Disaster Management and Social Science Skills
Disaster Management and Social Science Skills tests precise disaster vocabulary and the evidence skills used in social science enquiry.
What the exam tests
This domain tests whether you can use disaster vocabulary precisely and apply social science skills - timelines, maps, graphs, surveys and sources - to real situations. Expect case-based questions, not definitions alone.
Core rules and concepts
- Hazard is a potential event; disaster occurs when a hazard strikes a vulnerable group with insufficient capacity.
- Risk is often shown as hazard × vulnerability ÷ capacity; reducing vulnerability or raising capacity lowers risk.
- Disaster cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
- Structural measures include embankments and earthquake-resistant buildings; non-structural measures include land-use planning, warnings, drills and insurance.
- Social science skills: frame a question, select a method, interpret evidence, and distinguish correlation from causation.
Worked example
A flood in a riverside settlement follows heavy rain. Identify hazard, vulnerability and capacity. Hazard: intense rainfall and river discharge. Vulnerability: houses on the floodplain, poor drainage, low incomes. Capacity: early warning, raised shelters, trained volunteers, relief plans. Reasoning: the rainfall is not the 'cause' of the disaster by itself; the disaster results from the interaction of hazard with exposure and weak capacity.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling every hazard a disaster.
- Listing relief as the only disaster-management activity.
- Confusing preparedness with response.
- Using a single correlation as proof of cause.