Natural Hazard

A natural hazard[1] is a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment. Many natural hazards are interrelated, e.g. earthquakes can cause tsunamis and drought can lead directly to famine. A concrete example of the division between a natural hazard and a natural disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster, whereas earthquakes are a hazard.

Natural Hazards is devoted to original research work on all aspects of natural hazards, including the forecasting of catastrophic events, risk management, and the nature of precursors of natural and technological hazards. Although hazards can originate in different sources and systems, such as atmospheric, hydrologic, oceanographic, volcanologic, seismic, neotectonic, the environmental impacts are equally catastrophic. This warrants a close interaction between different scientific and operational disciplines, aimed at enhancing the mitigation of hazards.

Coverage includes such categories of hazard as atmospheric, climatological, oceanographic, storm surges, tsunamis, floods, snow, avalanches, landslides, erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes, manmade and technological, as well as risk assessment. Many of the Asia and Pacific developing countries are situated in the worlds hazard belts and are subject to floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, windstorms, tidal waves and land slides, etc. The major natural disasters that occur periodically in this region are largely due to climatic and seismic factors. The region has suffered 50 per cent of the worlds major natural disasters (ESCAP, 1995a). Since the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction began in 1990, the total number of deaths due to natural disasters in the region has exceeded 200,000 and the estimated damage to property over this period has been estimated at US$ 100 billion (ESCAP, 1995a). Vulnerability to disasters has increased due to the increased aggregation of people in urban centres, environmental degradation, and a lack of planning and preparedness.

1 geological hazards earthquake and landslides 2 hydrological hazards

flood and tsunami 3 climatic and atmospheric hazards droght International campaigns
In 2000, the United Nations launched the International Early Warning Programme to address the underlying causes of vulnerability and to build disaster-resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of Disaster Risk Reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, economic and environmental losses due to hazards of all kinds (UN/ISDR, 2000). The 2006-2007 United Nations International Disaster Reduction Day theme is Disaster reduction education begins in school. The Foundation of Public Safety Professionals has launched an international campaign giving everybody a chance to have their say, thought their international open essay or documentary competition Disaster Risk Reduction Education Begins at School.

Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition[citation needed], resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be ostensively defined as any tragic event with great loss stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions.

In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of hazards and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability are not considered a disaster, as is the case in uninhabited regions.[1]

Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries, and losses due to natural disasters are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing countries than in industrialized countries.[2][3] Natural disaster Main article: Natural Disaster A natural disaster is a consequence when a natural calamity affects humans and/or the built environment. Human vulnerability, and often a lack of appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, environmental, or human impact. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster: their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters

occur when hazards meet vulnerability". A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability.

Man-made disaster Main article: Man-made disasters Various disasters like earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions, flood and cyclones are natural hazards that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. The rapid growth of the world's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environment has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled with deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation non-engineered constructions which make the disaster-prone areas more vulnerable, tardy communication, poor or

no budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developing countries suffer more or less chronically by natural disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties due to natural disasters.

Among various natural hazards, earthquakes, landslides, floods and cyclones are the major disasters adversely affecting very large areas and population in the Indian sub-continent. These natural disasters are of (i) geophysical origin such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, land slides and (ii) climatic origin such as drought, flood, cyclone, locust, forest fire. Though it may not be possible to control nature and to stop the development of natural phenomena but the efforts could be made to avoid disasters and alleviate their effects on human lives, infrastructure and property. Rising frequency, amplitude and number of natural disasters and attendant problem coupled with loss of

human lives prompted the General Assembly of the United Nations to proclaim 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) through a resolution 44/236 of December 22, 1989 to focus on all issues related to natural disaster reduction. In spite of IDNDR, there had been a string of major disaster throughout the decade. Nevertheless, by establishing the rich disaster management related traditions and by spreading public awareness the IDNDR provided required stimulus for disaster reduction. It is almost impossible to prevent the occurrence of natural disasters and their damages.