Cycles of a Disaster

Role of Disaster Cycles

Cycles of disaster primarily comprise of four stages; mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Additional subphases (processes) are sometimes added to the cycles of disaster, but they are not substantial enough to warrant a separate discussion and are therefore only partly covered within this entry. The cycles of disasters framework is concerned with minimizing human losses in disasters by identifying the right activities and deploying timely and appropriate levels of human and financial resources. The structuring of phases that constitute the disaster cycle has the potential to guide strategic plans and operational activities inherent in emergency incidents and disaster situations. The disaster cycle is a managerial tool, hence its' other name, disaster management cycle.

One concern for disaster practitioners has been managing human and financial resources critical to disasters. Thus, some practitioners and theorists have argued that designing frameworks that articulate distinct phases for dealing with emergencies and disasters is likely to bring about effective planning, coordination, and financial efficiencies at every level of emergency and disaster operations, whether national, regional, or local.

Further, proponents of disaster cycles argue that this framework is likely to lead to enhanced knowledge and focused human skill deployment to manage disasters effectively and efficiently. In other words, disaster planning and disaster response can achieve optimum results when the required skills are identified and harnessed to address specific needs, in order to avoid a situation where parties involved in disasters believe that they can manage all components of disasters, no matter what the cause. Indeed, within each of the phases that constitute a disaster cycle, some specific skills will be more useful than others. Thus, having a breakdown of these processes, as is the case in the disaster cycle framework, can be productive in managing disasters. This is particularly important because disasters are often rapid and abrupt events.

Mitigation Phase

This phase encompasses activities (interventions) aimed at minimizing or preventing the occurrence of disasters in a specific region or location at some unknown time in the future. Indeed, this phase is not aimed at addressing concerns relating to an ongoing disaster, but rather to address catastrophic events that are out of immediate sight. Actions undertaken at this stage will typically involve either structural or nonstructural solutions to disaster risk reduction. For example, urban planning authorities may employ engineering solutions and require that specific conditions be met before permission is given to a property development company to build houses near facilities like an airport, a river, or gas factory. At this phase, the overriding consideration may be based on assessments undertaken within the region and be based upon experiences, evidence, and theories relating to disasters in similar environments.

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