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A disaster (from Middle French ''désastre'', from Old Italian ''disastro'', from the Greek pejorative prefix ''dis-'' bad + ''aster'' star) is the impact of a Natural or Man-made Hazards that negatively affects society or Environment . The word disaster's root is from astrology: this implies that when the stars are in a bad position a bad event will happen. In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the effect of hazards on vulnerable areas. Hazards that occur in areas with low vulnerability do not result in a disaster; as is the case in uninhabited regions. (Quarantelli 1998) CLASSIFICATION Wisner ''et al'' (2004) reflect a common opinion when they argue that all disasters can be seen as being man-made, their reasoning being that human actions before the strike of the hazard can prevent it developing into a disaster. All disasters are hence the result of human failure to introduce appropriate Disaster Management measures. Hazards are routinely divided into natural or human-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an Earthquake that causes a Tsunami , resulting in coastal Flood ing. NATURAL DISASTERS See Also: Natural disaster A natural disaster is the consequence of when a potential natural strike, which threatens a very small area, to impact events, which have the potential to End Civilization . MAN-MADE HAZARDS See Also: Man-made hazards Disasters having an element of human intent, negligence, error or the ones involving the failure of a system are called man-made disasters. Man-made hazards are in turn categorised as technological or sociological. Technological hazards are results of failure of technology, such as engineering failures, transport accidents or Environmental Disaster s. Sociological hazards have a strong human motive, such as Crime , Stampede s, Riot s and War . DISASTER MANAGEMENT See Also: Emergency management Business continuity planning The probability of avoiding a disaster is greatly improved when those potentially affected by them implement mitigative action and develop emergency preparedness plans. The science of Disaster Management deals with this issue. Although the term disaster is subjective, it is often used in the developed world to refer to situations where local emergency management resources are inadequate to counteract the negative effects of the event (Quarantelli 1998). Business Continuity Planning focus on the particular application of disaster management in the commercial domain. SEE ALSO
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