Philippines - Multi-Hazardous Environment Case Study

Hazards - Physical Geography

location and characteristics

• philippines is country off mainland southeast asia

• is archipelago of 7000 islands

• home to 100 million ppl

• has growing pop, rapid urbanisation and high poverty levels

• 25% of pop are in poverty

importance of location/ vulnerability

• convergent plate boundary (on Pacific Ring of Fire, 22 active volcanoes, 30% of pop live within 30km of volcano)

• pacific ocean = prone to tsunamis

• typhoon belt = avg 15 a yr

• islands (7000) = risk of storm surge

• high rainfall, steep topography, deforestation = landslides

• el nino effect = drought

primary hazards

• Volcanoes

• Earthquakes

• Typhoons  

• Drought 

• Storm surges 

secondary hazards

• Lahars 

• Flooding 

• Landslides/mudslides

• Tsunamis 

• Fires

hazard frequency

• 300+ natural disasters in Philippines over last 20yrs

• Mayon volcano erupted 50 times in last 400yrs = most active

• 10,000+ earthquakes across the islands since 70s

• yearly tropical storms
  

hazards in 1991

Pinatubo volcano erupted (2nd largest eruption on planet)

• deadly as 500,000ppl live within 40km of volcano

• early warnings and evacuations saved 5000 ppl

• violent explosion hurled gases, ash and steam into upper atmosphere where it affected global temperatures for 2yrs (avg global temp decrease of 0.5⁰C)

typhoon Yunya

• heavy rainfall combined with volcanic ash to make deadly lahars, final death toll: 850

hazards in 2006

• earthquake killed 15ppl

• generated 3m high tsunami and landslides leading to flooding

hazards in 2013

Bohol earthquake

• mag 7.2, killed 200 and injured 800

• damaged tens of thousands of buildings

typhoon Haiyan

• killed 6201

8 tropical storms

• tropical floods killed 64

volcanoes

• were active with small scale emissions of lava, steam and gas

hazards in 2014

Mayon volcano

• risk of lahars - volcanic ash mixing with heavy rain from tropical storms = rivers of mud

losses between 1990-2014

• tropical storms = 78% of mortality losses, second highest killer is earthquakes (7.9% of losses)

• tropical storms = 79% of economic losses, second highest is flooding (17.3%)

short term responses

• rely on response/reactive approach and short term preparedness eg forecasting and evacuation

• current system is centralised top-down administrative rather than community-based which would be better to help most vulnerable communities

long term responses

• Filipino gov adopted same building codes as california (will it be enforced?)

• Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has 33 remote sensing stations (but earthquakes over 7.0 strike without foreshocks)

• hazard maps improved

• ‘Shake Drill’ in Manila could avert 50,000+ fatalities but rest of country doesn’t partake

• National and foreign Red Cross organisations have started community level programmes

  • financial support from gov for mitigation measures and sustainability

  • training local volunteers in disaster management

  • land use mapping to identify mitigation measures

  • Initiating mitigation measures eg physical (sea walls, dykes), health (clean water) or planning (land use and evacuation plans)

  • Communication of information to community

problems with responses

UN claims Philippines already has best risk-reduction laws but they’re not implemented yet

- too much responsibility of reducing disaster risk is on local governments due to geography of 7000 islands where money not always wisely spent

- but recent gov legislation calls for 70% of disaster spending to be for long-term plans and 30% for emergency aid

- main problem of the multi-hazardous environment is that resources are stretched and next hazard hits before recovery from the last