HAZARD AND

DISASTER
Honeylette R. Abella
BS Civil Engineering 1c
 The concept of Hazard
• What is hazard?
• A hazard is a situation or an
occurrence with capacity to bring
damages to lives, properties and
environment.
 The concept of Hazard
• The United Nations International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction or UNISDR 2004
defines hazard as “ A potentially
damaging physical event, phenomenon or
human activity that may cause the loss of
life or injury, property damage, social and
economic disruption or environmental
degradation.
 The concept of Hazard
• Hazards can include latent conditions
that may represent future threats and
can have different origins: natural
( geological, hydrometeorological,
and biological) or induced by human
processes (environmental degradation
and technological hazards)
 Types of Hazard
Natural Hazards
Human Made Hazards
Combination or Socionatural
Hazards
 Natural Hazards
Natural phenomena that pose threats or
cause negative impacts to people and
property .
Examples are: Typhoon, storm surge,
lahar floods, drought, red tide,
pestilence and fire.
Natural Hazards
 Human Made Hazards
Includes civil conflict, displacement
due to development projects,
environmental degradation, industrial
technological hazards like leakage of
toxic wastes, oil spill, fish kills, nuclear,
gaseous, chemical contamination,
famine, drought, fires and flood.
Human Made Hazards
Combination or Socionatural Hazards

Flooding and drought can fall under this

category if these are due to deforestation.
Most events are combinations of both
natural and human-made factors. Typhoons
are natural hazards that can also cause flash
floods. At the same time, environmental
degradation like excessive and illegal
logging can also be a cause of flash floods.
Combination or Socionatural Hazards
 What is a “disaster”?
• The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster
“ a
Reduction (UNISDR, 2004) defines disaster as
serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society causing
widespread human, material, economic,
or environmental losses, which exceed
the ability of the affected community or
society to cope, using its own resources”.
 What is a “disaster”?
• . Disaster impacts may include loss of
lives, injuries, diseases, and other
negative effects on human physical,
mental and social well-being, together
with damage to properties, destruction of
assets, loss of services, social and
economic disruption and environmental
degradation.
 What is a “disaster”?
• Similarly, the World Health Organization
(WHO, 2002) describes disaster as “ any
occurrence that causes damage,
ecological disruption, loss of human life,
deterioration of health and health
services, on a scale sufficient to warrant
an extraordinary response from outside
the affected community or area”
 What is a “disaster”?
• Disaster causes a multidimensional impact
affecting not only the socioeconomic and
political life, but also the mental and cultural
state of the affected area (Srivastava 2010). It
disrupts the people’s normal day- to-day life
such as school life, business activities, and
government services. It brings to a condition
which overpowers local capacity (IJMES
Quarentelly 1987)
 What is a “disaster”?
• Disasters are frequently described as a result
of the combination if (1) the exposure to a
hazard; (2) the conditions of vulnerability that
are present; and (3) insufficient capacity or
measures to reduce or cope with the potential
negative consequences (DepEd, DRR Manual
2008). Hence in understanding disaster, it is
necessary to have a good grasp of the concepts
of hazard, vulnerability, and capacity.
What is a “disaster”?
“For this may God be praised”