Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction (DRRR) Practice Flashcards

A comprehensive collection of vocabulary flashcards defining key terminology, hazard types, vulnerability dimensions, emergency management stages, and earthquake concepts from the DRRR lecture notes.

UNDRR

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (formerly UNISDR), created in December 1999 as part of the UN Secretariat to serve as the secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

Disaster

A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic, or environmental losses and impacts which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

Disaster Risk

The potential disaster losses in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets, and services, which could occur to a particular community or society over some specified future time period.

Disaster Risk Formula

Mathematical relationship expressing risk as: $=\frac{\text{Vulnerability} \times\text{Hazard} \times\text{Exposure}}{\text{Coping Capacity}}$

Hazard

A dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity, or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.

Geological Hazards

Natural hazards occurring on Earth's crust that pose a threat to life and property, including earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and subsidence.

Hydrometeorological Hazards

Atmospheric, hydrological, or oceanographic hazards that cause loss of life, property damage, and service disruption, including typhoons, tornadoes, droughts, thunderstorms, storm surges, and floods.

Biological Hazards

Threats originating from biological agents such as viruses, bacteria, medical waste, microbiological samples, or toxic chemicals of biological origin that harm human life.

Technological Hazards

Industrial-origin hazards resulting from accidents, collapsed structures, chemical leaks, and industrial explosions.

Socio-Natural Hazards

Hazards resulting from the interaction of a natural hazard with overexploited land, degraded ecosystems, or poorly managed environmental resources.

Anthropogenic Hazards

Human-induced environmental threats resulting directly from human actions, such as hazardous material spills, acid rain, and global warming.

Primary Effects of Disasters

Direct impacts arising immediately from the disaster event itself, such as water damage from flooding or structural collapse from an earthquake.

Secondary Effects of Disasters

Impacts stemming directly from primary disaster effects, such as fires breaking out or broken water and gas mains following an earthquake collapse.

Tertiary Effects of Disasters

Long-term or permanent consequences of a disaster, such as permanent community relocation or the permanent reshaping of a river channel.

Exposure

The degree to which people, property, systems, or other elements are present in hazard zones and thereby subject to potential losses.

Elements at Risk

Tangible or intangible assets including people, structures, systems, livestock, or services located in hazard zones that may be adversely affected directly or indirectly.

Vulnerability

The characteristics and circumstances of a community, system, or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.

Physical Vulnerability

The susceptibility of the built environment and population to physical damage based on location, structural design, construction quality, and engineering standards, rated from 0 (no damage) to 1 (total damage).

Social Vulnerability

The susceptibility of specific population groups (such as the poor, single-parent households, pregnant women, PWDs, children, and elderly) based on public awareness, social equity, literacy, and institutional support.

Economic Vulnerability

The susceptibility of economic assets, livelihoods, and production processes to hazard impacts, leading to business interruption, job loss, and poverty.

Environmental Vulnerability

The extent to which natural resource depletion, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience increase susceptibility to natural hazards.

Coping Capacity

The ability of people, organizations, and systems, using available skills and resources, to face, manage, and reduce adverse emergency or disaster conditions.

Resilience

The ability of a system, community, or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to, and recover from hazard effects in a timely and efficient manner.

Emergency Management

The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for addressing all aspects of emergencies, specifically prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

The strategic concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic analysis and management of causal factors, reducing exposure, and lessening vulnerability.

Disaster Risk Management (DRM)

The tactical and operational implementation of disaster risk reduction using administrative directives, organizational capacities, and policy strategies.

Hyogo Framework for Action

A UN-endorsed international framework adopted in 2005 aimed at substantially reducing disaster losses in lives and social, economic, and environmental assets.

Emergency Management Cycle (EMC)

A four-phase cyclic framework for managing disasters consisting of Prevention-Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.

Prevention-Mitigation Phase

The first phase of the EMC focused on inspecting the physical environment, evaluating building safety features, and conducting proactive risk assessments to lessen hazard impacts.

Preparedness Phase

The second phase of the EMC where communities establish Incident Command Systems (ICS), define operational roles, and conduct practice training exercises.

Incident Command System (ICS)

A standardized, flexible on-scene management structure led by an Incident Commander and divided into planning, operations, finance, and logistics sections.

Response Phase

The third phase of the EMC where emergency management plans and Incident Action Plans (IAPs) are operationalized to deploy resources and conduct emergency operations.

Incident Action Plan (IAP)

An operational guideline formulated by the Incident Commander during the response phase to direct emergency response activities.

Recovery Phase

The fourth phase of the EMC focused on rapid damage assessments, structural safety checks, restoring regular operations, and implementing continuity plans.

Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)

A formal plan (also known as a Business Continuity Plan or BCP) that ensures essential organizational functions continue following a crisis, including leadership succession planning.

RA 10121

The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, which adapted international UNDRR concepts into national law.

Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)

One of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, which devastated Southeast Asia and killed at least 6,300 people in the Philippines alone.

Continental Drift Theory

Theory initiated by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and formally proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 stating that Earth's continents were once connected and drifted apart over time.

Seafloor Spreading Theory

Theory proposed by geologist Harry Hess in 1960 suggesting that the ocean floor acts as giant conveyor belts carrying tectonic plates.

Asthenosphere

The ductile, hotter inner layer of Earth's upper mantle that easily deforms under stress.

Lithosphere

The rigid outer layer of Earth comprising the crust and uppermost mantle, which is broken into moving tectonic plates.

Active Fault

A fracture in Earth's crust that has moved one or more times in the last 10,000 years and is likely to generate future earthquakes.

Subduction Zone

A convergent plate boundary where denser oceanic crust slides beneath lighter continental crust into the mantle at a rate of $2\text{ to }8\text{ cm/yr}$, creating earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.

Earthquake

The sudden movement of the ground caused by the release of elastic energy stored in rocks along fault lines, generating radiating seismic waves.

Focus (Hypocenter)

The subterranean point of origin where rock rupture occurs and seismic energy is released during an earthquake.

Epicenter

The location on Earth's surface situated directly above an earthquake's underground focus.

Ground Shaking

A primary earthquake hazard involving ground vibrations caused by passing seismic waves beneath structures, roads, and bridges.

Liquefaction

A primary earthquake hazard where saturated sandy soil mixes with groundwater during shaking, causing the soil to lose strength and behave like quicksand.

Surface Rupture

A primary earthquake hazard where fault movement extends to the surface, causing horizontal or vertical displacement that fractures overlying structures.

Tsunami

A secondary earthquake hazard consisting of giant ocean waves generated by submarine earthquakes, underwater landslides, or oceanic volcanic eruptions.

Locally-Generated Tsunami

A tsunami triggered by an earthquake in a nearby trench that reaches adjacent coastlines in under 10 minutes.

Far-Field Tsunami

A tsunami generated by a distant earthquake source that takes hours to travel across the ocean before striking coastlines.

Seiche

A secondary earthquake hazard consisting of a standing wave oscillating back and forth in an enclosed or partially-enclosed body of water like a lake, reservoir, or bay.

Magnitude

An instrumental measure of the total energy released at an earthquake's origin, which remains constant regardless of distance from the source.

Richter Scale

A logarithmic magnitude scale created by Charles Richter in 1935 where each whole-number increase represents a 10-fold increase in seismic wave amplitude on a seismogram.

Intensity

A qualitative measure describing the severity of ground shaking and observed effects produced by an earthquake at a specific geographic location.

PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS)

An intensity scale developed by PHIVOLCS using Roman numerals from I (Scarcely Perceptible) to X (Completely Devastating) to quantify earthquake impacts in the Philippines.

Project NOAH

The Philippines' flagship disaster prevention program, established in 2012 following Tropical Storm Sendong and managed by the University of the Philippines.

Drop, Cover, and Hold On

The standard indoor emergency safety action during an earthquake: DROP to the floor, take COVER beneath a sturdy table, and HOLD ON until shaking stops.

Modified Mercalli Scale

An intensity scale measuring earthquake severity based on observed ground shaking and structural damage, where values vary across different locations depending on distance from the epicenter.

PEIS Intensity I

The 'Scarcely Perceptible' level on the PHIVOLCS scale, perceptible only to people under favorable conditions while still water in containers oscillates slowly.

PEIS Intensity V

The 'Strong' level on the PHIVOLCS scale, generally felt indoors and outdoors, awakening sleeping individuals, swinging hanging objects violently, and spilling open liquids.

PEIS Intensity VII

The 'Destructive' level on the PHIVOLCS scale, causing most people to run outdoors in fear, damaging poorly-built structures, and triggering limited liquefaction or landslides.

PEIS Intensity VIII

The 'Very Destructive' level on the PHIVOLCS scale, where many well-built structures are considerably damaged, railway tracks bend, and widespread liquefaction occurs.

PEIS Intensity X

The 'Completely Devastating' maximum level on the PHIVOLCS scale, marked by total destruction of practically all humanmade structures, massive landslides, and large-scale land subsidence.