05 Disaster Risk Reduction Management

What is a disaster?

• is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
• are often described as a result of the combination of the exposure to a hazard, the conditions of vulnerability that are present, and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce or cope with the potential negative consequences.
• impacts may include loss of life, injury, disease and other negative effects on human, physical, mental and social well-being, together with damage to property, destruction of assets, loss of services, Social and economic disruption and environmental degradation.

What is a 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. Hazards can either be a creation of humans (anthropogenic) or the environment (natural).
• can be single, sequential, or combined in their origin and effects. Each hazard is characterized by its location, intensity, probability and likely frequency. Typical examples of hazards can be the absence of rain (leading to drought) or the abundance thereof (leading to flooding). Chemical manufacturing plants near settlements can also be regarded as hazardous; similarly, incorrect agricultural techniques will in the long run lead to possible disasters.

What is a vulnerability?

• is the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.
• may arise from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors such as poor design and construction of buildings, inadequate protection of assets, lack of public information and awareness, limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures, and disregard for wise environmental management.
• can be expressed as the degree of loss resulting from a potentially damaging phenomenon or hazard. It is therefore the extent to which a community will degrade when subjected to a specified set of hazardous conditions.

What is an exposure?

• is the degree to which the elements at risk are likely to experience hazard events of different magnitudes.
• can include the number of people or types of assets in an area. These can be combined with the specific vulnerability and capacity of the exposed elements to any particular hazard to estimate the quantitative risk associated with that hazard in the area of interest.

What is a capacity?

• is a combination of all strengths and resources available within a community, society or organization that can reduce the level of risk, or effects of a disaster.
• may include infrastructure and physical means, institutions, societal coping abilities, as well as human knowledge, skills and collective attributes such as social relationships, leadership and management. Capacity may also be described as capability.

Hazards in themselves do not constitute disasters. The magnitude of a disaster is usually described in terms of the adverse effects which a hazard has had on lives, property and infrastructure; environmental damage; and the costs attached to post disaster recovery and rehabilitation.

• TRUE
• FALSE

There is a direct link between the capacity of those affected to withstand, cope and recover from the adverse affects of a hazard using only their own resources, and what constitutes disaster risk. Disaster risk is the product of the combination of three elements – vulnerability, coping capacity and hazard.

• TRUE
• FALSE

Disaster risk (R) = Vulnerability (V) x Hazard (H)/Capacity (C) Disaster risk = function of H and V/C

• TRUE
• FALSE

To understand disaster risk one needs to find answers to the following questions:

• Where do people live?
• Why do people live there?
• How do they make a living?
• What is important for them to protect?

Hazards are typically classified into three categories which are–

• Natural hazards;
• Technological hazards; and
• Environmental degradation