Vulnerabilities associated with different elements can vary widely depending on the context—whether you're referring to chemical elements, natural elements (like earth, water, air, fire), or elemental associations in a broader sense. Here's a breakdown:
1. Chemical Elements:
Hydrogen (H): Highly flammable and can form explosive mixtures with air.
Oxygen (O): Supports combustion; can enhance the flammability of materials.
Sodium (Na): Reacts violently with water, producing hydrogen gas and caustic sodium hydroxide.
Chlorine (Cl): Toxic gas; exposure can cause respiratory and skin irritation.
Mercury (Hg): Toxic to humans and animals; exposure can cause neurological damage.
Lead (Pb): Toxic; accumulates in the body and can cause various health problems.
Uranium (U): Radioactive; exposure can lead to radiation sickness and long-term health issues.
2. Natural Elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire):
Earth: Vulnerable to erosion, landslides, and earthquakes.
Water: Vulnerable to contamination (e.g., pollution, toxins) and flooding.
Air: Vulnerable to pollution (e.g., smog, particulate matter) affecting respiratory health.
Fire: Vulnerable to wildfires, especially in dry conditions.
3. Elemental Associations (Traditional Elements):
Earth (or Ground): Vulnerable to disruptions like earthquakes, landslides, or soil erosion.
Water: Vulnerable to floods, tsunamis, or contamination affecting aquatic life.
Air: Vulnerable to air pollution, hurricanes, tornadoes, or disruptions in the atmosphere.
Fire: Vulnerable to wildfires, volcanic eruptions, or extreme heat conditions.
Understanding vulnerabilities associated with different elements is crucial for risk assessment, disaster preparedness, and environmental management. The specific vulnerabilities will vary depending on the element's properties, interactions, and environmental factors.
4. • Vulnerability can determine the ability of a person or a
group to predict, cope with, resist and recover from the
effects of a natural or human-induced threat.
• Vulnerability is a state of being at risk. According to
Republic Act 10121 also known as ‘Philippine
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of
2010’, vulnerability is defined as the characteristics
and circumstances of a community, system or
resource that make it susceptible to the damaging
effects of a hazard.
5. Factors affecting vulnerability
of one’s community:
A. Population
density near a
hazard event.
The primary
consideration is not the
population size but the
population density.
6. B. Capacity and efficiency to
reduce Disaster Risk.
Community that is less vulnerable has the capacity
to reduce disaster risk because;
1. It can provide accessibility and availability of
services and facilities during and after disaster.
2. It has the ability to anticipate, adapt, and
respond to possible disaster.
7. Recognize Vulnerabilities of
Different Elements Exposed to
Specific Hazards.
Vulnerabilities of different elements are determined
due to its exposure to particular and specific hazard.
Physical vulnerability includes population density
levels, place of a settlement, the site design, and
materials used for infrastructure and housing.
8. Social Vulnerability happens
due to inability of people,
organization, and societies
to prevent severe effects
from hazards because of
the expected behavior in
social interactions,
institutions, and system of
cultural values.
9. ECONOMIC
VULNERABILITY
- is based on the economic
status of individuals,
communities, and nations.
Social and economic
vulnerability can be
combined also known as
socioeconomic
vulnerability.
10. Environmental vulnerability is caused by
natural resources depletion and
destruction.
Organisms like humans, animals, and plants
are all dependent on the environment for
survival.
Quantifying vulnerability is used in estimating how
much mitigation and preparedness measures will
be applied.
11. The Philippines has high vulnerability due to the
following reasons:
• It lies in the Pacific typhoon belt and we are
visited by an average of 20 typhoons every year.
• Rugged nature of the landscape makes it
vulnerable to landslide, mudflows, and other
disasters.
• It is an archipelagic country with many small
islands where some areas are at below sea level.
12. • It has the longest shoreline in the world at
32,400 km making it vulnerable to storm
surges.
• It is still a primary agricultural and fishing
economy.
• With poor institutional and social capacity to
manage, respond, and recover from natural
hazard events.
• With high level of poverty
• Aside from typhoon, it is also at risk to
13.
14. Direction: Identify what factor affects the vulnerability to
disaster with the following situations given. Write P if it is due
to population density and write C if it is due to sector’s
capacity and efficiency to reduce disaster risk. Write your
answer on a separate sheet of paper.
2. Use of drones to disinfect the community in Pasig
City to prevent the spread of the COVIDD-19 virus.
1. Tondo community during the total lockdown due to
COVID-19 pandemic wherein the families are forced to
stay inside their houses that are too small for the
number of family members.
15. 5. The Philippines and Japan are both prone to
earthquakes but the latter one is less vulnerable.
3. Insufficient number of rubber boats during
super typhoon Yolanda in Malabon City wherein
large number of residents were stranded on the
top of their roof.
4. Too many casualties during super typhoon
Milenyo in Los Baños due to excessive kaingin
practices and illegal settlers in Mt. Makiling.
16. Direction: Classify the following phrases and sentences whether it
is
PHYSICAL, SOCIOECONOMICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL
VULNERABILITY.
1. Shutdown of telecommunication tower
2. Houses built near fault lines
3. Denudation of forests
4. Rest houses near boracay shoreline
5. Twenty-story building constructed on soil mainly made up of
clay.
6. Bridges with cracks and crevices
7. Overfertilization of agricultural soil
8. Lost of job due to COVID-19 pandemic.
9. Possible retrenchment of ABS CBN employees due to its
shutdown
Hinweis der Redaktion
VULNERABLE - capable of being physically or emotionally wounded. 2 : open to attack or damage
With all the identified hazard at home, there is a possibility that some family members might be susceptible or prone to the accident due to the presence of hazard.
Population density refers to the number of individuals living in an area in relation to the size of an area. If population density is high, it means that the number of individuals is high but the space is very small.
Is it appropriate to say that The Philippines is less vulnerable to typhoon? Nowadays, our country has advanced technology to predict super typhoon and several municipalities already provided evacuation centers to provide temporary housing for victims when disaster occur
When hazardous events occur, normally physical elements are severely damaged.
during typhoon the line of communications were cut off when cell sites shutdown or disruption of transport system due to inability of small vehicles to pass through the flooded areas or unpassable roads and bridges. With some difficulties in the delivery of services such as relief goods and medicines, a lot of problems occurred like shortage of food and spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, when social elements were exposed to hazard, these may lead to disruption of normal processes and activities in the community.
The poorer the country, the more vulnerable to disasters because they lack the funds or budgets to build sturdy structures and put other engineering measures in place which protect them from being affected by disasters.
So, we can say that Philippines is more vulnerable to an event such as earthquake compared to Japan. Though both countries are exposed to earthquake hazard because both are located in the Pacific ring of fire, but due to differences in economic status, Japan is more resilient because of its ability to afford changes in architectural and engineering designs of building and infrastructures to make them less vulnerable to earthquake. Another example is the Covid-19 pandemic wherein the most affected are those who belong to low income and informal workers.
Human activities like deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, and kaingin affect the natural abilities of the environment to protect itself from any natural hazard due to absence of trees which may cause landslide and flashfloods. Sometimes the effects are irreversible.
Computation is based on the previous hazard events and severity of their effects. Vulnerability can be expressed as: 0 = lowest degree of vulnerability and 1 as the highest degree. Vulnerability of people is the ratio of casualties or injured to the total population. Vulnerability of buildings is expressed as a repair cost or degree of damage
The Philippines lies directly on the path of the typhoon belt in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.