Disaster Impacts: Implications and Policy Responses

• Published in: Social research 2008-10, Vol.75 (3), p.937-954
• Main Author: Basher, Reid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Climate change; Climate change adaptation; Communities; Construction; Developing countries; Disaster management; Disaster risk; Disasters; Earthquakes; Economic development; Emergency preparedness; Emissions; Environmental management; Environmental policy; Environmental science; Floods; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Health hazards; Hurricanes; International Cooperation; LDCs; Natural Disasters; Natural hazards; Planning; Political finance; Political sociology; Political systems, parties and institutions; Politics; Poverty; Public health; Rewards; Risk; Risk and disasters sociology; Risk reduction; Seismic engineering; Social Inequality; Social research; Sociology; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; Sociology of leisure and mass culture; The Impact of Disasters on Human Development; Trends; Victimology; Vulnerability
• ISSN: 0037-783X; 1944-768X; 1944-768X
• DOI: 10.1353/sor.2008.0019

Disasters arising from natural hazards affect millions of people every year, killing tens of thousands and causing major economic losses. They disproportionately affect poor people and poor countries and are a threat to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. A root cause is the vulnerability of communities to natural hazards, often associated with poverty, social and economic disadvantage, environmental exploitation, and insufficient awareness, information, and political interest. Too often, disaster risk is not factored into planning and management, despite the ready availability of the necessary knowledge, tools and policy frameworks to reduce the risks. Moreover it is likely that global warning will increase the number and intensity of hazard events in future. Recognizing these issues, in 2005 Governments agreed on the landmark Hyogo Framework for Action, which seeks to achieve a substantial reduction in disaster losses by 2015. Progress is slow, however, and a greatly scaled-up effort will be needed to achieve this outcome and to avoid an unnecessarily risky and dangerous future for the countless communities worldwide. Adapted from the source document.