In fact, the Philippines is the second most exposed country to the dangers of violent meteorology, with an average of 22 annual typhoons.Īs it is easy to understand, vulnerability has a direct relationship with poverty: the deficient water and sanitation facilities, the shanties and the overcrowding in shacks are factors that increase the vulnerability to phenomena. For instance, a house in the Philippines is exposed to a typhoon, but it is vulnerable because it has been deficiently built.
Vulnerability is the inclination to all of it being damaged. Both factors are anthropogenic, that is, caused by man, but with a very different meaning.Įxposure can be defined as the presence of people, homes, buildings, service facilities or any economic, social or cultural good in areas where violent phenomena might occur. In many cases exposure and vulnerability are erroneously considered as synonyms. The first ones are the concepts of exposure and vulnerability in face of the danger of a phenomenon that end up shaping the risk factor. There are key factors to understand and manage a situation with which we will have to coexist in the world, and which are the base of the success of any prevention strategy in the most affected countries. Once both coincide, there is a possibility and inevitability of greater and more severe disasters occurring.” As explained by the architect Eric Cesal, Special Projects Director of the Curry Stone Foundation and specialist in disasters, " there are two increasing megaphenomena in the world: climate change and urbanization. Exposure, vulnerability and riskĪlthough especially violent phenomena often exceed the forecasting capability, human errors in the planning of human settlements are often the main cause of disasters, especially those caused by extreme meteorological phenomena. According to the World Bank, disasters caused by climate phenomena have caused two thirds of the global economic and human losses in the last 44 years and have provoked 3.5 million deaths all around the world. A mixed origin between geological and climatic can be found in some avalanches, which combine excessive melting and landslides. Earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions are among the first ones all the extreme meteorological phenomena (hurricanes, tornados and storms), droughts and the rising of the sea level due to the melting of polar ice would be examples of the second category.
There are two different types of natural phenomena that cause disasters: the geological ones and those caused by climate.
For instance, the flooding of a flood plain caused by an overflowing river is a natural phenomenon the presence of human settlements in the area creates the possibility of a disaster. Phenomena are natural, but the disasters are produced by human action in his environment. For the UNISDR the term “natural disaster” can be misunderstood, as disasters are the result of the lack of prevention and planning in the presence of natural phenomena. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction ( UNISDR) differentiates between disasters and the phenomena that cause them. However, the same forecasts indicate that although they will more intense they will happen less often. Both phenomena were shown at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC) as a clear consequence of climate change and as a confirmation of the predictions included in its Fifth Evaluation Report (AR5), which was the base of the work of the COP 21, in December 2015 in Paris.Īccording to the forecasting models, the percentage of violent cyclones will increase by 2%-11% globally in the next four decades. Two years later, in October 2015, Hurricane Patricia broke the sustained speed record held by Haiyan on the Mexican shore, being registered at the National Hurricane Center ( NHC) as the most intense hurricane ever registered in the Western hemisphere.
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