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Biography
mergefrom|Tragedy (event)|date=April 2012Other usesA disaster is a natural disaster|natural or man-made disaster|man-made (or technological) hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment (biophysical)|environment . A disaster can be ostensive definition|ostensively defined as any tragic event with great loss stemming from events such as earthquake s, flood s, catastrophic accident s, fire s, or explosion s. It is a phenomenon that disasters can cause damage to life, property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people.
In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately risk management|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.Quarantelli E.L. (1998). Where We Have Been and Where We Might Go. In: Quarantelli E.L. (ed). What Is A Disaster? London: Routledge. pp146-159
Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits& nbsp;– 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.cite web|url= http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTURBANDEVELOPMENT/EXTDISMGMT/0,,menuPK:341021~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:341015,00.html|title= World Bank:Disaster Risk ManagementLuis Flores Ballesteros. "Who’s getting the worst of natural disasters? " 54 Pesos May. 2010:54 Pesos 04 Oct 2008. < http://54pesos.org/2008/10/04/who%e2%80%99s-getting-the-worst-of-natural-disasters/>
Etymology
The word disaster is derived from Middle French language|French désastre and that from Old Italian language|Italian disastro , which in turn comes from the Greek language|Greek pejorative prefix d?s- , ( dus- ) "bad"cite web|url= http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext? doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2328613|title= Dus, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon", at Perseus + ?st?? ( aster ), "star".cite web|url= http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext? doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2316528|title= Aster, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon", at Perseus The root of the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes from an astrology|astrological theme in which the ancients used to refer to the destruction or deconstruction of a star as a disaster
Classifications
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.B. Wisner, P. Blaikie, T. Cannon, and I. Davis (2004). At Risk - Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters. Wiltshire: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-25216-4 Hazards are routinely divided into natural or human-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing country|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
Main| Natural disasterA 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
Main|Man-made disastersMan-made disasters are the consequence of technological or human hazards. Examples include stampede s, 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 happen, for instance terroism. Man-made disasters are examples of specific cases where man-made hazards have become reality in an event.
Barton A.H. (1969). Communities in Disaster. A Sociological Analysis of Collective Stress Situations. SI: Ward Lock
Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster. Susanna M. Hoffman and Anthony Oliver-Smith, Eds.. Santa Fe NM: School of American Research Press, 2002
G. Bankoff, G. Frerks, D. Hilhorst (eds.) (2003). Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People. ISBN 1-85383-964-7.
D. Alexander (2002). Principles of Emergency planning and Management. Harpended: Terra publishing. ISBN 1-903544-10-6.
Quarantelli, E. L. (2008). “Conventional Beliefs and Counterintuitive Realities”. Conventional Beliefs and Counterintuitive Realities in Social Research: an international Quarterly of the social Sciences, Vol. 75 (3): 873-904.
Paul, B. K et al. (2003). “Public Response to Tornado Warnings: a comparative Study of the May 04, 2003 Tornadoes in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee”. Quick Response Research Report, no 165, Natural Hazard Center, Universidad of Colorado
Kahneman, D. y Tversky, A. (1984). “Choices, Values and frames”. American Psychologist 39 (4): 341-350.
Beck, U. (2006). Risk Society, towards a new modernity. Buenos Aires, Paidos
Aguirre, B. E & Quarantelli, E. H. (2008). “Phenomenology of Death Counts in Disasters: the invisible dead in the 9/11 WTC attack”. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. Vol. 26 (1): 19-39.
Wilson, H. (2010). “Divine Sovereignty and The Global Climate Change debate”. Essays in Philosophy. Vol. 11 (1): 1-7
Uscher-Pines, L. (2009). “Health effects of Relocation following disasters: a systematic review of literature”. Disasters. Vol. 33 (1): 1-22.
Scheper-Hughes, N. (2005). “Katrina: the disaster and its doubles”. Anthropology Today. Vol. 21 (6).
Phillips, B. D. (2005). “Disaster as a Discipline: The Status of Emergency Management Education in the US”. International Journal of Mass-Emergencies and Disasters. Vol. 23 (1): 111-140.
Mileti, D. and Fitzpatrick, C. (1992). “The causal sequence of Risk communication in the Parkfield Earthquake Prediction experiment”. Risk Analysis. Vol. 12: 393-400.
Refend
External links
Wikibooks|History|Historical Disasters and TragediesSister project links
http://www.dels.nas.edu/dr/ The Disaster Roundtable Information on past and future Disaster Roundtable workshops
http://www.em-dat.net/ EM-DAT The EM-DAT International Disaster Database
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php RSOE EDIS Emergency and Disaster Information Service An up-to-the-minute world wide map showing current disasters.
http://www.foodshortageusa.com/Articles.html Articles On Food Shortage - Food Shortage Information.
http://www.gdacs.org Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System A United Nations and European Commission sponsored website for disaster information.
http://www.un-spider.org/ United Nations Programme for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response United Nations programme covering the full disaster management cycle with usage of space technology
http://www.airdisaster.com/features/top100/top100.shtml Top 100 aviation disasters on Airdisaster.com|AirDisaster.com
http://disasters.videohq.tv/ Disaster Video Archive Archive Footage of Major Disasters
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ Guinness Book of World Records
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_1987_Fall/ai_5151514/pg_2 The world's worst massacres Whole Earth Review
http://www.arthurhu.com/INDEX/genocide.htm War Disaster and Genocide
http://disastervideo.net/ Disaster Video Disaster News and Video
http://www.ubalert.com/ Disaster Alert Notification and Reporting
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php RSOE EDIS (Emergency Disaster and Information Service): world map showing current disasters
http://www.disasternews.net/ The Disaster News Network - Live Monitors and Updates about Disasters
http://www.publicsafetydegrees.com/articles/disasters.php The Calamity of Disaster - Recognizing the possibilities, planning for the event, managing crisis and coping with the effects.
http://www.cdrn.org.in Corporate Disaster Resource Network, India - Needs and Offers matched online.
