Basic Concept of Disaster and

Disaster Risk
Disaster
 A disaster is a sudden, calamitous
event that seriously disrupts the
functioning of a community or society and
causes human, material, and economic or
environmental losses that exceed the
community’s or society’s ability to cope
using its own resources. Though often
caused by nature, disasters can have
human origins.
Disaster
(VULNERABILITY+ HAZARD ) / CAPACITY = DISASTER

A disaster occurs when a hazard impacts on

vulnerable people.

The combination of hazards, vulnerability and

inability to reduce the potential negative
consequences of risk results in disaster.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross and

Red Crescent
Aggravating Factors of Disaster
Aggravating Factors of Disaster
 Climate change ranks among the
greatest global problems of the 21st century
and the scientific evidence on climate change
is stronger than ever.
 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) released its Fourth
Assessment Report in early 2007, saying that
climate change is now unequivocal.
 It confirms that extremes are on the rise
and that the most vulnerable people,
particularly in developing countries, face the
brunt of impacts.
Aggravating Factors of Disaster
 The gradual expected temperature rise may
seem limited (with a likely range from 2 to 4
degrees Celsius predicted for the coming
century), however a slightly higher
temperature is only an indicator that much
more is awry.
 Along with the rising temperature, known as
global warming we experience:
◦ An increase in both frequency and intensity of
extreme weather events: more
prolonged droughts, floods, landslides, heat waves,
and more intense storms;
Aggravating Factors of Disaster
◦ The spreading of insect-borne diseases such
as malaria and dengue to new places where
people are less immune to them;
◦ A decrease in crop yields in some areas due to
extreme droughts or downpours and changes in
timing and reliability of rainy seasons;
◦ Global sea level rise of several cm per decade,
which will affect coastal flooding, water supplies,
tourism, fisheries etc. Tens of millions of people
will be forced to move inland;
◦ Melting Glaciers, leading to water supply
shortages.
Aggravating Factors of Disaster
Aggravating Factors of Disaster
Aggravating Factors of Disaster: Unplanned
Urbanization
 Today 50 % of the world population lives in urban
centers by 2030 this is expected to increase to 60%.
 The majority of the largest cities, known as Mega Cities
are in developing countries while 90% of the population
growth of developing countries will be urban in nature.
 Migration from rural to urban areas is often trigged by
repeated natural disasters and lack of livelihood
opportunities.
 However, at the same time many mega-cities are built in
areas where there is a heightened risk for earthquakes,
floods, landslides and other natural disasters.
Aggravating Factors of Disaster: Unplanned
Urbanization

 Many people living in large urban centers such

as slums lack access to improved water,
sanitation, security of tenure, durability of
housing, and sufficient living area.
 This lack of access to basic services and
livelihood leads to increasing risk of
discrimination, social exclusion and ultimately
violence
Disaster Risk
 Disaster risk is expressed as the likelihood of loss of life,
injury or destruction and damage from a disaster in a
given period of time.

A man stands surrounded by the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan

in the city of Tacloban
© Henry Donati/Department for International Development CC by 2.0
Disaster 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

Disasters are sometimes considered external shocks, but

disaster risk results from the complex interaction
between development processes that generate conditions
of exposure, vulnerability and hazard (UNISDR, 2009a).
Disaster Risk
 Disaster risk is therefore considered as the combination
of the severity and frequency of a hazard, the numbers
of people and assets exposed to the hazard, and their
vulnerability to damage (UNISDR, 2015a).
 Intensive risk is disaster risk associated with low-
probability, high-impact events, whereas extensive risk is
associated with high-probability, low-impact events.

 There is no such thing as a natural disaster,

but disasters often follow natural hazards.
Disaster Risk
 The losses and impacts that characterize disasters
usually have much to do with the exposure and
vulnerability of people and places as they do with the
severity of the hazard event (UNISDR, 2013).
 Disaster risk has many characteristics. In order to
understand disaster risk, it is essential to understand
that it is:
◦ Forward looking the likelihood of loss of life,
destruction and damage in a given period of time
◦ Dynamic: it can increase or decrease according to
our ability to reduce vulnerability
Disaster Risk
 Invisible: it is comprised of not only the threat of high-
impact events, but also the frequent, low-impact events
that are often hidden
 Unevenly distributed around the earth: hazards
affect different areas, but the pattern of disaster risk
reflects the social construction of exposure and
vulnerability in different countries
 Emergent and complex: many processes, including
climate change and globalized economic development,
are creating new, interconnected risks
 Disasters threaten development, just
as development creates disaster risk.
Disaster Risk
 The key to understanding disaster risk is by recognizing
that disasters are an indicator of development failures,
meaning that disaster risk is a measure of the
sustainability of development.
 Hazard, vulnerability and exposure are influenced by a
number of risk drivers, including poverty and inequality,
badly planned and managed urban and regional
development, climate change and environmental
degradation (UNISDR, 2009a, 2011, 2013 and 2015a).
Disaster Risk
 Understanding disaster risk requires us to not only
consider the hazard, our exposure and vulnerability but
also society's capacity to protect itself from disasters.
 The ability of communities, societies and systems to
resist, absorb, accommodate, recover from disasters,
while at the same time improve wellbeing, is known as
resilience.