In the 60s, Fritz defined disaster as "an event, concentrated in time and space" that disrupts social structures and places communities in danger.
The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) defines disaster as an event that is concentrated in space and time, breaks down social structures, and disrupts essential social functions (UNISDR 2009).
The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) defines disaster risk management as a "systematic process of using administrative directives, organizations, and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping capacities in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster" (UNISDR 2009).
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) (UNISDR 2009) defines disaster as "a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources" (emphasis added).
With climate bonds, however, there is a simple cliff - the defined disaster events - that governs whether the host country pays interest or not.
In this study, we have defined disaster as 'a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources'.
Tierney (1989) has defined disasters as "collective stress situations that happen (or at least manifest themselves) relatively suddenly in a particular geographic area, involve some degree of loss, interfere with the ongoing social life of the community, and are subject to human management" (p. 12).
It's the kind of mistake that some people, like Time's Joe Klein, think could be a "campaign-defining disaster".
CATASTROPHES The 1997 World Disasters Report of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies defines a "disaster" as an event, other than war, which causes the death of more than ten people, affects more than 100 people, or leads to an official appeal for assistance.
The exchange rate crisis became the defining political disaster of John Major's period as prime minister.
