Discuss the impact of one natural disaster on the society and environment.

Natural disasters are caused by hydro-meteorological, climatological, geophysical and biological phenomena which adversely impact on the natural and built environment of affected regions. Their effects in terms of victims and material damage exceed the capacity for self-recovery of local communities, making external assistance necessary.

The World Bank & United Nations report (2010) states that disasters expose the cumulative effects of decisions (individual and collective) previously taken in terms of land management (including unregulated growth of urban areas), construction techniques, implementation of sanitation infrastructure and low investment in educational programs, poverty reduction and social integration, among others. Such decisions combined with high intensity natural events (e.g. floods, landslides, storms and earthquakes) provoke an array of socioeconomic and environmental impacts.