Definition: Disaster management
The organization, planning and application of measures preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters.
Annotation: Disaster management may not completely avert or eliminate the threats; it focuses on creating and implementing preparedness and other plans to decrease the impact of disasters and “build back better”. Failure to create and apply a plan could lead to damage to life, assets and lost revenue.
Emergency management is also used, sometimes interchangeably, with the term disaster management, particularly in the context of biological and technological hazards and for health emergencies. While there is a large degree of overlap, an emergency can also relate to hazardous events that do not result in the serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society.
Cite this
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (Ģý). 2017. The Sendai Framework Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. "Disaster management". Accessed 30 April 2025. . [Copy citation]
About the terminology
The Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Indicators and Terminology (OIEWG) relating to disaster risk reduction was established by the General Assembly in its resolution 69/284 for the development of a set of possible indicators to measure global progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, coherent with the work of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators. The report was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on February 2nd, 2017.
promotes a common understanding and usage of disaster risk reduction concepts and to assist the disaster risk reduction efforts of authorities, practitioners and the public.
