Disaster

The term disaster owes its origin to French word "disastre". It is a combination of two
words 'des' meaning 'bad' and "aster" meaning 'star' thus the term disaster refers to
'bad or evil star'. The term can be used for personal tragedies also, as they may
cause emotional and financial sufferings.

A disaster is defined as a disruption on a massive scale, either natural or man-made,

occurring in short or long periods. Disasters can lead to human, material, economic
or environmental hardships, which can be beyond the bearable capacity of the
affected society.

The United Nations defines disaster as

"the occurrence of sudden or major misfortune which disrupts the basic fabric and
normal functioning of the society or community".

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a disaster as

"a sudden ecological phenomenon of sufficient magnitude to require external

assistance".

In India, the Disaster Management Act, 2005 defines disaster as

"a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from
natural or man made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in
substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property,
or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude
as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.

In short, it is also 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.

Disasters can be classified into the following categories:

. Water and Climate Disaster:

Flood, hail storms, cloudburst, cyclones, heat waves, cold waves, droughts,
hurricanes.

Geological Disaster:

Landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes.

Biological Disaster:
Viral epidemics, pest attacks, cattle epidemic, and locust plagues.

Industrial Disaster:

Chemical and industrial accidents, mine shaft fires, oil spills.

Nuclear Disasters:

Nuclear core meltdowns, radiation poisoning.

Man-made disasters:

Urban and forest fires, oil spill, the collapse of huge building structures.

As per statistics, India as a whole is vulnerable to 30 different types of disasters that

will affect the economic, social, and human development potential to such an extent
that it will have long-term effects on productivity and macro-economic performance.

Hazard
A hazard is any object, situation, or behavior that has the potential to cause injury, ill
health, or damage to property or the environment. Health and safety hazards exist in
every workplace. Some are easily identified and corrected, while others are
necessary risks of the job and must be managed in other ways (for instance, by
using protective equipment).

Hazards can appear in many occupational circumstances. Some hazards are acute
and pose an immediate danger to the health and physical integrity of the worker or
guests on the premises. Others take a longer time to materialize and may have a
cumulative effect, as is the case for certain chemicals, vapors, dusts, and radiation
that may lead to chronic medical conditions following repeat or prolonged exposure.

Hazards are defined as "Phenomena that pose a threat to people, structures, or

economic assets and which may cause a disaster. They could be either manmade or
naturally occurring in our environment."

The extent of damage in a disaster depends on:

i) The impact, intensity and characteristics of the phenomenon and

ii) How people, environment and infrastructures are affected by that phenomenon.

This relationship can be written as an equation: Disaster Risk = Hazard +

Vulnerability

Hazards can be classified into the following categories:

Physical Hazards:

These are the most common hazards and they include extremes of temperature,
ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, excessive noise, electrical exposure, working from
heights, and unguarded machinery.

Mechanical Hazards:

These are usually created by machinery, often with protruding and moving parts.

Chemical Hazards:

These appear when a worker is exposed to chemicals in the workplace. Some are
safer than others, but for workers who are more sensitive to chemicals, even
common solutions can cause illness, skin irritation, or breathing problems.

. Biological Hazards:

These include the viruses, bacteria, fungus, parasites, and any living organism that
can infect or transmit diseases to human beings.

Ergonomic Hazards:

Including considerations of the total physiological demands of the job upon the
worker, even beyond productivity, health, and safety.

Psychosocial Hazards:

These may arise from a variety of psychosocial factors that workers may find to be
unsatisfactory, frustrating, or demoralizing.

Vulnerability
Vulnerability is the human dimension of disasters and is the result of the range of
economic, social, cultural, institutional, political and psychological factors that shape
people's lives and the environment that they live in.

It is defined as

"the extent to which a community, structure, service, and/or geographic area is likely
to be damaged or disrupted by the impact of particular hazard, on account of their
nature, construction and proximity to hazardous terrain or a disaster prone area".
Vulnerability can be a challenging concept to understand because it tends to mean
different things to different people and because it is often described using a variety of
terms including

predisposition

fragility

weakness

deficiency or

lack of capacity

Some definitions of vulnerability have included exposure in addition to susceptibility

to harm. However, it is generally understood that exposure is separate to the
'susceptibility' element of vulnerability since it is possible to be exposed, whilst at the
same time not susceptible to natural hazards.

Despite some divergence over the meaning of vulnerability, most experts agree that
understanding vulnerability requires more than analysing the direct impacts of a
hazard. Vulnerability also concerns the wider environmental and social conditions
that limit people and communities to cope with the impact of hazard.

Vulnerability relates to a number of factors, including:

. Physical factors

Like poor design and construction of buildings, unregulated land use planning, etc.

Social factors

Like poverty and inequality, marginalisation, social exclusion and discrimination by

gender, social status, disability and age (amongst other factors) psychological
factors, etc.

Economic factors

Like the uninsured informal sector, vulnerable rural livelihoods, dependence on

single, globalisation of business and supply chains, etc.

Environmental factors

Like poor environmental management, overconsumption of natural resources,

decline of risk regulating ecosystem services, climate change, etc.

It should be kept in mind that vulnerability is determined by historical, political,

cultural and institutional and natural resource processes that shape the social and
environmental conditions people find themselves existing within. These processes
produce a range of immediate unsafe conditions such as living in dangerous
locations or in poor housing, ill-health, political tensions or a lack of local institutions
or preparedness measures.

By including vulnerability in our understanding of disaster risk, we acknowledge the

fact that disaster risk not only depends on the severity of hazard or the number of
people or assets exposed, but that it is also a reflection of the susceptibility of people
and economic assets to suffer loss and damage. Levels of vulnerability help to
explain why some non-extreme hazards can lead to extreme impacts and disasters,
while some extreme events do not. In the context of extensive risk in particular, it is
often people's vulnerability that is the greatest factor in determining their risk.

In the context of different hazards, some groups are more susceptible to damage,
loss and suffering than others and likewise (within these groups) some people
experience higher levels of vulnerability than others. Vulnerable groups find it
hardest to reconstruct their livelihoods following a disaster, and this in turn makes
them more vulnerable to the effects of subsequent hazard events. Consequently, we
have to reduce vulnerability in order to reduce disaster risk.

Resilience
The word resilience is a term that appears increasingly used and is commonly used
among psychologists and scholars of the human soul. Until very recently the word
that seemed to define a similar concept was that of resistance. But there are some
differences that should be highlighted. The fundamental is permanence, continuity in
attitude.

According to the definition of the Royal Spanish Academy, resilience is

"the human capacity to flexibly assume and overcome limit situations".

The resilient person overcomes adversity from an inner consciousness of the need
to never surrender, to overcome any adversity. For the resilient every problem that
happens becomes an opportunity, firmly overcoming negativity. It is also a person
with psychological memory and able to identify the causes of problem situations to
avoid them in the future.

If it is said in a well-known proverb that man (employed as a generic term, that is,
both male and female gender) is the only animal that stumbles twice on the same
stone, the resilient person is not free to this happen to him, but he will take it on and
try to make it a third time. A resilient person holds the pressure. And it does not
break down or have immediate reactions that can make situations worse.
 Risk
Risk is a measure of the expected losses due to a hazardous event of a particular
magnitude occurring in a given area over a specific time period. Risk is a function of
the probability of particular occurrences and the losses each would cause. The level
of risk depends on:

i) Nature of the hazard

ii) Vulnerability of the elements which are affected

iii) Economic value of those elements.

Risk is defined in financial terms as the chance that an outcome or investment's

actual gains will differ from an expected outcome or return. Risk includes the
possibility of losing some or all of an original investment. Quantifiably, risk is usually
assessed by considering historical behaviours and outcomes. In finance, standard
deviation is a common metric associated with risk.

Everyone is exposed to some type of risk every day in the form of

driving

walking down the street

investing,

capital planning, etc.

An investor's personality, lifestyle, and age are some of the top factors to consider
for individual investment management and risk purposes. Each investor has a
unique risk profile that determines their willingness and ability to withstand risk. In
general, as investment risks rise, investors expect higher returns to compensate for
taking those risks.