Disaster Management

A common definition of disaster management is difficult because the term disaster may refer to different situations, and the approaches to manage these situations can vary in scope and aim. A disaster usually refers to an unpredictable event with relevant negative consequences for people, businesses, and the environment. According to the magnitude of damages generated, disasters are detected from catastrophes. With reference to the speed of occurrence, disasters are classified as emergencies or not. Moreover, different literature streams focus on either industrial disasters, which are produced by companies in their ordinary activity (e.g., blow out of some plants) or natural disasters, which are incidence of natural hazard events (earthquakes, eruptions, floods, or cyclones). Managing a disaster is also a very broad definition, as the art of management can span from forecasting to preventing, planning, solving disasters, and recovering the situation as it was before the disaster or improving it (disaster recovery).