Brief description of DM.

1. DM-5231
Disaster Prevention, Mitigation &
Adaptation: Approaches, Strategies
and Practices
Session 02
Professor Hafiza Khatun
Department of Geography and Environment
University of Dhaka

2. Disasters
Disasters have been around us since well
before recorded history and they appear to
be increasing in both frequency and
intensity with increase of population and
development (technological, social)

3. Disasters
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

4. Disaster
• ‘Disaster’ is defined differently by different
people
• Britton (1986) argued that “disasters can be
more easily recognized than they can be
defined”.
• Disaster is a severe, relatively sudden and
unexpected disruption of normal structural
arrangements within a social system over
which the system has no firm control (Burton,
1978).

6. Definition
A Disaster may also be viewed as “a significant
departure from normal experience for a particular time
and place” (Turner, 1978).
Disaster is defined as any event, typically occurring
suddenly, that causes damage, ecological disruption,
loss of human life, deterioration of health and health
services, and which exceeds the capacity of the
affected community on a scale sufficient to require
outside assistance” (Landsman, 2001).

7. Definition
According to United Nation International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)
A Disaster is a serious disruption of the
functioning of a society or community
that causes widespread human,
material or environmental loss which
exceeds the capacity of the affected
society to cope without external
intervention

8. Disaster
A disaster is a natural
or man-made hazard
resulting in an event
of substantial extent
causing significant
physical damage or
destruction, loss of
life, or drastic change
to the environment

10. Natural Disaster
• According to the World Disaster Report (WDR,
2003) the most common natural disasters are
classified into two categories:
• (i) Hydro meteorological disasters –
landslides/avalanches; droughts/famines;
extreme temperatures and heat waves; floods;
hurricanes; forest fires; wind storms; insect
infestation and storm surges.
• (ii) Geophysical disasters – earthquakes;
volcanoes and tsunamis.

11. Earthquake

13. Human-made disaster
Anthropogenic disaster or human-made disaster can
result in the form of a human-made disaster.
Anthropogenic means threats having an element of
human intent, negligence, or error; or involving a
failure of a human-made system. It results in huge
loss of life and property. It further affects a person's
mental, physical and social well-being.

14. Typical Effects of Disasters
o Typical Effects of Loss of life
o Injury
o Damage to and destruction of society
o Disruption of production
o Disruption of lifestyles
o Loss of livelihood
o Disruption to essential services
o Damage to national infrastructure and disruption
to governmental systems
o National economic loss
o Sociological and psychological effects.

15. Disaster related Terminologies
• Hazards
• Vulnerability
• Risk
• Capacity
• Emergency
• Resilience
• Disaster Management Cycle
• Disaster Management
• Some more

16. Disaster
• A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society involving widespread human,
material, economic or environmental loss and impacts, which
exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to
cope using its own resources.
• In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the
consequence of inappropriately management risk. These
risks are the product of a combination of both hazards and
vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low
vulnerability will never become disasters, as in the case of
uninhabited regions.
• Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a
disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by
hazards occur in developing countries, and losses due to
natural hazards are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP)
in developing countries than in industrialized countries

17. Impact of Disaster can be
minimized through
• Prevention
• Mitigation
• Adaptation of different strategies