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Introduction
A disaster is defined by the [1] Asian Disaster Reduction Center (2003) as:
A serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources.
There are many research centers and agencies all over the world that are concerned with disaster management (prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response and relief). Research centers and agencies sometimes describe disasters in different terms, although disasters have been classified as natural, unnatural man-made, purely social, technological, and hybrid. However, it has been found that disasters can be classified into three types:
natural;
man-made; and
hybrid (see Figure 1 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.]).
Natural disasters are catastrophic events resulting from natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc., over which man has no control. Natural disasters are often termed "Acts of God".
Man-made disasters, on the other hand, are those catastrophic events that result from human decisions. The [8] International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (2003) highlighted that a man-made disaster refers to non-natural disastrous occurrences that can be sudden or more long-term. Sudden man-made disasters include structural, building and mine collapses when this occurs independently without any outside force. In addition air, land, and sea disasters are all man-made disasters. Long-term man-made disasters tend to refer to national and international conflicts.
There are disasters that result from both human error and natural forces. These are hybrid disasters. An example of a hybrid disaster is the extensive clearing of jungles causing soil erosion, and subsequently heavy rain causing landslides.
Natural, man-made and hybrid disasters, and disastrous events are summarized in Table I [Figure omitted. See Article Image.].
This paper provides a brief overview of common disasters. It is not inclusive of all the disaster types which may occur. It does, however, review disaster types. This paper summarizes the types of disasters, and presents a comparison between the main types.
Disaster definitions
There are many definitions of a disaster: definitions have been given by [23] Turner and Pedgeon (1997), [20] Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (2002), [5] Denis (1995) and [12] Keller and Al-Madhari (1996). The definition used seems dependent upon the discipline using the term. [23] Turner and Pedgeon (1997)...