Event or chain of events resulting in major damage, destruction or death
Ruins from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, remembered as one of the worst disasters in the history of the United States
Adisaster is a serious problem that happens over a period of time and causes harm to people, things, economies, or the environment that the affected community or society cannot handle it on its own.[1][2] In theory, natural disasters are those caused by natural hazards, whereas human-made disasters are those caused by human hazards. However, in modern times, the divide between natural, human-made or human-accelerated disasters is more and more difficult to draw.[3][4][5] In fact, all disasters can be seen as human-made, due to human failure to introduce appropriate emergency management measures.[6]
When disasters happen, developing countries often suffer the most. Over 95% of deaths from disasters occur in these countries, and they lose much more money compared to other countries. Losses due to natural hazards are 20 times greater (as a percentage of gross domestic product) in developing countries than in industrialized countries.[8][9]
A disaster is a result of a natural hazard impacting a vulnerable community. Poor planning or development or a lack of preparation are human failures which make communities vulnerable to climate hazards.[10] When the impact of these events becomes too extreme, they are often called disasters. Disasters are defined by their influence on people: if a hazard overwhelms or negatively affects a community, it is considered a disaster.[11]
Disasters are routinely divided into natural or human-made. However, in modern times, the divide between natural, man-made and man-accelerated disasters is quite difficult to draw.[12][13][14]
Complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an earthquake that causes a tsunami, resulting in coastal flooding, resulting in damage to a nuclear power plant (such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster). Some manufactured disasters have been wrongly ascribed to nature, such as smog and acid rain.[15]
Some researchers also differentiate between recurring events, such as seasonal flooding, and those considered unpredictable.[16]
The sudden, drastic flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers, such as loading from new snow or rain, or artificial triggers, such as explosives or backcountry skiers.
A series of waves hitting shores strongly, mainly caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake, usually caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water
Anatural disaster is the highly harmful impact on a societyorcommunity following a natural hazard event. Examples of natural hazard events include floods, droughts, earthquakes, tropical cyclones, volcanic activity, wildfires.[18] A natural disaster can cause loss of lifeordamage property, and typically leaves economic damage in its wake. The severity of the damage depends on the population's disaster preparedness and on the existing infrastructure.[19] Scholars have been saying that the term natural disaster is unsuitable and should be abandoned.[20] Instead, the simpler term disaster could be used, while also specifying the category (or type) of hazard.[21][22][23] A disaster is a result of a natural or human-made hazard impacting a vulnerable community. It is the combination of the hazard along with exposure of a vulnerable society that results in a disaster.
In modern times, the line between natural and human-made disasters is difficult to draw.[20][24][25] In fact, the term natural disaster was called a misnomer already in 1976.[23] Human choices around for example architecture,[26] fire risk,[27][28] and resource management[29] potentially play a role in causing or worsening natural disasters. Climate change also has an impact on the frequency of those disasters that are caused by extreme weather hazards (or "climate hazards"), such as floods, heatwaves, wildfires and tropical cyclones.[30]
All disasters can be regarded as human-made, due to human failure to introduce appropriate emergency management measures.[6]
Famines may be caused locally by drought, flood, fire, or pestilence, but in modern times there is plenty of food globally, and sustained localized shortages are generally due to government mismanagement, violent conflict, or an economic system that does not distribute food where needed.[35]
A disturbance caused by a group of people that may include sit-ins and other forms of obstructions, riots, sabotage and other forms of crime, and which is intended to be a demonstration to the public and the government, but can escalate into general chaos
The escape of solids, liquids, or gases that can harm people, other living organisms, property or the environment, from their intended controlled environment such as a container.
An event involving the significant release of radioactivity to the environment or a reactor core meltdown and which leads to major undesirable consequences to people, the environment, or the facility
Major disaster, as it is usually assessed on quantitative criteria of death and damage, was defined by Sheehan and Hewitt (1969),[36] having to conform to the following criteria:[37]
At least 100 people dead,
at least 100 people injured, or
at least $1 million damage
This definition includes indirect losses of life caused after the initial onset of the disaster such as secondary effects of, e.g., cholera or dysentery. This definition is still commonly used but has the limitations of number of deaths, injuries, and damage (in $).[37]UNDRO (1984)[citation needed] defined a disaster in a more qualitative fashion as:
an event, concentrated in time and space, in which a community undergoes severe danger and incurs such losses to its members and physical appurtenances that the social structure is disrupted and the fulfilment of all or some of the essential functions of the society is prevented.[38]
As with other definitions of disaster, this definition not only encompasses the social aspect of disaster impact and stresses potentially caused but also focuses on losses, implying the need for emergency response as an aspect of the disaster.[37] It does not, however, set out quantitative thresholds or scales for damage, death, or injury, respectively.[citation needed]
As of 2019, countries with the highest vulnerability per capita release the lowest amount of emissions per capita, and yet still experience the most heightened droughts and extreme precipitation.[39] According to a UN report, 91% of deaths from hazards from 1970 to 2019 occurred in developing countries.[40] These countries already have higher vulnerability and lower resilience to these events, which exacerbates the effects of the hazards.
As of 2008, there were on average 400 disaster events per year, more than double the amount since the 1980s.[41]
Hazards such as droughts, floods, and cyclones are naturally occurring phenomena.[42] However, climate change has caused these hazards to become more unreliable, frequent and severe. They thus contribute to disaster risks. Countries contributing most to climate change are often at the lowest risk of feeling the consequences.[39]
Disaster risk reduction progress score for some countries in 2011. The score of 5 is best. Assessments include four indicators that reflect the degree to which countries have prioritised disaster risk reduction and the strengthening of relevant institutions.[43]Disaster risk reduction (DRR) (or disaster risk management) is an approach for planning and taking steps to make disasters less likely to happen, and less damaging when they do happen. DRR aims to make communities stronger (more resilient or less vulnerable) and better prepared to handle disasters. When DRR is successful, it decreases the vulnerability of communities because it mitigates the effects of disasters.[44] This means DRR can reduce the severity and number of risky events. Since climate change can increase climate hazards, DRR and climate change adaptation are often looked at together in development efforts.[45]
Most sectors of development and humanitarian work have potential for DRR initiatives to be included. People from local communities, agencies or federal governments can all propose DRR strategies. Policies for DRR intend to "define goals and objectives across different timescales and with concrete targets, indicators and time frames."[44]: 16
Disaster response refers to the actions taken directly before, during or in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The objective is to save lives, ensure health and safety and to meet the subsistence needs of the people affected.[46]: 16 This includes warning/evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate assistance, assessing damage, continuing assistance and the immediate restoration or construction of infrastructure (i.e. provisional storm drainsordiversion dams). The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate assistance to maintain life, improve health and support the morale of the affected population. Such assistance may range from providing specific but limited aid, such as assisting refugees with transport, temporary shelter, and food to establishing semi-permanent settlements in camps and other locations. It also may involve initial repairs to damage or diversion to infrastructure.
The focus in the response phase is on keeping people safe, preventing the next disasters and meeting the basic needs of the people until more permanent and sustainable solutions can be found. The main responsibility to address these needs and respond to a disaster lies with the government or governments in whose territory the disaster has occurred. In addition, humanitarian organisations are often strongly present in this phase of the disaster management cycle, particularly in countries where the government lacks the resources to respond adequately to the needs.
The word disaster is derived from Middle Frenchdésastre and that from Old Italiandisastro, which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek pejorative prefix δυσ- (dus-) "bad"[47] and ἀστήρ (aster), "star".[48] The root of the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes from an astrological sense of a calamity blamed on the position of planets.[49]
^"What is a disaster?". www.ifrc.org. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
^"Disasters & Emergencies: Definitions"(PDF). Addis Ababa: Emergency Humanitarian Action. March 2002. Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2017 – via World Health Organization International.
^ abBlaikie, Piers, Terry Cannon, Ian Davis & Ben Wisner. At Risk – Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters, Wiltshire: Routledge, 2003, ISBN0-415-25216-4
^Zibulewsky, Joseph (April 14, 2001). "Defining disaster: the emergency department perspective". National Library of Medicine. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
^L. Bull-Kamanga; K. Diagne; A. Lavell; E. Leon; F. Lerise; H. MacGregor; A. Maskrey; M. Meshack; M. Pelling (1 April 2003). "From everyday hazards to disasters: the accumulation of risk in urban areas". Environment and Urbanization. 15 (1): 193–204. Bibcode:2003EnUrb..15..193B. doi:10.1177/095624780301500109. ISSN0956-2478. S2CID17439273.
^Zorn, Matija (2018), Pelc, Stanko; Koderman, Miha (eds.), "Natural Disasters and Less Developed Countries", Nature, Tourism and Ethnicity as Drivers of (De)Marginalization: Insights to Marginality from Perspective of Sustainability and Development, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality, vol. 3, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 59–78, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59002-8_4, ISBN978-3-319-59002-8, retrieved 8 June 2022
^D. Alexander (2002). Principles of Emergency planning and Management. Harpended: Terra publishing. ISBN1-903544-10-6.
^B. Wisner; P. Blaikie; T. Cannon & I. Davis (2004). At Risk – Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters. Wiltshire: Routledge. ISBN0-415-25216-4.[page needed]
^ abcSmith, Keith (1992). Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster. Routledge Physical Environment Series (first ed.). Routledge. ISBN9780415012171.
^Smith 1996 quoted in Kraas, Frauke (2008). "Megacities as Global Risk Areas". In Marzluff, John (ed.). Urban Ecology: An International Perspective on the Interaction Between Humans and Nature (illustrated ed.). Springer Science & Business Media. p. 588. ISBN9780387734125. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
^McBean, Gordon and Caroline Rogers. 2010. “Climate hazards and disasters: the need for capacity building.” WIREs Climate Change vol 1. 871-884. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.77