large-scale disasters or damages which are caused by the forces of nature
A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural
hazard (e.g.
volcanic eruption,
earthquake,
landslide) which moves from potential in to an active phase, and as a result affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or lack of appropriate
emergency management, leads to financial, structural, and human losses. 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, e.g. strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without human involvement. The degree of potential loss can also depend on the nature of the hazard itself, ranging from a single
lightning strike, which threatens a very small area, to
impact events, which have the potential to
end civilization. For lists of natural disasters, see the list of disasters or the
list of deadliest natural disasters.
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