Philippines Flashcards
Background
7000 islands
Manila is capital - 2000 people/km^”
115mil population
Young population
LIC
Destructive boundary - Philippines + Eurasian plate
Volcanic eruptions 1900-2012
3,000 deaths
$230mil cost
1991 - Mt. Pinatubo erupted caused 500 deaths - subsequent typhoon worsened impacts
Gases ↓ global temperatures 0.5C for 2 years
Effective evacuation
Earthquakes 1900-2012
10,000 deaths and $530mil costs
1990 - EQ on Luzon Island caused 1600 deaths with widespread damage including liquefaction
Tsunamis 1900-2012
1
Meteorological hazards 1900-2012
267 events, resulting in 40,000 deaths
115mil impacted and $7bn
Up to 10 per season
80% of socio-economic losses from natural hazards
Floods
71 occurrences resulting in $1.3bil in damages but only 2,500 deaths
Includes flash flooding and storm surge
Vulnerability of the Philippines islands
High risk of many hazards - Pacific Ring of Fire
Most exposed country in the world to storms - 1/3 of all tropical storms occur in region
300 natural hazards in last 20 years
Vulnerability of the Filipino people
Poverty - 75% in poverty, $8,000 GDP/capita, 40% in informal sector - reduces capacity to cope
Lack of education
Location - 11mil in coastal city of Manila, 500k within 40km of Mt. Pinatubo
Resilience against hazards
Some people are resilient and some are fatalistic - local scale
Management of hazards
Management has tended to be more responsive and reactive rather than longer-term measures - focussed on preparation and mitigation.
This worked for Mt. Pinatubo but not Haiyan.
However, recent legislation has said 70% of budget to be spent on long-term plans
Red Cross has began to work at community level - training volunteers
Can afford small-scale measures but not long-term/national
UN claims that Philippines has some of the best risk reduction laws in the world - 7000 islands makes implementing them hard
Climate change has ↓ time between disasters meaning preparation is difficult
