12

Disaster
Readiness and
Risk Reduction
Quarter 1 – Module 1
Basic Concept of Disaster and
Disaster Risk

Department of Education • Republic of the Philippines

Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction
Alternative Delivery Mode
Quarter 1 – Module 1: Basic Concept of Disaster and Disaster Risk
First Edition, 2020

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over them.

Published by the Department of Education

Secretary: Leonor Magtolis Briones
Undersecretary: Diosdado M. San Antonio

Development Team of the Module

Authors: Emerina Clarisse R. Bernante, Louise A. Ferrer, Mark Anthony C. Mamon,
Cheryl A. Retio,
Editor: Ma. Lanie A. Socorro, Ed.D.
Reviewers: Raquel M. Austero, Ph.D.
Illustrator: Mark Anthony C. Mamon
Layout Artist: Louise A. Ferrer
Management Team: Malcolm S. Garma, Director IV
Genia V. Santos, CLMD Chief
Dennis M. Mendoza, Regional EPS In-Charge of LRMS
Micah S. Pacheco, Regional ADM Coordinator
Violeta M. Gonzales, CID Chief
Jennifer L. Tubello, Division EPS In-Charge of LRMS &
Division ADM Coordinator

Printed in the Philippines by ________________________

Department of Education – National Capital Region

Office Address: Misamis St., Bago Bantay, Quezon City

____________________________________________
____________________________________________
Telefax: 02-929-0153
____________________________________________
E-mail Address: ____________________________________________
[email protected]

Department of Education • Republic of the Philippines

 12

Disaster
Readiness and
Risk Reduction
Quarter 1 – Module 1
Basic Concept of Disaster and
Disaster Risk

This instructional material was collaboratively developed and reviewed

by educators from public and private schools, colleges, and or/universities. We
encourage teachers and other education stakeholders to email their feedback,
comments, and recommendations to the Department of Education at
[email protected].

We value your feedback and recommendations.

Department of Education • Republic of the Philippines

Introductory Message
For the facilitator:

This module adheres to the learning competencies of the K-12 Curriculum. This module
helps the learners understand the basic concept of disaster and disaster risk based
on the principles and guidelines of disaster risk reduction and management. This
module is a useful learning material that provides the learning objectives, pretest,
lesson proper, enrichment activities, generalization, application, assessment and
additional activities

For the learner:

This module is created to give meaningful learning on the basic concept of disaster and
disaster risk through clear and comprehensive discussions about the concepts and
through engaging and relevant activities. This module also allows the learners to reflect
and apply disaster risk reduction and management in everyday life.

1
 What I Need to Know

This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
understand the Basic Concept of Disaster and Disaster Risk. This module provides
discussions and activities that will help you learn the concepts, ideas, and relevant
information about the lesson. This module emphasizes the guidelines, and
importance of disaster readiness, risk reduction, and management.

The module is all about the Basic Concept of Disaster and Disaster Risk.

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. explain the meaning of disaster; and

2. differentiate the risk factors underlying disasters.

2
 What I Know

Directions: Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a
separate sheet of paper.

1. What is a process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life,
injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic
disruption or environmental degradation?
A. disaster C. hazard
B. emergency D. vulnerability

2. What are the variables that amplify the effects of hazards, thus affecting the
degree or scope of a disaster?
A. exposure C. vulnerability
B. risk drivers D. elements at risk

3. Which is NOT a risk driver?

A. weak governance
B. poverty and inequality
C. environmental degradation
D. properly planned urban development

4. An event, whether natural or human-induced, becomes a disaster EXCEPT on

what situation?
A. it occurs in an area with no exposure.
B. it causes widespread material or environmental losses.
C. community cannot provide the residents their basic needs.
D. communities experience severe danger and incur loss of lives.

5. What is the condition determined by physical, social, economic, and

environmental factors or processes that increases the susceptibility of an
individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards?
A. capacity C. resilience
B. hazard D. vulnerability

6. Which risk driver shows the inefficient, and incompetent protection of human
rights, and failure to provide public services?
A. poverty C. weak governance
B. climate change D. lack of awareness

3
7. What kind of hazard and disaster is the result and outcome of naturally
occurring processes in our world?
A. natural C. man-made
B. forest fire D. high risk event

8. Which of the following situations pertain to a disaster risk?

A. a landslide at the foothill of a deserted mountain.
B. a landslide in Benguet that destroyed a mountain village.
C. an isolated volcano erupting in the middle of Pacific Ocean.
D. Typhoon Yolanda passing over a remote and unpopulated island.

9. Which among the following is not an example of a natural disaster?

A. sinkholes C. storm surge
B. nuclear war D. insect infestation

10. Which among the following is not a result of disasters?

A. displacement of populations.
B. damage to the ecological environment.
C. adequate supply of goods and services.
D. destruction of a population’s homeland.

11. What disaster risk driver shows the effect of increased severity of disasters
due to rapid change to a metropolitan area?
A. weak governance
B. lack of awareness
C. socio-economic inequality
D. rapid and unplanned urbanization

12. Which of the following event is identified as a disaster?

A. a typhoon forming the in the Pacific Ocean.
B. the potential loss of life, injury or destroyed assets.
C. the unmanned auto-driving car of Tesla fell down the cliff.
D. a storm surge hit the residential coastline of Leyte resulting in death
and damage to property.

13. What disaster risk driver is emphasized when households, communities, and
societies are unaware about disasters resulting into an increase in disaster
risk?
A. weak governance
B. lack of awareness
C. socio-economic inequality
D. rapid and unplanned urbanization

4
14. What is the difference between a disaster and a disaster risk?
A. disaster is the infestation of insects in an area that may cause death and
disease, while disaster risk is the people infected and spreads the disease.
B. disaster is a process, phenomenon, or human activity that may cause loss
of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and
economic disruption or even environmental degradation; whereas a
disaster risk is the situation of people, infrastructure, housing,
production capacities and other tangible human assets located in hazard-
prone areas.
C. disaster is the combination of all strengths, attributes, and resources
available within an organization, community, or society to manage and
reduce disaster risks and strengthen resilience; whereas a disaster risk is
the potential loss of life, injury, or destroyed/damaged assets which could
occur to a system, society, or a community in a specific period, determined
probabilistically as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and
capacity.
D. disaster is defined as a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting
with variety of conditions; whereas the latter is the potential loss of life,
injury, or destroyed/damaged assets which could occur to a system,
society, or a community in a specific period, determined probabilistically
as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and capacity.

15. What is the difference between climate change and environmental

degradation in the context of disaster risk drivers?
A. climate change is the weather conditions prevailing in an area in
general or over a long period, while environment degradation is the
surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or
operates.
B. climate change is the decrease in the environmental capacity to provide
social and ecological needs, while environmental degradation affects
the disaster risk but also the community’s resilience.
C. climate change affects not only the disaster risk but also the
community’s resilience, while environmental degradation is the
decrease in the environmental capacity to provide social and ecological
needs.
D. climate change can result to limited capacity of household and
communities to manage the risk and improve their resilience, while
environmental degradation is the extreme poverty that equates to
greater disaster impact.

5
 Lesson
Basic Concept of Disaster
1 and Disaster Risk

Do you feel scared or shocked when you hear news about typhoons, floods,
fire, earthquakes, landslides, terrorism, kidnapping, and epidemic diseases? When
these happen, you hear terrible deaths, witness many injured or sick people, see
massive infrastructure destruction, or experience economic loss. In this world, we
always face these threats. Are there ways on how you can become prepared for these
threats? With this first module, you will be equipped with knowledge, and
information about disasters.

What’s In

This will be the first module you will encounter in the subject Disaster
Readiness and Risk Reduction. Do you know what is a disaster and disaster risk?
When do we consider an event a disaster? Do you know what is the difference
between disaster and disaster risk?

Notes to the Teacher/Parent/Guardian

Use the latest and current events of disasters that happened in the
Philippines as examples to make the students updated and
informed. Let the learners be aware on what is happening in their
communities.

6
 What’s New

Activity 1. The Pandemic Rises

Directions: Analyze the picture shown in Figure 1, then answer the questions
given. You can use a separate sheet in answering this activity.

Figure 1
Source: https://onenews.ph/covid-19-outbreak-expected-to-impact-on-the-local-economy-doh-bracing-for-local-
transmission

Questions:

1. What could be the reason people are wearing mask?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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 2. Is it dangerous not to wear mask in this situation? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. Would you also wear a mask? Why?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4. Based on this activity, what do you think the meaning of disaster?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

What is It

The Concept of Disaster and Disaster Risk

In this first module, you will be able to explain the basic concept of disaster
and disaster and to differentiate the disaster risk drivers. The terminologies listed
below are defined by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
(UNDRR), also known as the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR).

A disaster is defined as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community

or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of
exposure, vulnerability, and capacity that may lead to one or more of the following:
human, material, economic, and environmental losses and impacts. An event is
already a disaster if a hazard has already affected a population making them
vulnerable. One example we can have for disaster is a typhoon directly passing
through a city or a province.

Disaster risk is the potential loss of life, injury or destroyed or damaged assets
which could occur to a system, society, or a community in a specific period,
determined probabilistically as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and
capacity.

The disaster risk formula is shown below:

Disaster Risk = Hazard x Exposure x Vulnerability

Capacity

8
 Hazard is defined as a process, phenomenon, or human activity that may
cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and
economic disruption or even environmental degradation.

An exposure is the situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production

capacities and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas.
Vulnerability is a condition determined by physical, social, economic, and
environmental factors or processes which increases the susceptibility of an
individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards.

To determine disaster risk, the capacity of the community must be analyzed.

Capacity is the combination of all strengths, attributes, and resources available
within an organization, community, or society to manage and reduce disaster risks
and strengthen resilience. The capacity of a community may include the knowledge
and skills of people, leadership and management of the local government, and the
infrastructure and facilities available to the community.

Disaster risk can be presented with this diagram:

Figure 2: Disaster Risk

Source: https://niwa.co.nz/natural-hazards/hazards/risk-and-vulnerability

Nature of Disaster
1. Natural Hazards and Disasters – are the results and outcomes of naturally
occurring processes that occurred throughout Earth’s history.

Examples: Flood, volcanic eruption, insect infestation, tropical cyclone,

earthquake, tsunami, landslide, hurricane, tornado, sinkhole, drought, storm
surge etc.

2. Man-made/Human-induced/Anthropogenic Hazards and Disasters –

occur as a result or an outcome of human actions and interactions with other
people and the environment.

Examples: Chemical threat, hazardous material, nuclear blast, cyber-attack,

terrorism, civil unrest, bioweapon etc.

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Disaster Risk Drivers
Disaster risk drivers are factors that promote or increase the risk of a disaster.
The following are some disaster risk drivers:

1. Climate change – this can amplify disaster risk while weakening the
resilience of the community.
2. Poverty – extreme poverty equates to greater disaster impact.
3. Socio-economic inequality – can result to limited capacity of households and
communities to manage the risk and improve their resilience.
4. Increase population density/growth – the higher the population, the greater
vulnerability to disasters.
5. Rapid and unplanned urbanization – can result to an increased severity of
disasters.
6. Environmental degradation – can reduce the environmental capacity to
provide social and ecological needs.
7. Lack of awareness – households, communities, and societies who have lack
of awareness on disasters are not disaster prepared thus can aggravate
disaster risk.
8. Weak governance – inefficient and incompetent protection of human rights,
and failure to provide public services can happen due weak governance.

What’s More

Activity 2. The Most Memorable Experience on a Dangerous

Situation of My Life
Directions: Based on the discussion in What is it, can you recall any disaster?
If you don’t recall any, you may ask someone in your household to tell a disaster they
had experienced. Make a short descriptive essay about it. Take note on the details
and expressions you have, or they had while recalling.

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________.

10
Activity 3. Recalling the Challenging Times
Directions: Read the article provided on this activity about a disaster that
recently happened in the Philippines. Answer the given questions on a separate
sheet.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 30) — The Philippines has confirmed
its first case of novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV.
The Department of Health announced Thursday that a 38-year-old female
Chinese national who travelled to the Philippines from Wuhan — the Chinese city
where the coronavirus outbreak originated — via Hong Kong tested positive for the
virus. She arrived in the country on January 21, the DOH said.
The DOH further disclosed that she consulted with a doctor after experiencing
mild cough. She is no longer exhibiting any symptoms of coronavirus infection.
DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III confirmed to CNN Philippines' Newsroom
that the woman has been confined at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, a special
national hospital for infectious diseases.
“We are working closely with the hospital where the patient is admitted and
have activated the incident command system of the said hospital for appropriate
management, specifically on infection control, case management and containment.
We are also implementing measures to protect the health staff providing care to these
patients,” Duque said in an earlier press briefing.
Further, Duque told Newsroom that the Chinese nationals admitted in San
Lazaro Hospital were put in isolation.
"They are in isolation room, absolutely sealed off form anybody, except the
health care workers taking care of them and they are in their full gear," the Health
chief assured.
DOH Epidemiology Bureau Director Ferchito Avelino said they are also
looking at places where the woman stayed in Cebu and Dumaguete. He added that
they are working to identify and quarantine employees at establishments who had
close contact with the woman
Avelino also said they are also working with the Bureau of Quarantine to
determine what flights the Chinese woman took to the Philippines. He said they will
track down the four passengers nearest to the front, back and sides of the patient,
contact them and advise them accordingly.
The Philippine National Police has vowed to assist the DOH in monitoring all
major entry points in the country. It said that local police are also on standby to track
down other people who may have been infected with 2019-nCoV.
The city government of Manila will also distribute around 400,000 face masks
to students in public schools in the Philippine capital, Mayor Isko Moreno said.
"We ask the public not to panic and to remain calm as the government,
especially the DOH, is on top of the situation," Presidential Communications
Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said. "We would like to assure them
that the relevant health, research, and law enforcement agencies are working
together to prevent the disease from spreading."

Travel ban sought

The DOH said that it is now investigating 29 people suspected of 2019-nCoV
infection. Eighteen of them are in Metro Manila, four are in Central Visayas, three in
Western Visayas, and one each in Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao
and Davao.

11
 One person who had been under investigation for the coronavirus has died of
pneumonia. Health officials said that the 39-year-old man has not yet tested positive
for 2019-nCoV, but has tested positive for HIV, which if untreated can leave the body
susceptible to all kinds of infections.
Duque said he will recommend to the task force on emerging diseases to ban
the entry of all travellers from China's Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.
“But I believe that will still change. It could expand, increase the number of
places depending on the assessment that is going to be done by the WHO (World
Health Organization),” he said.
Some areas in the country have enforced stricter entry rules, with Samal
Island in Davao del Norte barring entry of all people who came from countries which
have reported cases of 2019-nCoV. Cebu, meanwhile, is seeking to enforce a 14-day
quarantine for tourists coming from China.
Some lawmakers are also calling for the government to temporarily ban all
people who came from China from entering the country.
Among them is Senator Risa Hontiveros who wants a 30-day travel ban on
all individuals travelling to the Philippines who passed through China in the past
two weeks.
“If Hong Kong has drastically reduced high-speed train and ferry services
from China, then why can’t we do the same?" said Senate President Pro Tempore
Ralph Recto, who is also seeking a travel ban.
The DOH advised the public to practice good hygiene, drink lots of water, eat
food rich in vitamins A, C, E and the mineral zinc, avoid crowded places and to wear
a surgical mask if they feel any flu-like symptoms.
Some of the common symptoms of a 2019-nCoV infection are headache and
weakness, runny nose, cough or sore throat, and muscle pain. It may also cause
high fever, trouble breathing, pneumonia, sepsis and even death.
Worldwide, the number of people infected with 2019-nCoV has exceeded the
count during the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, with now more
than 7,700 confirmed cases in mainland China, including 170 deaths, CNN reported.
This marks an increase of almost 30 percent in the number of cases from the
previous day.
Cases have also been reported in countries including Thailand, South Korea,
Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Canada, France,
Germany, Sri Lanka, India and Australia.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Triciah Terada contributed to this report.

Source: https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/1/30/Philippines-coronavirus-case.html

Questions:

1. What disaster is being discussed in the article? Give a brief description of

the disaster.
2. What will be affected by the disaster? List all the possibilities and justify
why.
3. What negative implications can this disaster bring?

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Activity 4. Everything Around Us
Directions: Try to remember a disaster that happened in the past or is
currently happening. Try to identify how did the risk drivers magnified disasters.
Write the risk drivers in the first (1 st) column and explain how these answers
magnified the risk of a disaster in the second (2 nd) column.

Risk Drivers Magnified Results

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

What I Have Learned

Directions: Fill in the metacognition table of what we have learned from this
module.
1. Disaster is ________________________________________ while disaster risk is
_______________________________________.
2. The disaster risk drivers are _________________________________________ and it
can ____________________________________________________________.

What I Can Do

Pollution is a man-made disaster in the environment brought about by

irresponsible actions and activities. Pollution can harm people, animals and plants.
How did pollution become a disaster?

Directions: List 3 events that pollution had become a disaster.

1. _______________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________

13
 Assessment

Directions: Choose the best answer. Answer on a separate sheet of paper.

1. What is the condition determined by physical, social, economic, and
environmental factors or processes that increases the susceptibility of an
individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards?
A. capacity C. resilience
B. hazard D. vulnerability

2. What is a process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life,
injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic
disruption or environmental degradation?
A. disaster C. hazard
B. emergency D. vulnerability

3. What are the variables that amplify the effects of hazards, thus affecting the
degree or scope of a disaster?
A. exposure C. vulnerability
B. risk drivers D. elements at risk

4. Which is NOT a risk driver?

A. weak governance
B. poverty and inequality
C. environmental degradation
D. properly planned urban development

5. An event, whether natural or human-induced, becomes a disaster EXCEPT on

what situation?
A. it occurs in an area with no exposure.
B. it causes widespread material or environmental losses.
C. community cannot provide the residents their basic needs.
D. communities experience severe danger and incur loss of lives.

6. Which among the following is not a result of disasters?

A. displacement of populations.
B. damage to the ecological environment.
C. adequate supply of goods and services.
D. destruction of a population’s homeland.

7. Which risk driver shows the inefficient, and incompetent protection of human
rights, and failure to provide public services?
A. poverty C. weak governance
B. climate change D. lack of awareness

14
8. What kind of hazard and disaster is the result and outcome of naturally
occurring processes in our world?
A. natural C. man-made
B. forest fire D. high risk event

9. Which of the following situations pertain to a disaster risk?

A. a landslide at the foothill of a deserted mountain.
B. a landslide in Benguet that destroyed a mountain village.
C. an isolated volcano erupting in the middle of Pacific Ocean.
D. Typhoon Yolanda passing over a remote and unpopulated island.

10. Which among the following is not an example of a natural disaster?

A. sinkholes C. storm surge
B. nuclear war D. insect infestation

11. What disaster risk driver is emphasized when households, communities, and
societies have are unaware about disasters resulting into an increase in
disaster risk?
A. weak governance
B. lack of awareness
C. socio-economic inequality
D. rapid and unplanned urbanization

12. What disaster risk driver shows the effect of increased severity of disasters
due to rapid change to a metropolitan area?
A. weak governance
B. lack of awareness
C. socio-economic inequality
D. rapid and unplanned urbanization

13. Which of the following event is identified as a disaster?

A. a typhoon forming the in the Pacific Ocean.
B. the potential loss of life, injury or destroyed assets.
C. the unmanned auto-driving car of Tesla fell down the cliff.
D. a storm surge hit the residential coastline of Leyte resulting in death and
damage to property.

15
14. What is the difference between climate change and environmental degradation
in the context of disaster risk drivers?
A. climate change is the weather conditions prevailing in an area in
general or over a long period, while environmental degradation is the
surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or
operates.
B. climate change is the decrease in the environmental capacity to provide
social and ecological needs, while environmental degradation affects
the disaster risk but also the community’s resilience.
C. climate change affects not only the disaster risk but also the
community’s resilience, while environmental degradation is the
decrease in the environmental capacity to provide social and ecological
needs.
D. climate change can result to limited capacity of household and
communities to manage the risk and improve their resilience, while
environmental degradation is the extreme poverty that equates to
greater disaster impact.

15. What is the difference between a disaster and a disaster risk?

A. disaster is the infestation of insects in an area that may cause death
and disease, while disaster risk is the people infected and spreads the
disease.
B. disaster is a process, phenomenon, or human activity that may cause
loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and
economic disruption or even environmental degradation; whereas a
disaster risk is the situation of people, infrastructure, housing,
production capacities and other tangible human assets located in
hazard-prone areas.
C. disaster is the combination of all strengths, attributes, and resources
available within an organization, community, or society to manage and
reduce disaster risks and strengthen resilience; whereas a disaster risk
is the potential loss of life, injury, or destroyed/damaged assets which
could occur to a system, society, or a community in a specific period,
determined probabilistically as a function of hazard, exposure,
vulnerability, and capacity.
D. disaster is defined as a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events
interacting with variety of conditions; whereas the latter is the potential
loss of life, injury, or destroyed/damaged assets which could occur to
a system, society, or a community in a specific period, determined
probabilistically as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and
capacity.

16
 Additional Activities

Directions: Interview several persons in your household that experienced

different disasters that occurred in your community. Based on your interview results,
create a timeline about the disasters. Use the guide questions in conducting the
interview:

A. What age did you move into this community?

B. What disaster happened when you were at a certain age? (early
childhood/adolescent/adult to present age)

17