[Page 96]Disaster cycles, also known as cycles of disaster or disaster management cycles, are theoretical frameworks that have been developed by disaster practitioners and researchers as they attempt to explain cyclical patterns and processes that disaster events follow. Although disasters are so often depicted as though they were exclusively subjects of history, experience shows that they are in fact recurrent events that will continue to confront human beings in the future. Thus, attempts have been made to understand these events, the direct and indirect impacts, their potential causes, and whether or not patterns exist in relation to their occurrence so that effective emergency and humanitarian strategies and plans can be designed.