Understanding the flood resilience of rural communities in Mangatarem, Pangasinan

This document presents the work of community flood resilience program of the Philippine Red Cross and IFRC that is implemented as part of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance. It introduces the Alliance’s unique resilience measurement approach – the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC) – and presents the key results and key insights gained from the FRMC implementation in the program communities in Mangatarem, Pangasinan. The six program communities are located along the Agno River and its tributaries, which are prone to riverine flooding during times of excessive rainfall and strong typhoons.

The Philippines is the twelfth most populated country in the world and is ranked third globally in terms of its vulnerability to natural hazards. The Philippines is especially prone to hydrometeorological events; floods have accounted for over 80% of natural hazard events in the country during the last half-century had have devastating economic and social impacts. Data from the Emergency Events Database reveal that floods cause losses that lower average annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.8 per cent. In 2009 alone, floods cost approximately USD 4.4 billion: that is 2.7 per cent of the country's GDP.