage to face difficult conditions
brought about by the circumstances. There are
traditions, beliefs and practices that influences the
weakness of character that contribute to the feeling
of frustration and hopelessness of affected people.

RESILIENCE
The United Nation International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR) defines resilience as “the ability of
a system, community or society exposed to hazards to
resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the
effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner,
including through the preservation and restoration of its
essential basic structures and functions” (UNISDR,
2009).

This definition therefore considers the presence of a

hazard and not a disaster. Thus, once a disaster
occurs, it would be incorrect to refer to resilience but
rather to coping capacity. Resilience and the building of
resilience should therefore be seen as an integral
part of disaster risk reduction activities.

Resilience therefore means the ability to “spring back

from” a shock. The resilience of a community in respect
of potential hazard events is determined by the degree
to which the community has the necessary resources