Basic Concept of

Hazard
 Lesson 1: The Concept of Hazard
 Hazard- refers to anything which may be a source of probable
damage to man, animals, and properties.
1. Effects of hazard to People
 Hazard may cause injury or death to people. A hazardous building
for instance (building which has the propensity to collapse), like the
renowned Hyatt hotel in Baguio City, collapsed during the 1990
earthquake causing injury and death to hundreds of people.
2. Effects of Hazard to Human Activity
 During typhoon, classes are suspended, work may be stopped and
transportation may be hampered. These may result to the delay of
production, supply, and flow of information.
3. Effects of Hazard to Property
 Naturaldisasters may cause devastating damage to houses,
equipment, and livelihood. During typhoon, Ondoy in September 24-
27, 2009, 239 barangays were flooded causing great damage to
houses, cars, and animals. Roads were also damaged by this typhoon.
The overall estimated damaged to infrastructure is 11 billion pesos.
The assessment is specified by the Philippine National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council(NDRRMC).
4. Effects of Hazard to Environment
 One of the latest occurrence of environmental hazard in the
Philippines occurred in January 17, 2013. The United States Navy ship
ran around Tubbataha reef located in the middle of Sulu Sea. The reef
is a marine sanctuary and declared as “World Heritage Site”. Because
of the incident, about 1000 square meters of coral reefs was damaged
by the USS Guardian Ship of the United States.
 Hazard Event
 Refers to the totality of circumstances that causes the
harm to people, animals, and property. A natural disaster is
not a hazard event when it does not affect people’s lives
and properties.
 Hazard Assessment
 Isthe process of identifying potential threat, determining
the possibility of its occurrence and appraising its possible
effect. Hazard is sometimes called hazard evaluation or
hazard analysis.
 Hazard Assessment Approaches
 Inthe Philippines, the most common approach used in hazard
assessment is inter-agency communication from the Barangay
Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council to Municipal or City
Risk Reduction and Management Council and to the Provincial Risk
Reduction and Management Council. Reports coming from the local
government units are consolidated by the National Risk Reduction and
Management Council for final hazard assessment.

 Hazard Mapping
 Is the process of identifying localities which are in danger of natural
disasters like earthquake, ground subsidence, tsunami, and flash
floods. Hazard mapping is important as it serves as notice to those
who would want to build houses or infrastructures on a particular area.
 Lesson 2: Classification of Hazards
1. Natural hazard are those which are caused by forces in our environment
that disrupts human activity, or that may cause damage or injury to life
and property. Earthquake, floods, and thunderstorms are examples of
natural hazards.
2. Quasi-natural hazards are the second classification of hazards. These are
hazards which resulted from natural process and intervention of human
activities
 Smog is a mixture of smoke and fog. It is considered as quasi-natural hazard as it
may be the result of forest fire caused by human in which smoke is mixed with water.
 Haze is a mixture of dust, smoke, and other dry particles.

3. Technological(or man-made) hazards are those arising from industrial

conditions like accidents and equipment malfunctions which may cause
loss of lives of people, animals, properties.
 A typology based on Hewitt and Burton (1971) in classifying hazards:
1. Atmospheric- These are hazards which transpire on the earth’s atmosphere.
Atmospheric hazard may cause asphyxiation, irritation, and injuries.

Single Elements Combined Elements/Events

Excessive rainfall Hurricanes
Freezing rain(glaze) ‘Glaze’ storms
Hail Thunderstorms
Heavy snowfalls Blizzards
High wind speeds Tornadoes
Extreme temperature Heat/Cold stress
atmospheric
 A typology based on Hewitt and Burton (1971) in classifying
hazards:
2. Hydrologic- this refers to anything which has a connection with water in any
form or properties and its distribution. Some of the identified hydrologic
hazards are:
• Floods- river and coastal
• Wave action
• Drought
• Rapid glacier advance
3. Geologic- this pertains to anything in connection with earth surface
resembling to soil, lands, and minerals. Among the natural hazards and
possible disasters to be considered are:
• Mass movement
• Landslides and Mudslides
• Avalanches
 A typology based on Hewitt and Burton (1971) in classifying
hazards
4. Biologic- this is also known as biohazards. It refers to any organic
substance like bacteria, virus, birds, and the like which may cause
potential threat or danger to other living organisms like humans and
animals.
• Epidemic in humans
• Epidemic in plants
• Epidemic in animals
5. Technologic- these may refer to equipment malfunction in industries that
poses threat to lives and properties. Examples are:
• transport accidents
• Industrial explosions and fires
• Accidental release of toxic chemicals
• Nuclear accidents
• Collapse of public buildings
  The two category of hazard according to the Center for
Environment Geomatics, Manila, Philippines.
1. Natural hazards- any natural process which has the possibility to cause
damage to life and property. Examples of natural hazards are:
a) Typhoons
b) Drought
c) Earthquakes
d) Volcanic eruptions and
e) Tsunami
 Geophysical hazards- are events normal occurrence of forces
of the earth. The following are the categorization of
geophysical hazards:
1. Earthquake- is the result of the sudden slip on a fault in the earth. As
a result, the ground shaking would felt.
2. Earthquake-induced landslides- this is the downslope movement of
soil and rock as a result of earthquake.
3. Tsunami- this phenomenon may be associated with earthquake or
volcanic eruption in which a large sea wave is formed that may
drowned people, animals, and properties including huge buildings
4. Volcanic eruptions- the flow of lahar and the accent of magma are the
two most distressing effects of volcanic eruptions.
 Anthropogenic Hazards(man-made)- hazards includes pollution,
deforestation, mining, and climate change. Burning of waste is an
example of human act leading to smog while the refusal of using
chemicals may lead to damage to ozone layer.
 Other classification of hazards
1. Multiple hazards
2. Secondary hazards
3. Chronic hazards
 Natural Hazards and Human Intervention
1. Human intervention has direct impact to natural hazards.
• For example: When the landslide area is removed to make room for the establishment of
another community, the authorities are putting again the people in danger.
2. Human intervention may also result to the emergence of another hazard.
• For example: Lakes may not be sources of hazard until they were privately occupied by
the people, forming a community and dumping their waste to it. Lakes, due to human
intervention resulted to the hazards of the red tide phenomena to marine life.
3. Human intervention may diminish the natural characteristics of the
environment to reduce the risk of hazard
• For example: Dynamite fishing damages the natural ecosystem of the sea which may
also lead to weaken capacity of the sea environment to mitigate the devastating effects
of tsunami and storm surge. Dynamite not only kills the fish that live in the reef but
also the reef.
 Lesson 3: The Impact of Various Hazards
1. Primary effect- these are those which occur as a consequence of the hazard itself.
Example:
a) Clogging of water drainage during a flood
b) Buildings collapsed during an earthquake
2. Secondary effect- these are the results or outcome of primary effects of hazards.
Example:
1. Ignition of fire as a result of earthquakes
2. Electrical power and water services interruption as a result of an earthquake
3. Tertiary effect- are long-term effects as a result of a primary event.
Example:
 Loss of habitat caused by a flood
 Permanent changes in the position of river channel caused by flood
 Crop failure caused by a volcanic eruption