Revealing the Impact of Small Disasters to the Economic and Social Development

Abstract

The effects of natural hazard events of small or moderate size are not considered by many people as ‘disasters’, although they share the same origins and causes of large and extensive effects. The impact of these events cannot be underestimated, because in general terms, they typify the disaster risk problem of a city, region or country. This chapter does not debate risk regarding to extreme events with a long return period, but insular, real and daily risk that multiple communities are exposed to in rural areas and in small and large cities. The most of these disasters are the result of socio-ecological processes associated with environmental deterioration and are associated with persistent small hazard events such as landslides, avalanches, flooding, storms, and also lower scale earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.