GS3 PYQs (Mains Answer Writing): Vulnerability | UPSC Mains: Internal Security & Disaster Management PDF Download

Vulnerability is an essential element for defining disaster impacts and its threat to people. How and in what ways can vulnerability to disasters be characterized? Discuss different types of vulnerability with reference to disasters. (UPSC GS3 2019)

According to United Nation Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Vulnerability can be defined as the conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of an individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards.
Vulnerability assessment needs to be based on a systematization and conceptualization of vulnerability describing the main linkages between the different components of risk. Only if the population and decision makers know where and how vulnerable the system is and which social–economic, physical, and environmental factors play a major role in it, adequate measures can be implemented to reduce vulnerabilities to disasters. It involves two approaches:

• Scientific Approach: It includes the research line of practical measurement approaches of vulnerability and disaster risk reduction.
• Policy Approach: It provides information about the spatial distributions of vulnerability to different natural hazards upon which the authorities need to take actions.

Different Types of Vulnerability

• Physical Vulnerability: The potential for physical impact on the physical environment – which can be expressed as elements-at-risk (EaR). The degree of loss to a given EaR or set of EaR resulting from the occurrence of a natural phenomenon of a given magnitude and expressed on a scale from 0 (no damage) to 1 (total damage)”.
  • For Example: A wooden house is sometimes less likely to collapse in an earthquake, but it may be more vulnerable in the event of a fire or a hurricane.
• Economic Vulnerability:The potential impacts of hazards on economic assets and processes (i.e. business interruption, secondary effects such as increased poverty and job loss) vulnerability of different economic sectors.
  • For Example: Families with low incomes often live in high-risk areas around cities, because they can’t afford to live in safer (and more expensive) places.
• Social Vulnerability: The potential impacts of events on groups such as the poor, single parent households, pregnant or lactating women, the handicapped, children, and elderly; consider public awareness of risk, ability of groups to self-cope with catastrophes, and status of institutional structures designed to help them cope.
  • For Example: Women and children are more vulnerable to disasters as compared to men.
• Environmental Vulnerability:The potential impacts of events on the environment (flora, fauna, ecosystems, biodiversity).
  • For Example: People living in the tropical areas are more vulnerable to tropical cyclones as compared to people living in temperate region.

Discuss about the vulnerability of India to earthquake related hazards. Give examples including the salient features of major disasters caused by earthquakes in different parts of India during the last three decades.

An earthquake is the shaking of the earth caused due to the release of energy which generates waves that travel in all directions. Earthquake hazards can range across ground shaking, surface rupture, landslide, liquefaction, tectonic deformation, tsunami etc.
India is prone to earthquakes because

• The landmass is penetrating into the Eurasian plate, which makes the country prone to  earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity.
• Densely populated areas, extensive unscientific constructions and unplanned urbanisation have increased risks.
• Regions in Himalayan foothills are vulnerable to liquefaction and landslides due to earthquakes.

Major disasters caused by earthquakes over last three decades

• 1993, Latur: Relatively shallow depth caused large surface damage; causes remain debatable due to lack of plate boundaries in the region.
• 1999, Chamoli: Caused by the thrust fault; resulted in landslides, changes in surface water flow, surface rupture and disconnected valleys.
• 2001, Bhuj: Associated with a reactivated fault, which was previously unknown; impeccable loss of life and property.
• 2004, Indian Ocean Tsunami: Created by under-water seismic activity, created massive waves which flooded coastal areas and islands, causing long-term changes.
• 2005, Kashmir: Caused by severe upthrust of Indian plate against Eurasian plate, it created multiple after-shocks. Infrastructure and communication were disrupted.

India has come a long way on the road to earthquake safety. And yet, much remains to be done before this journey is completed. Creating a system and culture for building safe houses in 21st century India is something not only possible but an absolute necessity.