Disaster Classifications

HL efforts are focused on disasters (Day et al. 2012, Haavisto et al. 2016). However, no universally accepted definition of a disaster exists, as numerous academic disciplines and practitioner groups approach disasters from a range of angles and for very different reasons (Shaluf et al. 2003). Even though HL is a relatively new research area, there is a rich research history in humanitarian relief efforts from academic disciplines as diverse as medicine, earth science and computer science (Day et al. 2012). The same event might be called an incident, an accident, a disaster, a tragedy, a massacre or even genocide, depending on which party is being asked (Shaluf et al. 2003). In his seminal paper on HL, Van Wassenhove (2006, p.476) defines a disaster as

“a disruption that physically affects a system as a whole and threatens its priorities and goals”. A major disaster overwhelms the established structures within a region or even

a nation, so that they cannot cope with the effects of the disaster on their own (Kovács and Spens 2009, Day et al. 2012).

Classification is imperative because the particular challenges to HL can often be deduced from the kind of disaster that is being faced (Kovács and Spens 2009). The range of disasters is substantial, as the need for HL arises from more than just natural disasters, with the majority of humanitarian responses in recent years focussed on violent conflict or major diseases (Haavisto et al. 2016). The criteria to classify an event as a disaster are commonly quantitative and concentrated on the consequences, such as measures of the number of fatalities, injuries, displaced or deprived people, or the monetary damage (Shaluf et al. 2003). For example, Em-Dat, the international disaster database maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, only includes disasters that fulfil at least one of the following criteria (Guha-Sapir et al. 2012, 'Disaster Profiles' 2015):

• 10 or more people reported killed; • 100 or more people reported affected; • Declaration of a state of emergency; • Call for international assistance.

The HL challenges will be different depending on the size of the disaster as quantified by the first two criteria listed above. Within this thesis, the Em-Dat criteria are considered to be encompassing all disasters that could potentially result in an MSC. No disaster that does not meet the Em-Dat criteria shall be considered.

Causes of Disasters

There are various types of disasters. A common approach to differentiation is to distinguish by cause. Essentially, disasters can be (Wijkman and Timberlake 1984, Duffield 1994, Shaluf et al. 2003, Shaluf 2007):

• Natural, • Man-made or • Complex.

This distinction was established gradually, as the recognition developed that disasters were not merely the unpredictable outcomes of the acts of powerful forces; and the social aspects of disaster causes were first being recognised in the early 1980s (McEntire 2004). Now this classification provides a way to monitor the development over time of different causes, as well as potential prevention strategies and the development of targeted responses according to the type of disaster.

Man-made disasters result directly from human decisions (Wijkman and Timberlake 1984, Shaluf 2007). They can further be subdivided into technological disasters, transport failures, other public place failures, production failures or warfare (Shaluf 2007). The inclusion of warfare as a man-made disaster is controversial, primarily because many humanitarian organisations will not get involved while the fighting continues (Van Wassenhove 2006). Their approach depends on the mission of the organisation, as there are others who are working specifically in war-torn regions. In warfare and certain other man-made disasters, security is a key concern for logisticians (Pettit and Beresford 2005, Haavisto et al. 2016).

In recent years, an increasing amount of humanitarian responses occur in wars and violent conflicts that often escalate into complex emergencies, with one disaster often cascading into multiple others (Haavisto et al. 2016). Complex emergencies are often ones that are inter-related and compounded, such as wars causing a refugee crisis that

then turns a drought into a famine and pose severe challenges to the humanitarian system (Duffield 1994, Kovács and Spens 2009, Day et al. 2012). The complexity makes them difficult to manage, as causes and effects are often impossible to assess. Natural disasters are beyond human control and can be either biological, meteorological/hydrological, topographical or internal, that is from below the earth’s surface (Shaluf 2007).

Onset of Disasters

The speed of onset of a disaster is another important factor for classification, which is of particular importance in a HL context as it defines the amount of pre- planning and needs assessment that can be done to remove uncertainties about demand (Pettit and Beresford 2005, Tatham and Kovács 2007, Kovács and Spens 2009). The differentiation is made between sudden-onset and slow-onset disasters, although there are no definite guidelines for the distinction (Twigg 2004). In terms of HL, it has been argued that an agile SC should be used to shorten response times in sudden-onset disasters while a lean SC can provide more cost effective relief in slow-onset disasters (Oloruntoba and Gray 2006, Charles et al. 2010). Furthermore, sudden-onset disasters in particular are likely to destroy essential physical infrastructure such as bridges and air fields (Kovács and Spens 2009).

Location of Disasters

Apte (2009) presents another way of classifying disasters, by also using the time dimension (slow-onset and sudden-onset), but adding a location dimension (localised and dispersed). According to the author, localised, slow-onset disasters present the lowest level of difficulty for HL. The difficulty increases as a larger geographical area and more administrative districts are involved in a disaster, thus widening the spread and adding complexity in coordinating relief efforts (Salmeron and Apte 2010, Apte and Yoho 2011). The required SCs can be expected to be most complex in dispersed, sudden-onset disasters.