Drought Contingency Planning with Pastoral Communities - celep

Table 2: A hazard assessment form sample
Hazard Assessment form
Hazard:_____________________________
Characteristics Elements Analytical
Description of
Hazard
Cause/Origin
Force
Warning signs & signals
Forewarning
Speed of onset
Frequency
Period of occurrence
Duration
Exposure Variables
How will it affect me
How will it affect my community
2.5.2 Vulnerability Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment helps to identify what is exposed in both human and non beings,
because of their location and time vis-à-vis hazard onset. There are two ways of defining
vulnerability:
• Vulnerability is defined as a set of prevailing or consequential conditions, which
adversely affect the community’s ability to prevent, mitigate, prepare for or respond to
hazard events (Anderson and Woodrow, 1989)
• It is the degree to which an area, people, physical structures or economic assets are
exposed to loss, injury or damage caused by the impact of a hazard [Disaster Management:
A Disaster Manager’s Handbook, Chapter 2 and Appendix A. Disaster Mitigation in Asia
and the Pacific, pp. 30-40]. This definition asserts vulnerability as equivalent to location
and can be represented in this mathematical formula: vulnerability = the location of
element at risk vis-a-vis the hazard (considering other factors like slopes).
Degree of Vulnerability = Location of element at risks : Distance + Time
The location of the element at risk (whether well or poorly built) determines the degree of
exposures to hazard or the degree of vulnerability. This shows that whether rich or poor, all
persons living in the same location have equal degrees of vulnerability to the impact of the
hazard. Under this assumption, the socio-economic status has no bearing on the degree of
vulnerability. Thus, vulnerability refers mainly to the location of element at risk and this
becomes the main determinant in the degree of exposure to the hazard’s impact.
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