According to ifrc.org, disaster
is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a
community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental
losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own
resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins
In contemporary academia, disasters are seen
as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of a combination of
both hazard/s and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low
vulnerability will never become disasters, as is the case in uninhabited
regions. Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster
hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in
developing countries, and losses due to natural disasters are 20 times greater
(as a percentage of GDP)
in developing countries than in industrialized countries.
Etymology
and Classification
Etymology
The word disaster is
derived from Middle French désastre and
that from Old Italian disastro,
which in turn comes from the Greek pejorative prefix δυσ-, (dus-) "bad" + ἀστήρ(aster),
"star". The root
of the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes
from an astrological theme
in which the ancients used to refer to the destruction or deconstruction of a
star as a disaster.
Classification
Researchers have been studying disasters
for more than a century, and for more than forty years disaster
research. The studies reflect a common opinion when they argue that
all disasters can be seen as being human-made, their reasoning being that human
actions before the strike of the hazard can prevent it developing into a
disaster. All disasters are hence the result of human failure to introduce
appropriate disaster management measures. Hazards are routinely divided into
natural or human-made, although 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.
Natural Disaster. A natural disaster is a consequence when a
natural hazard affects humans and/or the built environment. Human vulnerability, and lack of appropriate emergency management,
leads to financial, environmental, or human impact. The resulting loss depends
on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster: their
resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation:
"disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability". A natural hazard
will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability.
Various
phenomena like earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods and cyclones
are all natural hazards that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of
dollars of habitat and property each year. However, natural hazards can strike
in unpopulated areas and never develop into disasters. However, the rapid
growth of the world's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous
environments has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural
disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled with
deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation, non-engineered constructions
which make the disaster-prone areas more vulnerable, tardy communication, poor
or no budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developing countries suffer
more or less chronically by natural disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties due to
natural disasters.
Man-Made Disaster. Man-made disasters are the consequence
of technological or human hazards. Examples include stampedes,
fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, oil spills and nuclear
explosions/radiation. War and deliberate attacks may also be put in this
category. As with natural hazards, man-made hazards are events that have not
happened, for instance terrorism. Man-made disasters are examples of specific
cases where man-made hazards have become reality in an event.
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