Intergovernmental relations are used to coordinate between and among the various levels of federal, state, and local governments in response to human-made and natural disasters. In other words, it describes the relative roles, responsibilities, and amounts of influence in disaster preparedness between the various governments at different levels, and how they work with each other. Intergovernmental relations and disaster preparedness require that different positions or actors perform sub-tasks of each decision in a sequential order, versus collaboration, where team members from different levels of government must cooperate throughout all stages of the disaster management cycles (preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery).