Editing Disaster (section)

== Types ==
The scale of a disaster matters. ''Small-scale disasters'' only affect local communities but need help beyond the affected community. ''Large-scale disasters'' affect wider society and need national or international help.<ref name="UNGA" />

It is usual to divide disasters into natural or human-made. Recently the divide between natural, man-made and man-accelerated disasters has become harder to draw.<ref name=":12"/><ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Gould |first1=Kevin A. |last2=Garcia |first2=M. Magdalena |last3=Remes |first3=Jacob A.C. |date=1 December 2016 |title=Beyond 'natural-disasters-are-not-natural': the work of state and nature after the 2010 earthquake in Chile |journal=Journal of Political Ecology |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=93 |doi=10.2458/v23i1.20181 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":42"/> Some manufactured disasters such as [[smog]] and [[acid rain]] have been wrongly attributed to nature.<ref name="China.NYT">{{cite news |author=Didi Kirsten Tatlow |date=15 December 2016 |title=Don't Call It 'Smog' in Beijing, Call It a 'Meteorological Disaster |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world/asia/beijing-smog-pollution.html |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world/asia/beijing-smog-pollution.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Related to natural hazards ===
{{Main|Natural disaster}}

Disasters with links to [[natural hazard]]s are commonly called [[natural disaster]]s. However experts have questioned this term for a long time.<ref>Cannon, Terry. (1994). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248360551_Vulnerability_Analysis_and_The_Explanation_Of_'Natural'_Disasters Vulnerability Analysis and The Explanation Of 'Natural' Disasters]. Disasters, Development and Environment.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
Disasters with links to natural hazards
|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC"
! style="width:8em" | Example
! Profile 
|-
|[[Avalanche]]||The sudden, drastic flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers, such as loading from new snow or rain, or artificial triggers, such as explosives or backcountry skiers.
|-
|[[Blizzard]]||A severe snowstorm characterized by very strong winds and low temperatures
|-
|[[Earthquake]]||The shaking of the Earth's crust, caused by underground volcanic forces of breaking and shifting rock beneath the Earth's surface
|-
|[[Fire|Fire (wild)]]||Fires that originate in uninhabited areas and which pose the risk to spread to inhabited areas (see also [[Wildfire#Climate change effects|Wildfire § Climate change effects]])
|-
|[[Flood]]||Flash flooding: Small creeks, gullies, dry streambeds, ravines, culverts or even low-lying areas flood quickly (see also [[Effects of climate change]])
|-
|[[Freezing rain]]||Rain occurring when outside surface temperature is below freezing
|-
|[[Heat wave]]||A prolonged period of excessively hot weather relative to the usual weather pattern of an area and relative to normal temperatures for the season (see also [[Effects of climate change#Heat waves and temperature extremes|Effects of climate change § Heat waves and temperature extremes]]).
|-
|[[Landslide]]||Geological phenomenon which includes a range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows
|-
|[[Lightning strike]]||An electrical discharge caused by lightning, typically during thunderstorms
|-
|[[Limnic eruption]]||The sudden eruption of carbon dioxide from deep lake water
|-
|[[Tropical cyclone]]
|Rapidly rotating [[Storm|storm system]] characterized by a [[Low-pressure area|low-pressure]] center, a closed low-level [[atmospheric circulation]], [[Beaufort scale|strong winds]], and a spiral arrangement of [[thunderstorm]]s that produce heavy rain and [[squall]]s (see also [[Tropical cyclones and climate change]])
|-
|[[Tsunami]]||A series of waves hitting shores strongly, mainly caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake, usually caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water
|-
|[[Volcanic eruption]]||The release of hot magma, volcanic ash and/or gases from a volcano
|}{{excerpt|Natural disaster|paragraphs=1-3|file=no}}

=== Unrelated to natural hazards ===
{{See also|Hazard}}
[[File:UA Flight 175 hits WTC south tower 9-11 edit.jpeg|thumb|right|200px|[[Airplane crash]]es and [[terrorist attack]]s are examples of man-made disasters: they kill and injure people, destroy and damage property, and cause pollution. The pictured example is the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001 at the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in New York City.]]
Human-made disasters are serious harmful events caused by human actions and social processes. Technological hazards also fall into this category. That is because they result in human-instigated disasters. Human-made hazards are sometimes called anthropogenic hazards.<ref name="UNGA" />{{rp|18}} Examples include [[Crime|criminality]], [[Civil disorder|social unrest]], [[crowd crush]]es, [[fire]]s, [[transport accidents]], [[industrial accident]]s, power outages, [[oil spills]], [[terrorist attacks]], and [[nuclear explosion]]s/[[nuclear radiation]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Cueto |first1=Lavinia Javier |last2=Agaton |first2=Casper Boongaling |year=2021 |title=Pandemic and Typhoon: Positive Impacts of a Double Disaster on Mental Health of Female Students in the Philippines |journal=Behavioral Sciences |language=en |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=64 |doi=10.3390/bs11050064 |pmc=8147095 |pmid=33946801 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Catastrophic [[climate change]], [[nuclear war]], and [[bioterrorism]] also fall into this category.

Climate change and environmental degradation are sometimes called socio-natural hazards. These are hazards involving a combination of both natural and human factors.<ref name="UNGA" /> {{rp|18}} All disasters can be regarded as human-made, because of failure to introduce the right [[emergency management]] measures.<ref name="atrisk">Blaikie, Piers, Terry Cannon, Ian Davis & Ben Wisner. ''At Risk – Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters'', Wiltshire: Routledge, 2003, {{ISBN|0-415-25216-4}}</ref>

[[Famine]]s may be caused locally by drought, flood, fire or pestilence. In modern times there is plenty of food globally. Long-lasting local shortages are generally due to government mismanagement, violent conflict, or an economic system that does not distribute food where needed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Famine |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/famine |access-date=2024-01-07 |website=education.nationalgeographic.org |language=en}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+Disasters without links to natural hazards
|'''Disaster'''
|'''Profile'''
|-
|[[Bioterrorism]]||The intentional release or dissemination of biological agents as a means of coercion
|-
|[[Civil unrest]]||A disturbance caused by a group of people that may include [[sit-in]]s and other forms of obstructions, riots, sabotage and other forms of crime, and which is intended to be a demonstration to the public and the government, but can escalate into general chaos
|-
|[[Fire|Fire (urban)]]||Even with strict building fire codes, people still perish in fires
|-
|[[Hazardous material|Hazardous material spills]]||The escape of solids, liquids, or gases that can harm people, other living organisms, property or the environment, from their intended controlled environment such as a container.
|-
||[[Nuclear and radiation accidents]]||An event involving the significant release of radioactivity to the environment or a reactor core meltdown and which leads to major undesirable consequences to people, the environment, or the facility
|-
|[[Power failure]]||Caused by summer or winter storms, lightning or construction equipment digging in the wrong location
|}

=== Others ===
''Complex disasters'', where there is no single root cause, are more common in [[developing country|developing countries]]. A specific hazard may also spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an [[earthquake]] that causes a [[tsunami]]. This results in [[coastal flooding]], damaging a [[nuclear power]] plant on the coast. The [[Fukushima nuclear disaster]] is a case in point. Experts examine these cascading events to see how risks and impacts can amplify and spread. This is particularly important given the increase in [[climate risk]]s.<ref name=":10">Ara Begum, R., R. Lempert, E. Ali, T.A. Benjaminsen, T. Bernauer, W. Cramer, X. Cui, K. Mach, G. Nagy, N.C. Stenseth, R. Sukumar, and P. Wester, 2022: [https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter01.pdf Chapter 1: Point of Departure and Key Concepts]. In: [https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/ Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 121–196, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.003.</ref>{{rp|143–145}}

Some researchers distinguish between ''recurring events'' like seasonal flooding and ''unpredictable one-off events''.<ref>{{Cite journal |author1=L. Bull-Kamanga |author2=K. Diagne |author3=A. Lavell |author4=E. Leon |author5=F. Lerise |author6=H. MacGregor |author7=A. Maskrey |author8=M. Meshack |author9=M. Pelling |date=1 April 2003 |title=From everyday hazards to disasters: the accumulation of risk in urban areas |journal=Environment and Urbanization |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=193–204 |bibcode=2003EnUrb..15..193B |doi=10.1177/095624780301500109 |issn=0956-2478 |s2cid=17439273}}</ref> Recurring events often carry an estimate of how often they occur. Experts call this the [[return period]].