Management of Natural and Man Made Disasters

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Fundamentals of disasters. 3. Importance of disasters. 4. Dimensions and typology of disasters. 5. Policy initiatives in disaster management. Bibliography. Index.

“A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, materials, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to copy using only its own resources. Disasters are often classifieds according to their speed of onset (sudden or slow), or according to their cause (natural or man-made).

Natural phenomena are extreme climatological, hydrological or geological processes that does not prose any threat to persons or property. A massive earthquake in an unpopulated area, for example, is a natural phenomena, not a hazard. So is the annual flood along the Nile, an essential element to the well-being of its neighbouring inhabitants.

Another term closely related to disaster and used throughout this module is emergency. A disaster might be regarded as particular type (or sub-set) of an emergency. “Disaster” suggests an intense time period and level of urgency. Whereas a disaster is bound by a specific period in which lives and essential property are immediately at risk, an emergency can encompass a more general period in which --

There is a clear and marked deterioration in the coping abilities of a group or community, or

Coping abilities are only sustained by unusual initiatives by the group or community or by external intervention.

From the outset it is worth reminding ourselves that disasters and emergencies are all too often regarded as aberrant events, divorced from “normal life”. In reality, however, the opposite is true. Disasters and emergences are fundamental reflections or normal life.

This book will be of immense help to all those contemplating to acquire expert knowledge of natural as well as man-made disasters.” (jacket)