The Philippines ­Hazard Hotspot Case Study

Question 1

What are the Philippines?

Answer 1

The Philippines is a group of 7000 islands in the South­China Sea in South­East Asia.

Question 2

How big is its vulnerable population?

Answer 2

It has a vulnerable population of 98 million people who are at risk from a variety of hazards,

Question 3

How many people live in Manila?

Answer 3

11 million people in the densely populated coastally situated megacity of the capital Manila.

Question 4

What two kinds of hazards are there?

Answer 4

Geophysical Hazards and Hydro­meteorological Hazards

Question 5

Which geophysical hazards are there?

Answer 5

Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, Tsunamis and Landslides.

Question 6

Which hydrometeorological hazards

Answer 6

Typhoons, Floods, Droughts and Landslides.

Question 7

What are volcanic eruptions?

Answer 7

hot or cold mixture of water and rock fragments that flows down the slopes of a volcano

Question 8

Where is the Philippines near to?

Answer 8

The Philippines is near to a destructive plate boundary

Question 9

What happens on this plate boundary?

Answer 9

The dense oceanic crust of the Philippine Plate is being subducted beneath the continental crust of the Eurasian Plate.

aka Phillippine plate schuift onder Eurasian plate

Question 10

How were the islands formed?

Answer 10

by a combination of folding at the boundary, and volcanos formed from
magma that has risen to the surface from the Mantle below from the subducted Philippine plate.

Question 11

Which volcano erupted?

Answer 11

Mount Pinatubo in June 1991
which killed 500 people
and caused crop failure due to the falling ash (from the eruption).

Question 12

Earthquakes:

What can happen to the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate?

Answer 12

The Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate can become locked together as the Philippine Plate is
being subducted, which can cause the build-up and sudden release of pressure.

Question 13

Where can earthquakes also occur?

Answer 13

At Fault Lines in the area, where the plate has cracked under pressure.

Question 14

Which earthquake happened at a fault line?

Answer 14

1990 Earthquake on Luzon Island, magnitude 7.8, killing 1500 people.

Question 15

Landslides:

What can trigger landslides?

Answer 15

• can be triggered by tectonic activity
  in the area from Earthquakes
• also be caused by heavy levels of rainfall
  which lead to cliff saturation if they fall in areas with a steep gradient.

Question 16

Example of a landslide

Answer 16

2006 Landslide on Leyte Island after 10 days of heavy rain, which buried a village and killed
hundreds of people.

Question 17

Why is the Philippines vulnerable for typhoons?

Answer 17

• The Philippines is situated in the latitudes between 5­20 degrees North of the Equator,
• so is vulnerable to Typhoons developing in the West of the Pacific Ocean,
• where the ocean surface
  temperature is above 26 degrees celsius,

see images binder for futher explanation!

Question 18

What does the Coriolis effect do?

Answer 18

The Coriolis effect is strong enough to rotate the low

pressure system and trade winds will move storms Westwards towards the Philippines.

Question 19

What is the coriolis effect?

Answer 19

The Coriolis effect is the apparent acceleration of a moving body on or near the Earth as a result of the Earth’s rotation. The Coriolis effect is an important determinant of wind direction on a global scale.

Question 20

How many typhoons do the Philippines experience annually?

Answer 20

The Philippines experiences between 7­- 0 typhoons annually.

Question 21

Example of Philipinnes typhoon

Answer 21

Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013,
- which had maximum one­minute wind speeds recorded
at 315km/h before reaching land,
- the most powerful tropical cyclone to ever hit land,
- causing 6,500 human fatalities and affecting 11 million people.

Question 22

What causes tsunamis?

Answer 22

Submarine Earthquakes in any of the surrounding plate boundaries or fault lines can cause a
tsunami local enough to be devastating to the Philippines.

Question 23

Example of a tsunami that hit the Philipinnes

Answer 23

in 1976, a submarine earthquake of magnitude 7.9 caused a Tsunami 4­5m high which hit the
the coastline of the Moro Gulf on the Southern Island of Mindanao.

Al die namen en zo hoef je niet te kennen

Question 24

Droughts:

When can droughts occur?

Answer 24

Drought can occur when the wet season hasn’t brought

enough rain to last through the dry season, or when the dry season is particularly harsh.

Question 25

Example of a drought in the Philipinnes

Answer 25

Luzon Island drought of 2005

• whereby a reduction in rainfall decreased river discharge,
• which decreased economic activity in the area
• due to a lack of hydroelectric power.

Question 26

What happens during flooding?

Answer 26

During the wet season, coastal floods can be caused by typhoon storm surges or rising ocean
levels, and river flooding can be caused by heavy rainfall.

Question 27

Example of Philippines flooding?

Answer 27

the December 2010 floods in Eastern Philippines following heavy rainfall
- which resulted in displacing 450,000 people and killing 25.

Question 28

Is the population of the Philippines vulnerable to natural hazards?

Answer 28

Yes, the population is largely vulnerable to natural hazards, partially
due to having a low capacity to cope.

The capital of Manila and the island of Luzon are very densely populated, hence increasing
disaster risk by increasing the impact of a hazard on people and their property when it hits those
areas.

Question 29

Why is the capital of Manila and the island of Luzon at a greater risk for disasters?

Answer 29

Because they are very densely populated
- hence increasing disaster risk 
- by increasing the impact of a hazard on people 
- and their property when it hits those
areas.