ASSIGNMENT 2

SUBJECT: Diaster Preparednes & Planning

Q2) Compare Hazard and Vulnerability .

Hazard

Definition – A Rare or Extreme Events in the natural (or man made) environment that adversely affects
human lives, properties or activities to the extent of causing a disaster is known as Hazard. Hazards are
potentially damaging physical events, phenomena, or human activities that cause loss of life, injury,
property damage, social and economic disruption, or environmental degradation (Makoka & Kaplan,
2005). They are external factors that affect the society or elements at risk. Hazards have the potential to
cause disasters. (UNISDR 2009).

Description –Every living being experience some form of threat to life, property or anything which holds
value to them. The source of this threat is called risk. Hazards can be as extreme as nuclear meltdown to
as simple as road accidents.

Hazards were largely considered as acts of God, divine forces of Nature in early human history. This
thought was fatalistic and did not resonate the societal responsibility in causing disaster (manifestation
of a hazard). According to Etkin (2015), a departure from that thought happened post the Lisbon
earthquake in 1755. This earthquake brought forth a scientific viewpoint to the idea of hazards and their
origins due to the commonalities in the destroyed houses.

There has been a gradual emergence of the term hazard as threats to mankind. Alexander (2000)
described hazards as extreme geophysical events capable of causing disasters. The interpretation of
hazards by Cutter, Hewitt and the definition of UNISDR also portray hazards as threats to human well-
being, property or environment. It is to be noted that the hazard is the threat of events but not the
probability of its occurrence or the actual event.

Context of Hazards:

The concept of hazards and their manifestations are dependent on time and space. The impact of
hazards among people also varies from person to place. For instance, young people might not consider
crossing a busy road as a hazard, while for the elderly and the differently abled, it is a serious hazard.
Similarly, for malnourished people, diarrhoea is a serious threat but for their healthy counterparts this
may not be the case .

Considering natural disasters, an earthquake, which is a hazard, occurring in an uninhabited desert will
be of little concern and consequence than an earthquake occurring in a densely populated city. The
subjective position of the person also determines the lens through which the hazard is viewed. Thus,
hazards are not always bad. On the contrary, certain hazards like floods are welcome to farmers since it
brings silt in their land (as long as the flood does not cause damage, human or economic loss).
Typology of hazards – Hazards can be classified across many dimensions. The most commonly used
classification method classifies hazards according to its origin.

The classification used by EM-DAT distinguishes hazards as:

a)Natural

b)Anthropogenic

Natural disasters are further classified in the following categories:

Source – Guha-Sapir et.al. 2009

The definition of each of the sub groups is as follows:

a) Geophysical – The phenomena originating from inside the earth as a result of the various geological,
geophysical and tectonic activities. The dynamic nature of earth’s crust resulted in the geophysical
hazards.Example – Earthquake, Volcano, Mass Movement (Dry)

b) Meteorological – Event caused by short-lived/small to meso scale atmospheric processes (in the
spectrum from minutes to days)Example – Thunderstorm, Lightning etc.

c) Hydrological – Events caused by imbalance in the normal hydrological cycle and/or overflow of bodies
of water caused by wind set-upExample – Flood, Urban Flooding, Mass Movement (wet) etc.

d) Climatological – Events caused by long-lived/meso to macro scale atmospheric processes (in the
spectrum from intra-seasonal to multi-decadal climate variability) Example – Extreme Temperature,
Drought, Wildfire etc.

e) Biological – Disaster caused due to exposure of living organisms to germs and toxic substances.
Example – Epidemic, Pest Infestation, Community Disease.

Coppola in his book Introduction to International Disaster Management classifies 5 types of hazards –

1. Natural Hazards – Hazards occurring from extreme or common physical processes e.g. Earthquakes,
Floods, Tsunamis, Hurricanes etc.Natural hazards can be further categorized as:

a. Hydro meteorological or atmospheric hazards – Floods, Droughts etc.

b. Geophysical or geological hazards – Earthquake, Tsunamis, Volcanoes etc.

2. Social Hazards – These originates in social systems and are caused or exacerbated by human
actions.e.g. Famines, Social Conflicts, Wars, Complex Emergencies

Sen’s seminal work on ‘entitlement theory’ examines how the Great Bengal famine of 1943 was caused
due to anthropogenic factors rather than crisis of food due to drought.

Social hazards like complex emergencies often find less media and donor attention than natural hazards.
Also they are more political and complicated.

3. Biological Hazards – This type of hazards are originated from biological agents likes Virus, Bacteria etc.
e.g. AIDS, Foot and Mouth disease, SARS, Ebola,Swine Flu etc.

4. Technological Hazards – Originated from the interaction of society, technology and natural
systems.E.g. Chernobyl disaster (Ukraine) of 1986, Bhopal Gas Tragedy (India) of 1984

a) Industrial hazards – Bhopal Gas Tragedy (India) of 1984

b) Structural collapse hazards – Flyover collapse (Kolkata, India) 2016

c) Nuclear hazards – Chernobyl disaster (Ukraine) of 1986

d) Computer hazards – Ransomware attack (India) 2017

e) Transportation hazards –Gyaneshwari Express accident (West Bengal ), 2010

5. Chronic hazards– long term events or cyclical events. These are also called silent hazards or elusive
hazards as these are very hard to identify. It originates due to repeated exposures but have very little
perceivable impact in time and space.e.g. Riverine erosion, food insecurity, Land degradation ,Soil Piping,
Soil Erosion etc.

However it is to be understood that a hazard does not necessarily arise from a single originating factor
but having multiple sources of origin.

Hazards are also classified on the basis of their speed of onset as:

1. Slow Onset – Slow onset events provide response time, i.e. the time to raise warning and time
required for preparedness and response. E.g. Drought, Heat waves

2. Fast Onset – These events give no response time, and affects instantaneously. e.g. Earthquake, Cloud
Bursts etc.

3. Medium onset – Though not well defined, but these can be considered as events which fall in
between slow and fast onset. These provide a very short time window to generate warnings and prepare
for the hazard. e.g. Cyclones, Floods. (although traditionally considered under fast onset hazards).

There is another classification scheme based on hazard frequency as-

1. Single time Event – Major events which occur once and does not follow a seasonal or temporal
pattern. e.g. Earthquake

2.Chronic Event – Major events which follow a seasonal pattern or occur repeatedly after a certain
interval of time. e.g. Floods, Cyclones etc.

Depending on the time of initiation of a hazard, it can be classified as primary, secondary or tertiary
hazards. A classic example of this kind is Tsunami generated by Tohuku Earthquake in Japan, that caused
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 11, 2011. In this case, Earthquake was the primary hazard,
which created the secondary hazards of Tsunami which further created the tertiary hazard of nuclear
spillage.

Further, hazards are also classified into two categories based on the spatial characteristics-

1.Concentrated – The events which affect a significant number of populations located in a single location.
e.g. Floods

2.Dispersed – are hazardous events affecting a significant number of populations spreading across the
geographical locations. e.g. Heat waves

While discussing about hazards, it would be worthwhile to discuss about the characteristics of hazards as
under –

Magnitude – is the strength or force of the hazard event. The scale of measurement varies across
hazards. While earthquake is measured in Richter scale or Modified Mercalli Intensity scale , Hurricanes
are measured in Saffir Simpson Hurricane scale. Certain hazards have no well-defined scale of
measurement and are measured based on their impacts.

Duration – is the time during which a hazard event persists

Seasonality – The particular season in which the hazards are more likely to occur Spatial Extent – The
area affected by hazard

Vulnerability:

Vulnerability is defined as the degree of loss resulting from the potentially damaging phenomena. The
area may be called high or low vulnerable depending upon geological & geographical and other
factors.Vulnerability is the characteristic of a person or group and their situation that influences their
capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard. (Wisner et.al,
2003) It is the reduced capacity of individual to cope with or recover from hazardous events (Wisner,
Blaikie, Cannon, & Davis, 2003).

Alternatively, vulnerability exists with a likelihood that some kind of crisis may occur that will damage
one’s health, life or property and resources on which one’s health and life depends (Anderson, 1995).
UNISDR defines vulnerability as the “characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset
that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard” . It is the increased susceptibility of people
to be affected by disasters.

Combining the two ideas, we can define vulnerability as the characteristics of a person or groups of
persons who are

a) susceptible to the impacts of a hazard, and

This introduces the idea of susceptibility and resilience. Vulnerability can be considered broadly as a
function of susceptibility and resilience. Susceptibility is the fact of being exposed. Resilience is the
capacity to adjust and recover when the external shocks strike. The following cases elaborate the
concept –

A. The house of a person is situated in flood prone zone, which is not built to withstand flood. But the
person has enough resources to rebuild the house once it gets damaged. He also has another house
where he can relocate during flood. In this case the person is susceptible but resilient.

B. In the other case, If the person has no house to relocate or resources to rebuild house post flooding.
But the house itself is built to withstand flood and not be affected much. In this case the person is not
resilient but not susceptible to the hazard.

C. In the last case, let us consider the person does not have a flood proof house nor does he have
alternate resources to rebuild or additional house to relocate during floods. In this case the person
becomes vulnerable to the impact of the flood.

Susceptibility has physical connotations and is easier to assess. It can be considered as the proximity and
exposure to the hazard. Resilience on the other hand is a complex concept consisting of multiple
parameters like access to resources, capacities etc. and are harder to assess than susceptibility(WHO,
1998) .

Vulnerability in the context of disasters

Vulnerability, derived from the word Vulnerare (Latin) meaning “to wound”, could be seen as an indicator
of areas of greatest concern with respect to a system. It is the degree to which a system might react
adversely to the occurrence of an event/ hazard.

Vulnerability is internal to the system and depends on the system’s inherent strength or rather the
weaknesses. Birkman (2007) identifies vulnerability as the internal factor that affects the transformation
of hazards into disasters. It determines a hazard impacts on the society or elements at the risk.The
manifestation of a hazard creates additional stressors for the vulnerable groups. It interacts with pre-
existing vulnerabilities and creates multidimensional adversities. The lack of fall back mechanism or
coping capacities (due to the weakness of the system) translate hazards into disasters. The PAR model
and the ACCESS model better reflects the interaction of vulnerabilities and hazards.

Pre-existing vulnerabilities are often responsible for creating disasters. While disasters only add to the
stress and creating further vulnerabilities in the affected population, It often results in the creation of
cyclical nature of vulnerability, thus vulnerability acts as a cause and consequence of disasters.

UNISDR (2004) states that vulnerability is determined by physical, social, economic and environmental
factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards. There
are many aspects of vulnerability. Examples may include poor design and construction of buildings,
inadequate protection of assets, limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures, and
disregard for wise environmental management. These largely fall in the category of physical and
environmental factors.Determinants of vulnerability are also rooted in social relations and historically
rooted patterns of discrimination, inequity in access to resources, and power. (Birkmann & Wisner, 2006)
Societal dynamics and developmental trajectory also determines the vulnerability

The interactions of multiple vulnerability factors determine the individual’s position in the society and
access to resources. These resources are economic, social and political in nature. These factors in turn
determine the susceptibility and resilience of individuals. An example below illustrates the concept.

Example–In literature, the increased vulnerability of the socially marginalized groups in disaster context
have been highlighted. Often the hamlets of these groups are located in particularly disaster prone areas
and often they do not recover from the impacts of the disaster even after many years.

Generally, these groups are not allowed to socially mingle with higher caste groups. Even if they are
allowed, often these individuals do not have the economic capability to afford doing so. Thus, they end
up staying in disaster prone localities away from mainland. In the eventuality of disasters, these
marginalized groups are the first to get affected.Once affected, these groups, due to their marginalized
status, face unequal rights to property, exclusion from decision-making and difficulties in accessing
information, health and financial services. The social tensions existing in a normal situation become
prominent in the resource constrained environment. Thus, the recovery process of these groups take
longer time, and often they fail to recover from the impacts of the hazards ending up in higher levels of
vulnerability.

Hooke (1999) has opined that the poor communities living with fewer resources are unable to decrease
their vulnerability. These individuals are also termed as “At risk population”. It “includes groups whose
needs are not fully addressed by traditional service providers or those who feel they cannot comfortably
or safely use the standard resources offered in disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery.