What are natural disasters?

A natural hazard is a threat of an event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment. Hazards are often related to a future occurrence and disasters to past or current occurrences.

A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g. flood, volcanic eruption, earthquake, or landslide) that affects the environment, which can lead to financial, environmental and/or human losses. The resulting effect depends on the population to support or resist the disaster.

Natural disasters can fall under 5 catagorys: Land movement, Water, Weather, Fire, Health and Disease and Space. These can link together in many ways. For example, earthquakes (Land movement) can lead to tsunamis (Water).