Disaster

A disaster is a serious problem that happens over a period of time and causes so much 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]

Disasters caused by natural hazards are things like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires.^[7] Further examples are cold waves and heat waves, droughts, cyclones, landslides, lightning, tsunamis, volcanic activity.^[7] Disasters can also be caused by anthropogenic hazards such as criminality, civil disorder, terrorism, war, and power outages.

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]