Basics of Disaster Management - 3

What is vulnerability?

According to UNISDR,

“Vulnerability is the inability to resist a hazard or to respond when a disaster has occurred.”

It is the extent to which a community or geographic area is likely to be damaged on account of its nature and proximity to a disaster-prone area.

Vulnerabilities can be categorized into

• Physical Vulnerability and
• Socio-economic Vulnerability

Physical Vulnerability is based on the physical condition of people and elements at risk, (such as buildings, infrastructure etc;)  and their proximity, location and nature of the hazard. It includes Who and What may be damaged or destroyed by a natural hazard.

Socio-economic Vulnerability -The socio-economic condition of the people also determines the intensity of the impact. For example, people who are poor and living along the coasts are generally at risk of loosing their shelters whenever there is a strong wind or cyclone.

What is capacity?

It is the ability of a community to restore the assets, resources and livelihoods damaged by a disaster.

It enables them to cope with, withstand, prepare for, prevent, mitigate or quickly recover from a disaster.

Capacities are of two types:

Physical Capacity: People whose houses have been destroyed by the cyclone or flood can salvage things from their homes. 

• They can find employment if they migrate, either temporarily or permanently.

Socio-economic Capacity: In most of the disasters, people suffer their greatest losses in the physical and material realm. 

• Rich people have the capacity to recover soon because of their wealth. In fact, they are seldom hit by disasters because they live in safe areas and their houses are built with stronger materials. They have the capacity to cope up with it.

What is Risk?

Risk is a measure of the expected losses due to a hazard event occurring in a given area over a specific time period.

The level of risk depends upon:

• Nature of the hazard
• Vulnerability of the elements which are affected
• Economic value of those elements

A community/locality is said to be at ‘risk’ when it is exposed to hazards and is likely to be adversely affected by its impact. 

Disaster risk management includes all measures which reduce disaster-related losses of life, property or assets by either reducing the hazard or vulnerability of the elements at risk.

Next Topic: Disaster Risk Management