Assessing the Vulnerability and Resilience of the Philippines to Disasters

Some of the world’s most destructive disasters occurred in the Philippines, and a number of these happened in recent years. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, tropical cyclones Washi, Bopha, and Haiyan, respectively, left a staggering trail of over 8,000 deaths, as well as huge damages to assets and livelihoods. In 2009, tropical cyclones Ketsana and Pharma brought massive riverine floods, with a total damage and loss equivalent to 2.7% of the country’s GDP. This dissertation is an endeavour to measure disaster impacts and welfare risk, and to identify factors affecting vulnerability and resilience in different spatial scales in the Philippines. The first of four chapters is an extensive literature survey on the economic vulnerability and economic resilience to disasters. This serves as a prelude to the succeeding three empirical studies contained in Chapters 3 to 5. Chapter 3 aims to measure tropical cyclone-induced fatalities in the Philippine provinces, and identifies the factors that shape people’s vulnerability. It also quantifies the relative importance of hazard, exposure, and socioeconomic vulnerability in influencing fatalities. Chapter 4 is a household level study that quantitatively establishes the linkages between floods and diseases in the floodplains of a highly-urbanized city in the Philippines (Cagayan de Oro), and provides an estimate on the public finance implications of flood-induced diseases to the Philippine urban areas, and on the additional economic burden on affected households. Chapter 5 measures socioeconomic resilience and welfare risk from riverine flood disasters, and systematically quantifies the effectiveness of a menu of region-specific disaster risk reduction and management measures.