Natural and Anthropogenic Disasters: An Overview

Abstract

Disasters are undesirable and often sudden events causing human, material, economic and/or environmental losses, which exceed the coping capability of the affected community or society. They are caused either by natural forces/processes (known as ‘natural disasters’) or by human actions, negligence, or errors (known as ‘anthropogenic disasters’’). Natural disasters are generally classified into three major groups (CRED, 2009): (i) ‘geophysical disasters’ (e.g., earthquake, volcanic eruption, rockfall, landslide, avalanche, and subsidence); (ii) ‘hydro-meteorological disasters’ (e.g., flood, drought, storm, extreme temperature, wildfire, and wet mass movement); and (iii) ‘biological disasters’ (e.g., epidemic, insect infestation, and animal stampede). Similarly, anthropogenic disasters are broadly classified into two major groups (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster): (i) ‘technological disasters’ (e.g., disasters due to engineering failures, transport disasters, and environmental disasters); and (ii) ‘sociological disasters’ (e.g., criminal acts, riots, war, stampedes, etc.).