STO. NIÑO COLLEGE OF ORMOC INC.

Doña Feliza Mejia Village

Ormoc City

Name: ___________________________ Strand: _______________________

KEY CONCEPTS OF DISASTER, HAZARD,

VULNERABILITY, AND CAPACITY
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At end of the Chapter I, the students are expected to:
1. Define key concepts of disaster, hazard, vulnerability, and capacity.
2. Explain the meaning of disaster risk and the occurrence of disaster.
3. Assess how hazards, vulnerability, and capacity relate to disaster.

LINKS BETWEEN HAZARD, VULNERABILITY, AND CAPACITY

Understanding the links between hazard, vulnerability, and capacity is important in formulating and implementing
disaster responses with developmental impacts. The HVCA

"involves a participatory analysis of past patterns of hazards and present threats at

the community level (hazard assessment), combined with an understanding of the
underlying causes of why hazards become disasters (vulnerability assessment) and of the
available resources an affected community uses to cope with the adverse effects (capacity
assessment). The HVCA is conducted in high-risk communities which face recurrent
disasters (Oyetunmbi n.d. p.1, emphasis added)."

The Hazard, Vulnerability, and Capacity Assessment (HVCA) demonstrates the mutual dependence of hazard,
vulnerability and capacity. The HVCA integrates into one framework the assessment of three interrelated
phenomena: hazard, vulnerability, and capacity. The HVCA has the following goals:

• to identify the elements at risk in the community and to prioritize those elements that need to be protected
• to identify appropriate disaster preparedness and mitigation responses which the community will include
in their counter disaster plan
• to raise the community's awareness about potential disaster risk and what they can do about it (This is a
first step toward organizing the community into a grassroots disaster response organization.)
• to provide disaster specific information, which can be integrated in baseline studies for disaster mitigation
and development programs
• results can be used during emergency periods to identify emergency relief needs and to draft appeals
(particularly if community has become inaccessible)
• repeating the HVCA after some time provides indicators to measure changes in people's vulnerability
(Oyetunmbi, n.d., p.1).
 Since capacity assessment based on the CVA approach and matrix has been discussed earlier, the following
discussion focuses on the assessment of the two other categories, namely, hazard and vulnerability, with reference
to capacity assessment whenever necessary. Based on the HVCA framework, "the purpose of a hazard assessment
is to specify the nature and behavior of the potential hazards and threats people in the community face"
(Oyetunmbi, n.d., p.2).

The features of hazard that need to be considered for selecting effective preparedness measures include the
following:

Hazard type: community members can enumerate the kind of hazards that hit or might hit their community.

Warning signs: scientific and indigenous indicators that a hazard is likely to happen. These can be
announcements through the radio, the number of hours of continuous rain, the particular behavior of animals,
etc.

Forewarning: time between warning and impact. In case of typhoons the forewarning can be three to four
days.

Speed of onset: rapidity of arrival and impact. We can distinguish between hazards that occur without almost
any warning (earthquake), and hazards that can be predicted three to four days in advance (typhoon) to very
slow-onset hazards (drought and famine).

Frequency: does hazard occur seasonally, yearly, once a while, once in a lifetime, etc.

When: does hazard occur at a particular time of the year (wet or dry season)?

Duration: how long is the impact of the hazard felt (earthquake and aftershocks; days/weeks/months that area
is flooded; period of military operations (Oyetunmbi, n.d., p.2), emphasis added).

While hazard assessment hazard assessment seeks to specify the nature and behavior of the potential hazards
and threats people in the community face, vulnerability assessment aims "to identify the elements at risk and the
reasons why these are at risk" (Oyetunmbi, n.d., p.3). For vulnerability assessment, one must take into
consideration the following:

Extent: Community members, however, sometimes have difficulties in expressing 'extent' in hectares. 'Extent',
often interpreted by local people as extent of damage, is usually expressed in terms of quantity of seeds planted
on affected land, number of months food supply lost, number of houses damaged, etc. The best way, however,
to indicate the 'extent' is the hazard map, which visualizes the exact location and coverage of the hazard.

Elements at risk and why. elements at risk are people, animals, crops, houses, tools, infrastructure, but also
social networks, communication mechanisms, attitudes, or anything that can be negatively affected by a
hazard... information is asked to describe the effects of the hazard, or in other words, the disaster situation.

People at risk: here the groups of people are explicitly identified who are most at risk for a particular hazard,
and how they are affected. For example, people most prone to flooding are those in low-lying areas, near the
river, living in light houses. Among this group, children, pregnant women, disabled and old people are most
vulnerable. They need assistance during evacuation, might be more vulnerable to diseases and have special
needs.

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 Location of people at risk: this means that the groups identified as most vulnerable are located in the hazard
map: where do they live? (Oyetunmbi, n.d., p.3).

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REFLECTION QUESTION

Can a disaster be prevented? Can you suggest measures to mitigate the adverse effects or impacts of disasters?
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THE PADAYON SERIES Building Resilient Communities

Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction
Authors: Maria Isabel B. LANADA
MA. LOURDES F. MELEGRITO, PhD Cand.
Diana J. MENDOZA, PhD
Project Director: RONALDO B. MACTAL, PhD

Phoenix Publishing House

2016

Disclaimer: The School and the instructor do not claim any rights or ownership of the information found in
the learning material or module. It is a compilation from different resources which are listed in the reference
section this is solely for educational purposes only.

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