Natural disaster management glossary

Biological disasters Disasters caused by the exposure of living organisms to germs and toxic substances such as epidemic, insect infestation, Climatological disasters Events caused by long-lived processes (intra-seasonal to multi-decadal climate variability) eg extreme temperature, drought, wildfire. Disaster A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, and/or environmental losses that exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using only its own resources. Events such as earthquakes, floods, and cyclones are considered disasters when they affect human life, livelihood and property. Disasters are often classified according to their speed of onset (sudden or slow), or their cause (natural or human-made) but many disasters may be a combination of both of these factors. Early warning Through monitoring populations can be warned about the potential hazards and measures can be taken to reduce their impact and ensure a timely and effective response. An early warning enables people to evacuate if necessary which helps limit the number of people affected by a hazard. For examples the provision of food aid could prevent a drought from becoming a famine. Geophysical disasters Events originating from solid earth such as earthquake, volcano Hazard A hazard is a natural phenomenon– climatological, hydrological or geological– that may adversely affect human life, property or activity. A hazard becomes a disaster when it affects people. A cyclone that surges over an uninhabited island does not result in a disaster but one that hits a populated coast causing extensive loss of life and property, is a disaster. Hydrological disasters Events caused by deviation in the normal water cycle and/or overflow of bodies of water caused by wind set-up such as flood, Meterological disasters Events caused by short loved/small to medium scale atmospheric processes such as storms Risk Risk is the probability of a disaster occurring and resulting in a particular level of loss (life, injury, property damage, livelihoods, disruption of economic activity and/or damage to the environment ). The larger the hazard and the more vulnerable the people, the greater the risk. Vulnerability Human vulnerability Human vulnerability is the relative lack of capacity, physical, social, economic and/or environmental of a person or community to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a given disaster. Ultimately poverty makes people most vulnerable to the impact of most disasters. Structural or physical vulnerability Structural or physical vulnerability is the extent to which a structure is likely to be damaged or disrupted by a hazard event.