Page 244 - Health, Population and Environment Education 9

and hazard. Disaster risk is therefore considered as the combination of the severity and
frequency of a hazard the number of people and assets exposed to the hazard, and their
vulnerability to damage.

The key to understanding disaster risk is by recognizing that disasters are indicators
of development failures, meaning that disaster risk is a measure of the sustainability of
development. Hazard, vulnerability and exposure are influenced by a number of risk
drivers, including poverty and inequality badly planned and managed urban and regional
development, climate change and environmental degradation.

Disaster and disaster management
We have experienced a variety of disasters like earthquake, flood, landslide, fire, etc. An
event that occurs suddenly and affects life and property is called a disaster. Disasters
seriously disrupt the function of a community or a society involving economic and
environmental losses.

Fig: 7
Flood Landslide Earthquake
Disasters can be divided into two types. They are (i) natural disasters and (ii) human
induced disasters.

i. Natural disasters

The natural events that occur suddenly and cause loss of life and property are called
natural disasters, e.g. earthquake, flood, landslide, cyclone, volcanic eruption, etc.

ii. Human induced disasters

The disasters that occur due to human activities are called human induced disasters, e.g.
road accident, aircraft accident, fire, bomb explosion, oil spills, etc.

Fig: 8
Road accident Aircraft accident Bomb explosion
244 GREEN Environment Population and Health Education Book-9