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168Natural and human-made disasters… cities experienceboth large and smalldisasters, but thelatter are seldomsystematicallyrecorded and oftenignored…Box 7.1 Key terminologyDisasters and their component partsDisaster: a serious disruption of the functioning of a communityor a society causing widespread human, material, economic orenvironmental losses that exceed the ability of the affectedcommunity or society to cope using its own resources. A disasteris a function of risk processes. It results from a combination ofhazards, human vulnerability and insufficient capacity or measuresto reduce the potential negative consequences of risk.Natural disaster: a serious disruption to human systemstriggered by a natural hazard causing human, material, economic orenvironmental losses that exceed the ability of those affected tocope.Human-made disaster: a serious disruption to human systemstriggered by a technological or industrial hazard causing human,material, economic or environmental losses that exceed the abilityof those affected to cope.Natural hazards: natural processes or phenomena occurring inthe biosphere that may constitute a damaging event. Naturalhazards can be classified by origin (geophysical or hydrometeorological),and they can vary in magnitude or intensity,frequency, duration, area of extent, speed of onset, spatial dispersionand temporal spacing.Human-made hazards: danger originating from technological orindustrial accidents, dangerous procedures, infrastructure failuresor certain human activities that may cause the loss of life or injury,property damage, social and economic disruption, or environmentaldegradation. Examples of human-made hazard include industrialpollution, nuclear activities/accidents and radioactivity, toxicwastes, dam failures, and industrial or technological accidents(explosions, fires and spills).Human vulnerability: the conditions determined by physical,social, economic and environmental factors or processes thatincrease the exposure and susceptibility of people to the impact,or outcomes, of hazards.Coping capacity: the means by which people or organizationsuse available resources and abilities to face identified adverseconsequences that could lead to a disaster. In general, this involvesmanaging resources, both in normal times as well as during crisesSource: adapted from ISDR, 2004aor adverse conditions. The strengthening of coping capacitiesbuilds resilience to withstand the effects of natural and humaninducedhazards.Adaptation: adaptation refers to human action taken to reduceexposure or sensitivity to hazard over the long term.Managing disaster riskDisaster risk reduction: an overarching term used to describepolicy aimed at minimizing human vulnerability and disaster risk tohelp avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness)the adverse impacts of hazards within the broad context ofsustainable development.Mitigation: structural (e.g. engineering) and non-structural (e.g.land-use planning) measures undertaken to limit the severity orfrequency of natural and technological phenomena that have thepotential to become hazardous.Preparedness: activities and measures taken in advance to ensureeffective response to the impact of hazards, including the issuanceof timely and effective early warnings and the temporary evacuationof people and property from threatened locations.Response: the provision of assistance or intervention during orimmediately after a disaster to meet the life preservation and basicsubsistence needs of those people affected. It can be of an immediate,short-term or protracted duration.Recovery: decisions and actions taken after a disaster with a viewto restoring or improving the pre-disaster living conditions of thestricken community, while encouraging and facilitating necessaryadjustments to reduce disaster risk. Recovery affords an opportunityto develop and apply disaster risk reduction throughrehabilitation and reconstruction measures.Resilience: the capacity of a system, community or society potentiallyexposed to hazards to change by coping or adapting in orderto reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure.This is determined by the degree to which the social systemis capable of organizing itself to increase its capacity for learningfrom past disasters for better future protection and to improverisk reduction.addresses the basic needs of survivors. As soon as possible,and often with some overlap, disaster response is followedby the more developmental agenda of recovery.At all stages, from pre-disaster to relief and recovery,there are opportunities to address the root causes of humanvulnerability, such as (among others) unsafe housing, inadequateinfrastructure, poverty and marginalization. Bringingthese elements of risk reduction together can help to makeindividuals, groups and cities more resilient.THE SCALE OF DISASTERSMost cities experience both large and small disasters, but thelatter are seldom systematically recorded and are oftenignored, even by the local news media. More often than not,there is no mention of ‘small disasters’ in the policy statementsof government or non-governmental organizations(NGOs). 1 Yet, for those involved, small events can be asdestructive as large events causing injury and death andundermining livelihoods. The impact of small disasters isparticularly worrying because, while there is no systematicdata, many commentators argue that the aggregate impact ofsmall events in cities exceeds losses to the low-frequency,high-impact hazards that capture news headlines.There is no agreed upon definition, such as the scaleof human or economic loss, for what makes a disaster smallor large. In practice, the scale ascribed to a disaster iscontext dependent. Ten people being killed by a landslide in