What is CDRA (Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment)?

CDRA is the methodology a Philippine LGU uses to understand how climate change and natural hazards could affect its people and property, so the findings can be built into its Comprehensive Land Use Plan. It is governed by the HLURB Supplemental Guidelines on Mainstreaming Climate and Disaster Risks in the CLUP, developed with the Climate Change Commission, UNDP, and the Australian Government under Project Climate Twin Phoenix, implementing RA 9729 (the Climate Change Act) and RA 10121 (the DRRM Act). CDRA is an assessment, not a plan on its own -- its outputs feed the CLUP, the LDRRMP, and the LCCAP.

What are the 6 steps of the CDRA process?

The HLURB Supplemental Guidelines set out six steps: (1) collect and organize climate change and hazard information, (2) scope the potential impacts of climate change and hazard, (3) develop the exposure database, (4) conduct climate change vulnerability assessment, (5) conduct disaster risk assessment, and (6) summarize findings. DHSUD's 2023 Enhanced CDRA update condenses steps 4 and 5 into one combined step, which is why some sources describe a 5-step process instead -- both are describing the same underlying work.

What's in a CDRA exposure database?

The exposure database is organized into five categories, each cross-checked against each hazard: population, urban use areas, natural-resource-based production areas, critical point facilities, and lifeline utilities such as roads, bridges, power lines, water sources, and communication towers. It is the factual inventory that everything else in the CDRA -- vulnerability scoring, risk assessment -- is built on top of.

Is CDRA the same as an LDRRMP?

No. CDRA is an assessment governed by HLURB/DHSUD guidelines that feeds into land-use planning; the LDRRMP is a separate plan that RA 10121 requires the LDRRMO to formulate and the LDRRMC to approve. Both draw on the same underlying hazard and vulnerability picture, and a CLUP, an LDRRMP, and a Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP) are all expected to stay consistent with each other, but they are three distinct documents produced under three different mandates.

Does CDRA use a fixed risk formula?

Not as a literal equation. The guidelines score each exposure element against four factors -- hazard, exposure, vulnerability/sensitivity, and adaptive capacity -- using qualitative matrices (low, moderate, high, very high), not a single multiplicative formula. DHSUD's 2023 Enhanced CDRA update frames vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, and risk as a function of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, for the same step -- a refinement of the original four-factor scoring, not a different system.

CDRA: The Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment Behind Every CLUP

Also known as: Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment, CDRA process, CDRA exposure database

By Landon Little, Founder of Zentarai Labs · Updated October 1, 2026

TL;DR

CDRA is a six-step assessment, not a plan on its own: collect hazard and climate data, scope impacts, build an exposure database, assess vulnerability, assess disaster risk, and summarize findings. It is governed by the HLURB Supplemental Guidelines on Mainstreaming Climate and Disaster Risks in the CLUP, and its findings get built into the CLUP at Step 4 of the 12-step planning process -- then referenced again through zoning, implementation, and monitoring.

CDRA shows up in two kinds of searches: planners who need the actual process to run one, and people trying to tell it apart from the LDRRMP or the CLUP itself. Both start from the same place -- a methodology, under RA 9729 (the Climate Change Act of 2009) and RA 10121 (the DRRM Act of 2010), for turning hazard and climate data into something a land-use plan can actually use.

Legal basis	RA 9729 Sec. 14 (LGUs as frontline climate agencies) · RA 10121 Sec. 9(e), 11(b)(2), 12(c)(6)
Format authority	HLURB Supplemental Guidelines on Mainstreaming Climate and Disaster Risks in the CLUP (Project Climate Twin Phoenix, with CCC, UNDP, and the Australian Government)
Process	6 steps: data collection → impact scoping → exposure database → vulnerability assessment → risk assessment → summary of findings
Sits in the CLUP at	Step 4 of 12 (Analyze the Situation), re-entering at visioning, zoning, implementation, and monitoring
Not the same as	The LDRRMP (a plan under RA 10121) or the CLUP itself -- CDRA is an upstream assessment, not a deliverable plan

The six-step process

The Supplemental Guidelines lay out CDRA as six steps:

1. Collect and organize climate and hazard information. Historical and projected hazard data for the LGU's territory.
2. Scope the potential impacts. What climate change and the identified hazards could plausibly do to the locality.
3. Develop the exposure database. An inventory of what's actually exposed -- see below.
4. Conduct climate change vulnerability assessment (CCVA). How sensitive the exposed elements are, and how much adaptive capacity exists to absorb the impact.
5. Conduct disaster risk assessment (DRA). Combining hazard likelihood with exposure and vulnerability into a risk picture.
6. Summarize findings. The "decision areas" a CLUP has to actually respond to.

Why you'll also see "5 steps": DHSUD's 2023 Enhanced CDRA update, developed with UN-Habitat, merges steps 4 and 5 into one combined vulnerability-and-risk step. That's a methodology refinement, not a different process -- if a source cites 5 steps and another cites 6, they're describing the same work split differently.

What's in the exposure database

The database organizes what's actually at risk into five categories, each checked against each identified hazard:

Population -- who lives where, at what density.
Urban use areas -- built-up, residential, commercial, and industrial zones.
Natural resource-based production areas -- agricultural land, fishing grounds, forestry.
Critical point facilities -- hospitals, schools, government buildings, evacuation centers.
Lifeline utilities -- roads, bridges, culverts, power lines, water sources, communication towers.

This is the factual inventory everything downstream is scored against -- without it, a vulnerability or risk rating has nothing concrete to attach to.

Risk isn't one formula

A commonly repeated shorthand is "Risk = Hazard × Exposure × Vulnerability," with Vulnerability further split into Sensitivity plus Adaptive Capacity. The actual Philippine guidance is close but not identical: it scores each exposure element against four factors -- hazard, exposure, vulnerability/sensitivity, and adaptive capacity -- using qualitative matrices (low, moderate, high, very high), not a literal multiplicative equation. DHSUD's 2023 Enhanced CDRA update refines this by nesting exposure inside the vulnerability assessment (Vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) and then scoring Risk as a function of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability for the disaster-risk-assessment step. Either way, this is a structured, matrix-based judgment process, not an arithmetic formula you plug numbers into.

Where CDRA sits in the 12-step CLUP process

CDRA data-gathering happens at Step 4 (Analyze the Situation) of the HLURB 12-step CLUP preparation process, filed under the special study area for climate change adaptation and DRRM -- hazard profiles and maps, exposure maps and tables, risk maps, and the vulnerability assessment. Its findings then re-enter the process at several later steps: visioning, goal and objective setting, the development thrust and spatial strategy (Step 6), the land use plan and policy itself (Step 7), the zoning ordinance (Step 8), implementation (Step 11), and monitoring and evaluation (Step 12). A CDRA that only lives in Step 4 and never resurfaces later is a sign the mainstreaming didn't actually happen.

How CDRA relates to the LDRRMP and LCCAP

CDRA is not itself the LDRRMP or the Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP) -- it's the shared technical assessment both are expected to be consistent with. RA 10121 requires the LDRRMP to supply disaster-risk measures for integration into the CLUP and the CDP; RA 9729 separately requires LGUs to prepare an LCCAP; and the HLURB guidebook expects the LCCAP to stay consistent with the CLUP. In practice, one CDRA -- one hazard and vulnerability picture -- underwrites all three documents, rather than each one running its own separate risk assessment from scratch.

Related terms

Building CDRA into your CLUP review

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