Module 5: Disaster Risk Awareness,

Preparedness and Management

WEEK 6
 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (DRR)

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a systematic

approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the
risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic
vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the
environmental and other hazards that trigger them.
 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (DRR)

Risk Reduction Method

1. IDENTIFY, characterize and assess threats
2. ASSESS the vulnerability of critical assets to specific threats
3. DETERMINE the risk (i.e., the expected consequences of
specific types of attacks on specific assets)
4. IDENTIFY ways to reduce those risks
5. PRIORITIZE risk reduction measures based on a strategy
 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (DRR)

DRR aims to reduce the damage caused by natural

hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and
cyclones, through an ethic of prevention.
Disasters often follow natural hazards.
A disaster’s severity depends on how much impact
a hazard has on society and the environment.
 Disaster Risk Reduction & Disaster Risk Management
(DRR & DRRM)

The policy objective of anticipating and reducing

risk is called disaster risk reduction (DRR). Although
often used interchangeably with DRR, disaster risk
management (DRM) can be thought of as the
implementation of DRR, since it describes the actions
that aim to achieve the objective of reducing risk.
 Components Of Risk

DISASTER RISK is widely recognized as the consequence

of the interaction between a hazard and the characteristics
that make people and places vulnerable and exposed.

RISK = HAZARD x EXPOSURE x VULNERABILITY

 Risks

RISK is the likelihood (or probability) of loss of life, injury or destruction and
damage from a disaster in a given period of time; it has many characteristics:

Forward looking – the likelihood of loss of life, destruction and damage in a

given period of time
Dynamic – can increase or decrease according to the ability to reduce
vulnerability
Invisible – consist of high-impact and frequent but low-impact events that
are often hidden
Unevenly distributed around the earth – affect different areas with patterns
reflecting the social construction of exposure and vulnerability in diff
countries
Emergent and complex – many processes, including climate change and
globalized economic development, are creating new, interconnected risks
 Hazards

Hazard is a dangerous event (process, phenomenon or

human activity) that may cause loss of life, injury or other
health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property,
infrastructure, livelihoods and services, social and economic
disruption, and, or environmental damage; it may be natural
(sometimes termed physical), anthropogenic (technological,
sometimes called man-made or human-induced) or socio-
natural in origin.
 Hazards

Hazards are classified as follows:

Biological hazards has organic origin or conveyed by biological
vectors such as pathogenic microorganisms, toxins and
bioactive substances (bacteria, viruses or parasites, venomous
wildlife and insects, poisonous plants and mosquitoes carrying
disease-causing agents.
Environmental hazards may include chemical, natural and
biological hazards created by environmental degradation,
physical or chemical pollution in the air, water and soil.
However, many of the processes and phenomena that fall into
this category may be termed drivers of hazard and risk rather
than hazards in themselves, such as soil degradation,
deforestation, loss of biodiversity, salinization and sea-level rise
 Hazards

Geological or geophysical hazards originate from internal

earth processes, such as earthquakes, volcanic activity and
emissions, and related geophysical processes such as mass
movements, landslides, rockslides, surface collapses and
debris or mud flows. Hydro-meteorological factors are
important contributors to some of these processes.

Tsunamis are difficult to categorize; triggered by

undersea earthquakes and other geological events, they
essentially become an oceanic process that is manifested as
a coastal water-related hazard.
 Hazards

 Hydro-meteorological hazards are of atmospheric,

hydrological or oceanographic origin, such as tropical
cyclones (also known as typhoons and hurricanes); floods,
including flash floods; drought, heat waves and cold spells;
and coastal storm surges.

Hydro-meteorological conditions may also be a factor in

other hazards such as landslides, wild land fire, locust
plagues, epidemics and in the transport and dispersal of toxic
substances and volcanic eruption materials.
 Hazards

 Technological hazards originate from technological or

industrial conditions, dangerous procedures, infrastructure
failures or specific human activities; such as industrial
pollution, nuclear radiation, toxic wastes, dam failures,
transport accidents, factory explosions, fires and chemical
spills.
 The 1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption

Hazards can also interact; the 1991 eruption of Mt

Pinatubo in the Philippines was also accompanied by
Typhoon Yunya, which soaked the accumulating volcanic
ashfall with rainfall. The heavy weight of the wet ash caused
the roofs of homes and businesses to collapse, resulting in
most of the 300 deaths directly associated with the eruption.
This example shows that the interaction between hazards can
result in the overall impact being greater than if these
hazards had occurred at separate times, which has major
implications for risk assessment.
 The 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis well demonstrates

the consequence of cascading hazards and the fact that even high-
income, well governed societies can be impacted by extreme events.
On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake producing intensities of
up to XII on the Modified Mercalli scale occurred 130 km off
Japan’s eastern coast causing a tsunami that, together, may have
killed more than 20,000 people. The Great East Japan Earthquake
also disrupted critical sections of Japan’s power grid, including the
power supply needed to cool the spent fuel at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant. Back-up generators kicked in but were
disabled when the tsunami struck the plan, which was located on
the coast. The loss of power to the nuclear plant and the inability to
cool the spent fuel appear to have led to partial meltdowns of at
least 3 of the plant’s reactors, causing the worst nuclear disaster
since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
 Exposure

Exposure is one of the defining components of disaster risk

The UNISDR 2017 terminology define exposure as the
situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production
capacities and other tangible human assets located in hazard-
prone areas
The presence and number of people, property, livelihoods,
systems or other elements in hazard areas (and so thereby
subject to potential losses) is known as exposure.
If a hazard occurs in an area of no exposure, then there is no
risk. In October 2013, a Category 5 super typhoon (known as
Lekima) hit the North West Pacific Ocean with winds of around
240 kph, but caused no impact on people or assets.
 Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)

In November 2013, another Category Super Typhoon

Haiyan hit the region with wind peaking at 315 kph which
affected 11 million people, causing more than 6000
casualties and the loss of more than 1.5 billion US dollars.
The difference in impact was because there were no people
or property in the path of Lekima; in other words, there was
no exposure.
The extent to which exposed people or economic assets
are actually at risk is generally determined by how vulnerable
they are as it is possible to be exposed but not vulnerable.
 Vulnerability

The name given to the set of characteristics determined by physical,

social, economics and environmental factors or processes and
circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible
to the damaging effects of a hazard is vulnerability.
Vulnerability is the human dimension of disasters and is the result of
the range of economic, social, cultural, institutional, political and
psychological factors that shape people’s lives and the environment that
they live in.
Vulnerability can be a challenging concept to understand because it
tends to mean different things to different people and is often described
using a variety of terms including predisposition, fragility, weakness,
deficiency or lack of capacity.
Vulnerability also concerns the wider environmental and social
conditions that limit people and communities to cope with the impact of
hazard.
 Vulnerability

Vulnerability relates to a number of factors, including:

 Physical Factors
 Social Factors
 Economic Factors
 Environmental Factors
 Vulnerability

Physical Factors
poor design and construction of buildings, unregulated
land use planning, etc.

Social Factors
poverty & inequality, marginalization social exclusion and
discrimination by gender, social status, disability and age
psychological factors, etc.
 Vulnerability

Economic Factors
uninsured informal sector, vulnerable rural livelihoods
dependence on single industries, globalization of business
and supply chains, etc.

Environmental Factors
poor environmental management, overconsumption of
natural resources, decline of risk regulating ecosystem
services, climate change, etc.
Risk Drivers includes:
 Climate Change
 Environmental Degradation
 Globalized Economic Development
 Poverty & Inequality
 Poorly Planned & Managed Urban Development
 Weak Governance
 Risk Drivers

Climate Change
Climate Change can increase disaster risk by altering the frequency
and intensity of hazard events, affecting vulnerability to hazards, and
changing exposure patterns. Disaster risk is magnified by climate
change; it can increase the hazard while at the same time decreasing the
resilience of households and communities; this may include:
Decreasing agricultural yields in warmer environments due to heat
stress
Rising sea level may increase hazards in low-lying coastal areas
More severe and frequent extreme precipitation events which
intensify existing patterns of extensive risk
Changes in geographic distribution of weather-related hazards may
lead to new patterns of risk
Decreasing resilience
 Risk Drivers

Environmental Degradation
Environmental degradation is both a driver and a consequence of
disasters, reducing the capacity of the environment to meet social and
ecological needs
Over consumption of natural resources results in environmental
degradation, reducing the effectiveness of essential ecosystem services,
such as the mitigation of floods and landslides, which leads to increased
risk from disasters, and in turn, natural hazards can further degrade the
environment.

E.g. degradation of coastal ecosystems increase the risk of storm surges;

52% of land in Africa is considered degraded; removal of mangrove
ecosystems increases vulnerability of coastal communities, rates of
overconsumption now exceeds the bio-capacity of the planet by 50%
 Risk Drivers

Globalized Economic Development

This risk driver has resulted in increased polarization between the
rich and poor on a global scale; thereby increasing the vulnerability to
natural disasters in some cases, while increasing exposure to hazards in
others as more (and often more valuable) assets are developed in hazard-
prone areas.
Despite currently increasing the exposure of hazards in hazard prone
areas, globalized economic development strategies such as investing in
protective infrastructure, environmental management and upgrading
informal settlements, risk can be reduced.

E.g., low-income households in Brazil forced to settle in high risk areas

However, this driver is an opportunity for building resilience.

 Risk Drivers

Poverty & Inequality

Poverty is both a driver and consequence of disasters, and the
processes that further disaster risk related poverty are permeated with
inequality
Socio-economic inequality is likely to continue to increase and with it
disaster risk for those countries, communities, households and
businesses that have only limited opportunities to manage their risks and
strengthen their resilience. The geography of inequality expresses itself at
all scales: between regions and countries, within countries and inside
cities and localities.
 Risk Drivers

Poorly Planned & Managed Urban Development

People, poverty and disaster risk are increasingly concentrated in
cities. The growing rate of urbanization and the increase in population
density (in cities) can lead to creation of risk, especially when
urbanization is rapid, poorly planned and occurring in a context of
widespread poverty. Growing concentrations of people and economic
activities in many cities are seen to overlap with areas of high risk
exposure
Estimates suggest that by 2050, urban population exposed to
cyclones will increase from 310 million to 680 million while exposure to
major earthquake will increase from 370m to 870 million . Urban
development investment is also set to increase from US$7.2 trillion in
2011 to US$12 trillion by 2020.
 Risk Drivers

Weak Governance
Governance of disaster risk management must be improved, not only
through specialized and stand-alone sectors, but also through
strengthened governance arrangements across sectors and territories in
order to address disaster risk
Weak governance zones are investment environments in which
public sector actors are unable or unwilling to assume their roles and
responsibilities in protecting rights, providing basic services, public
services, and ensuring that public sector management is efficient and
effective. These ‘government failures’ lead to broader failures in political,
economic and civic institutions that are referred to as weak governance.
Governance refers to the different ways in which governments, the
private sector and in general all individuals and institutions in a society
organize themselves to manage their common affairs.
Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM
 Capacity
 Deterministic & probabilistic risk
 Direct & indirect losses
 Disaster risk reduction & disaster risk management
 Intensive & extensive risk
 Resilience
 Sovereign risk
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Capacity
Capacity refers to all the strengths, attributes and resources
available within a community, organization or society that can be used to
achieve agreed goals – to manage and reduce disaster risks and
strengthen resilience.
A capable and accountable state, supported by an effective civil
society and engaged private sector, is indispensable for the sustainable
reduction of disaster risk.
It is important to emphasize people’s capacity to anticipate, cope
with, resist and recover from disasters, rather than simply focusing on
the vulnerability that limits them.
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Deterministic & Probabilistic Risk

Deterministic risk considers the impact of a single risk scenario;
deterministic approaches are used to assess disaster impacts of a given
hazard scenario.
Probabilistic risk considers all possible scenarios, their likelihood
and associated impacts; probabilistic assessments are characterized by
inherent uncertainties, partly related to the natural randomness of
hazards, and partly because of our incomplete understanding and
measurement of the hazards, exposure and vulnerability under
consideration.
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Direct & Indirect Losses

Direct disaster losses refer to directly quantifiable losses such as the
number of people killed and the damage to buildings, infrastructure and
natural resources
Indirect disaster losses include declines in output or revenue, and
impact on wellbeing of people, and generally arise from disruptions to
the flow of goods and services as a result of a disaster
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Intensive Risk
Intensive risk is used to describe the risk of high-severity, mid to
low- frequency disasters, mainly associated with major hazards; a major
hazard can be thought of as a global or regionally large event such as
earthquakes, tsunamis, large volcanic eruptions, flooding in large river
basins or tropical cyclones.
Intensive risks is comprised of the exposure of large concentrations
of people and economic activities to intense hazard events, which can
lead to potentially catastrophic disaster impacts involving high mortality
and asset loss; intensive risks is not only characterized by intense
hazards, but also by the underlying factors such as poverty and
inequality.
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Extensive Risk
Extensive risk is used to describe the risk of low-severity, high-
frequency disasters mainly, but not exclusively associated with highly
localized hazards, including flash floods, storms, fires and agricultural
and water-related drought. As such, extensive risk is normally associated
with weather-related hazards; however, they can be associated with other
hazards; for instance, the persistent impact of volcanic ash on the island
of Montserrat since 1995.
These small but frequent disasters occur in both urban & rural
settings, particularly in low and middle-income countries.
Unlike intensive risk, extensive risk is less closely associated with
earthquake fault lines and cyclone tracks than with inequality and
poverty.
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Resilience
Resilience, in the context of disaster risk, refers to the ability of a
system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb,
accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a
hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including the preservation and
restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk
management.
Resilience is about anticipating, planning and reducing disaster risk
to effectively protect persons, communities and countries, their
livelihoods, health, cultural heritage, socio-economic assets and
ecosystems . The ideas of ‘bounce back’, ‘spring forward’ and build back
better’ are often used in the context of resilience.
Resilience (the ability to flourish in the face of disaster risk) is related
to ‘capacity’ (strengths and resources available to anticipate, cope with,
resist and recover from disasters) and ‘coping capacity’ (the ability to face
and manage disasters)
 Key Concepts on DRR & DRRM

Sovereign Risk
Sovereign Risk is the economic (or financial) impact a government
would face in the event of a disaster.
If the potential occurrence of a disaster is not taken into account in
the government’s budget and a disaster occurs, this could entail a deficit
for the country, and impact negatively on the country’s creditworthiness.
A sovereign risk financing strategy aims at strengthening the capacity of
the government to respond after a disaster event while protecting its
fiscal balance.
The sovereign is the state, representing its citizens. ‘Sovereign risk’
or country risk, is the risk that a government could default on its debt
(sovereign debt) or other obligations. It is also the risk generally
associated with investing in a particular country, or providing funds to its
government.
 REPUBLIC ACT 10121

RA 10121, AN ACT STRENGTHENING THE PHILIPPINE

DISASTER RISK REDUCTION & MANAGEMENT SYSTEM,
PROVIDING FOR THE NATIONAL DISASTER RISK
REDUCTION & MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK &
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE NATIONAL DISASTER RISK
REDUCTION & MANAGEMENT PLAN, APPROPRIATING
FUNDS THEREOF AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES WAS
PASSED AND APPROVED ON MAY 27, 2010 AFTER 21
YEARS OF REVISIONS AND REFILING IN THE TWO
LEGISLATIVE BODIES
 REPUBLIC ACT 10121

Salient Points
 Immediate release of calamity funds to local government units so they
can prepare for disaster mitigation and preparedness; LGUs can utilize
70% of the total calamity fund to risk-reduction measures and 30% to
quick response activities.
 LGUs can better address emergencies and hazards by mitigating its effect
and prepare the communities to respond to it through capacity building
activities and conduct of public information.
 LGUs can purchase better communication and early warning devices,
search & rescue equipment, and conduct trainings for volunteer groups
who would be the first responders for any disasters.
 REPUBLIC ACT 10121

Salient Points
 Institutionalizes the monitoring function of the office of civil defense
(OCD) particularly over the use of LGU’s calamity fund on a periodic
basis.
 Part of the risk-reduction interventions of the OCD: hazard mapping and
assessment for community-based disaster risk-reduction management
with 3 components:
 Geo-hazard mapping
 Community-based disaster preparedness activities
 Mainstreaming of DRRM to the local development plans
 REPUBLIC ACT 10121

SECTION 2
The state shall develop, promote, and implement a comprehensive
national disaster risk reduction and management plan (NDRRMP) that
aims to strengthen the capacity of the national government and the local
government units, together with partner stakeholders, to build the
disaster resilience of communities, and to institutionalize arrangements
and measures for reducing disaster risks, including projected climate
risks, and enhancing disaster preparedness and response capabilities at
all levels.
This is the essence of the DRRM act of 2010; we cannot stop
disasters from happening, but we can reduce the impact if continuing &
right disaster preparedness measures are taken.
 Activity

Make a reflection paper about the discussion that you

have just read. Please do note that you cannot copy
what’s on the module nor your classmate’s work (please
refer to our class rules). However, you may cite some
statements.
You can be as creative as you can be in sharing your
thoughts through this activity. Reflection papers will be
compiled at the end of the semester. But, a copy of it
shall be submitted weekly (refer to our class schedule). A
photo or soft copy of your work is accepted.
Outputs shall be submitted thru our google classroom.
Submission will be on our next schedule.
 Reminder

Be ready for a short quiz on our next schedule. Coverage will be

within this module.

Note: Quizzes and reflection papers shall be accomplished during

our scheduled day. Considerations may apply for some valid reasons.