What is Disaster Management."Lets do the basics": August 2013

Thursday 29 August 2013

Factors Contributing to Vulnerability... (Cont)

In keeping up with the last post let’s look into what are some of the factors that contribute to vulnerability.

We begin with poverty. It takes no difficulty thought processing to know that this is an issue that contributes with crippling effect. The sad thing is in the factor they are those who are more vulnerable like pregnant women, children, and the elderly and disabled. Moving on is the population growth rate has been increasingly an issue, with resources being stretched to a population that is too large. This makes service delivery hard and making disaster management plans thin. With this factor comes urban migration that has led to slums that fire engines cannot pass to put out a fire leading to disasters and a police vehicle cannot access to offer rapid response to an event. The concentration in urban centers strains the local authorities’ ability to cope with events and situations. Lastly for this post let’s point out civil strife and unrest and not in any way a light factor since as a person raised in Africa I have seen unrest and can only imagine the effects of war on a nation.

We will keep looking at these factors in the next few post. Thanks for reading.

Benson Mutahi

Disaster Management Enthusiast

Situations we are watching

v http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/asia/japan-fukushima-leak-warning/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

v http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/28/world/asia/india-buildings-collapse/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

v http://allafrica.com/stories/200107110475.html

v http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23866930

Help full

v http://africanpress.me/2013/08/27/technology-can-help-reach-disaster-hit-communities/

References
Emergency Management: the American Experience,1900-2010. ed. Claire B.Rubin

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.col.org%2FSiteCollectionDocuments%2FDisaster_Management_version_1.0.pdf&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNFTu0x4d83emTdP7PeqNce5_tocqw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CFkQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gobookee.net%2Fintroduction-to-disaster-management%2F&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNGfJUQc_bdnzhgRaoFoKkVLME69bw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Types of Vulnerability (Cont..)

Let’s first revisit the definition of vulnerability. We defined it as the extent to which a community’s structure, service and environment are most likely to be damaged or disrupted y a hazards impact.

So now we can go into the two types of vulnerability the first being tangible or material vulnerability. It is clear that you can see or touch this type of vulnerability. Some of the elements that indicated it are the soil type, vegetation cover water and air quality.

http://unu.edu/publications/books/vulnerability-in-developing-countries.html

From the book by United Nations University Press

After this is the intangible type or abstract vulnerability. They are difficult to see and substantiate even though some disciplines are able to come close to estimate some of them. They include religious and agricultural practices. Please note they are more but in this case we just touch on a few so we get an overview.