Question

1. What do you feel are the most significant initial considerations in determining a community's vulnerability to natural hazards? 2. Is it important to determine the asset inventory of your community to develop a mitigation plan? 3. What are some of the most important assets to be considered in comprising the plan?

Answer 1

The concept of vulnerability encompasses a variety of definitions. In general, vulnerability means the potential to be harmed. Vulnerability to natural hazards is thus the potential to be harmed by natural hazards. Some people and places are more vulnerable to certain hazards than other people and places. While any one extreme event may be unusual, there are broad trends in natural hazards. These trends are due to characteristics of both natural systems and human systems. By characterizing these trends, we can understand who and what is vulnerable and in what ways they are vulnerable. This, in turn, helps us reduce vulnerability and, when extreme events occur, reduce the damage. This work saves lives, and much more.

Human Factors

The severity of a disaster depends on both the physical nature of the extreme event and the social nature of the human populations affected by the event. Here are some important human factors that tend to influence disaster severity. A core point here is that different people, even within the same region, have different vulnerability to natural hazards.

Wealth. Wealth is one of the most important human factors in vulnerability. Wealth affects vulnerability in several ways. The poor are less able to afford housing and other infrastructure that can withstand extreme events. They are less able to purchase resources needed for disaster response and are less likely to have insurance policies that can contribute. They are also less likely to have access to medical care. Because of these and other factors, when disaster strikes, the poor are far more likely than the rich to be injured or killed. But there are exceptions. For example, some coastal areas contain expensive beachside real estate populated mainly by the rich, leaving the rich more vulnerable to tsunamis, storm surges, and other coastal hazards. Also, the rich tend to lose more money from disasters, simply because they have more valuable property at stake. We've already seen one example of the role of wealth, in the comparison of Hurricane Katrina (wealthier area, fewer deaths, higher monetary damage) to Cyclone Nargis (poorer area, more deaths, less monetary damage).

Education. Education is another important factor in hazard impacts. With education, we can learn how to avoid or reduce many impacts. When populations are literate, then written messages can be used to spread word about hazards in general or about specific disasters. Even without literacy, it is possible to educate a population about hazards in order to help it reduce its vulnerability. When populations include professionals trained in hazards, then these people can help the populations with their hazards preparations and responses. We'll see one example of the role of education on the next page: research by scholars in the Penn State Geography Department being used to help coastal communities in the face of hurricane storm surges. Here is another example that will help clarify exactly what sort of education is important for natural disasters.

Governance. The nature of both formal governments and informal governance in a population is another important factor. Governments can advance policies that reduce vulnerability. They can establish agencies tasked with reducing vulnerability, such as FEMA in the United States. They can support education and awareness efforts, as well as economic development to reduce poverty. Finally, they can foster social networks and empower individuals and communities to help themselves to prepare for and respond to hazards. Likewise, even without governments, communities can informally engage in many of these governance activities. Often the most vulnerable people are those who are politically marginalized because these people have less access to key resources and opportunities. One example of the role of government that we've seen already is the Myanmar government during Cyclone Nargis. This government is isolated from the international community and, thus, was not welcoming to international assistance in the aftermath of the cyclone. Compare that to Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. Haiti, like Myanmar, is a poor country, but it has positive and close relationships with the international community and thus readily welcomed international assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake. This assistance saved many lives and is helping Haiti rebuild.

Technology. The capabilities of the available technology can also play a large role in disasters. Technology can improve our ability to forecast extreme events, withstand the impacts of the events, and recover afterward. Technology is closely tied to wealth, education, and governance. Wealthier, more educated societies are more likely to have more advanced technology. A society's governance systems play a large role in how - and how effectively - the available technology is used in a disaster situation. One striking example of the role of technology is in the international response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. On the next page, we'll learn about new Internet mapping technology such as Ushahidi that was used to help rescuers locate people in need. A lot of other technology was used in the response. For example, the U.S. Navy sent the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship, to treat the injured, and several helicopters to transport the injured to the ship. Helicopters were also used to distribute water. The helicopters were crucial because Port-au-Prince's port was damaged, as were many roads.

Figure 8.2 Striking Example of the Role of Technology: A Coast Guard HH-60 helicopter brings injured Haitians from a landing zone in Killick at the Haitian coast guard base to the USNS Comfort for medical treatment.

Credit: Work found at Wikimedia Commons

Age. Children and the elderly tend to be more vulnerable. They have less physical strength to survive disasters and are often more susceptible to certain diseases. The elderly often also have declining vision and hearing. Children, especially young children, have less education. Finally, both children and the elderly have fewer financial resources and are frequently dependent on others for survival. In order for them to survive a disaster, it is necessary for both them and their caretakers to stay alive and stay together. An example of the role of age is the 2003 European heat wave. About 40,000 people died in one of the hottest summers ever in Europe. Many of the deaths were elderly people who were still capable of taking care of themselves. These people were not able to adapt to the extreme heat and had no one helping them out.

Gender. Women are often more vulnerable to natural hazards than men. This is in part because women are more likely to be poor, less educated, and politically marginalized, often due to sexism in societies around the world. Women often face additional burdens as caretakers of families. When disaster strikes, women are often the ones tasked with protecting children and the elderly. This leaves them less mobile and more likely to experience harm themselves.

each participating jurisdiction identifies assets at risk from natural hazards. Assets are defined broadly to include anything that is important to the character and function of a community and can be described very generally in the following four categories:

• People
• Economy
• Built environment
• Natural environment

Although all assets may be affected by hazards, some assets are more vulnerable because of their physical characteristics or socioeconomic uses. The purpose of an asset inventory is to identify specific vulnerable assets in your community. When updating a mitigation plan, the planning team will update the asset inventory to reflect current conditions.

People

• Identify concentrations of residents and employees to help target preparedness, response, and mitigation actions.
• Identify the types of visiting populations and their likely locations to assess potential problems.
• Identify locations and concentrations of access and functional needs populations to develop mitigation actions that will best assist them.
• Consider demographics of projected population growth to predict vulnerability.
• Identify locations that provide health or social services that are critical to disaster recovery.

• Economy

• Identify major employers, primary economic sectors (e.g., agriculture), and commercial centers whose losses or inoperability would have severe impacts on the community and its ability to recover from a disaster.
• Assess dependencies between economic sectors and businesses and the infrastructure needed to support them.

• Built Environment

  Existing Structures

• Identify types of buildings, which include commercial, industrial, and single and multi-family residential.
• Determine the age and construction type of buildings to understand building codes in effect and quality of construction.

• Infrastructure and Critical Facilities

• Develop an inventory of the location, construction standards, age, and life expectancy of specific critical infrastructure and facilities in the planning area.
• Assess dependencies between infrastructure systems, critical facilities, and the people they serve.

• Cultural Resources

• Review state and national historic registries and identify cultural assets, such as museums, that have significance to the community.

• Future Development

• Identify areas planned and zoned for future development and annexation.
• Identify location, numbers, and types of structures of planned new development and redevelopment.
• Review plans for new facilities, infrastructure, and other capital improvements, such as stormwater management infrastructure, to support existing and future development.

• Natural Environment

  Identify the most valuable areas that can provide protective functions that reduce the magnitude of hazard events.

  Identify critical habitat areas and other environmental features that are important to protect.