Figure 1 shows the spatial heterogeneity of the yearly precipitation patterns in the country. The northwest is characterized by a pronounced wet (May to October) and a dry season (November to April), whereas a centered band from the north to the south shows only weakly pronounced seasonality. The eastern coast does not have a clear season in the year with low rains and shows very strong precipitation events in the months November and December. In a band of the inner south, the rain is nearly evenly distributed over the year. These partly spatially contrasting features are due to the north-south orientation of the mountainous regions in the archipelago (Villafuerte et al., 2014a). Although not reflective of the full complexity, we will later refer to the seasons in precipitation with the description of dry season mainly in January to March (JFM) and wet season in July to September (JAS). Yao et al. (2009) provides seasonal maps of the precipitation distribution for whole SEA. When the western North Pacific subtropical high moves northeastward it enables the southwesterly winds from the Asian summer monsoon to extend over the Philippines. This brings the beginning of the rainy season around mid-May (Akasaka, 2010). The East Asian winter monsoon brings northeasterly surface winds in November that lead to wet conditions on the windward east coasts and dry conditions on the leeside west coast of the country (Chang et al., 2005). As the country is situated in the so-called “typhoon belt”, it is exposed to multiple hydrometeorological hazards, e.g. tropical cyclones, flooding but also droughts. On average, the country is hit by 20 typhoons per year (ADB, 2009). Five to seven of them can be destructive. In particular, the eastern coast of the country is highly exposed to typhoons with wind speeds of 200 kilometers per hour. One quarter of the worldwide number of these strong typhoons occur in the Philippine Area of Responsibility (Uy et al., 2011). In many risk or vulnerability assessments, the Philippines are among the most affected countries in terms of climate change impacts and EWEs (Brooks and Adger, 2003; UNU-EHS, 2011; Kreft, 2015). Others also argue that the Philippines are one of the most disasterprone countries in the world (Porio, 2011; Yumul et al., 2011). Yusuf and Francisco (2009) conducted a vulnerability mapping of 530 subnational areas in SEA. By overlaying maps for exposure to hazards, sensitivity and adaptive capacity they gained a vulnerability map of SEA with the Philippines exhibiting the highest levels (Figure 2). Yumul et al. (2010) argues that the country has to spend a substantial portion of the annual budget to repair and rehabilitate devastated communities. The World Bank (2010) stated that, annually, the country has to spend 0.5% of its GDP for natural hazards. Between 1998 and 2009, the Philippines had to deal with costs of up to US$24.3 billion (23.9% of GDP) due to storms, exposing 12.1 million people (IPCC, 2014). Yumul et al. (2010) further draw attention to the fact that the resilience of the communities and individuals can be seen as relatively high, due to adapting to past experiences, but hazards can exceed such coping capacities. Gaillard et al. (2007) raised the points that the impact of the 2004 tropical depressions and typhoons on the Philippines’ eastern coast was so devastating not due to the actual hazards, but rather was rooted in the underlying social, political, and economic conditions that further contributed to people’s vulnerability. In 2013, the super typhoon Haiyan gave evidence to the exposure and vulnerability of the country to these kinds of extreme events. Despite forecasts and warnings provided days in advance, the typhoon killed more than 6,000 persons, affected millions of others and devastated areas in central 7