OE1-3.1 Hazard, Vulnerability & Risk
You can distinguish hazard, vulnerability and risk, classify natural, water-related, pandemic and human-induced disasters, assess physical, psychological and social impacts, and read India's disaster vulnerability profile.
The three-way distinction is the whole foundation: a hazard is the event, vulnerability is what makes people susceptible to it, and risk is the two combined — which is why an earthquake in an empty desert is not a disaster. That framing carries the field's central insight, that disasters are largely constructed by human decisions about where and how we build. India's vulnerability profile is worth learning by region, since the exposure differs completely between the Himalayan belt, the coasts and the seismic zones.
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Hazard and disaster: concepts
The two words the whole subject turns on, and the difference between them. A hazard becomes a disaster only when it meets people and what they have built.
Vulnerability and risk
The two ideas that make the distinction above precise. Risk combines the hazard with how exposed and how fragile the exposed thing is, which is why reducing either reduces risk.
Hazard and disaster types: natural and water-related
The first group of hazard types, including those driven by water. Grouping by cause helps because the mitigation for each group is similar.
Pandemic and human-induced hazards and disasters
The remaining groups, including the ones people cause. The pandemic case is here because recent experience made its absence conspicuous.
Causes and impacts of disasters; impacts on natural ecosystems
What actually happens when one occurs, including to the natural systems that would otherwise buffer the next one. That feedback is the part usually left out.
Physical, psychological and social impact
The three kinds of harm to people, of which two are invisible in the immediate aftermath. Psychological and social impacts outlast the physical ones.
Disaster and financial resilience
The financial dimension: who bears the cost and how quickly recovery can be funded. It sets up the compensation and insurance item later.
Disaster vulnerability profile of India by geographical region and state
Which parts of the country are exposed to what. It is the item that makes the whole subject concrete for a reader who lives in one of them.
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