Hazard vs. Disaster

By Jaxson

Main Difference

The main difference between Hazard and Disaster is that the Hazard is a situation that poses a potential threat to life, health, property, or environment and Disaster is a hazard resulting in an event causing significant physical damage, destruction or death

  • Hazard

    A hazard is an agent which has the potential to cause harm to a vulnerable target. Hazards can be both natural or human induced. Sometimes natural hazards such as floods and drought can be caused by human activity. Floods can be caused by bad drainage facilities and droughts can be caused by over-irrigation or groundwater pollution. The terms “hazard” and “risk” are often used interchangeably however, in terms of risk assessment, they are two very distinct terms. A hazard is any agent that can cause harm or damage to humans, property, or the environment. Risk is defined as the probability that exposure to a hazard will lead to a negative consequence, or more simply, a hazard poses no risk if there is no exposure to that hazard.

    Hazards can be dormant or potential, with only a theoretical probability of harm. An event that is caused by interaction with a hazard is called an incident. The likely severity of the undesirable consequences of an incident associated with a hazard, combined with the probability of this occurring, constitute the associated risk. If there is no possibility of a hazard contributing towards an incident, there is no

    several ways. One of these ways is by specifying the origin of the hazard. One key concept in identifying a hazard is the presence of stored energy that, when released, can cause damage. Stored energy can occur in many forms: chemical, mechanical, thermal, radioactive, electrical, etc. Another class of hazard does not involve release of stored energy, rather it involves the presence of hazardous situations. Examples include confined or limited egress spaces, oxygen-depleted atmospheres, awkward positions, repetitive motions, low-hanging or protruding objects, etc. Hazards may also be classified as natural, anthropogenic, or technological. They may also be classified as health or safety hazards, by the populations that may be affected, and the severity of the associated risk. In most cases a hazard may affect a range of targets, and have little or no effect on others.

    Identification of hazards assumes that the potential targets are defined, and is the first step in performing a risk assessment.

  • Disaster

    A disaster is a serious disruption occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by hazards occur in developing countries, and losses due to natural hazards are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing countries than in industrialized countries. No matter what society disasters occur in, they tend to induce change in government and social life. They may even alter the course of history by broadly affecting entire populations and exposing mismanagement or corruption regardless of how tightly information is controlled in a society.

Wikipedia
  • Hazard (noun)

    A game of chance played with dice, usually for monetary stakes; popular mainly from 14th c. to 19th c.

  • Hazard (noun)

    Chance. from 16th c.

  • Hazard (noun)

    The chance of suffering harm; danger, peril, risk of loss. from 16th c.

    “He encountered the enemy at the hazard of his reputation and life.”

  • Hazard (noun)

    An obstacle or other feature which causes risk or danger; originally in sports, and now applied more generally. from 19th c.

    “The video game involves guiding a character on a skateboard past all kinds of hazards.”

  • Hazard (noun)

    An obstacle or other feature that presents a risk or danger that justifies the driver in taking action to avoid it.

  • Hazard (noun)

    A sand or water obstacle on a golf course.

  • Hazard (noun)

    The act of potting a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player’s ball (losing hazard).

  • Hazard (noun)

    Anything that is hazarded or risked, such as a stake in gambling.

  • Hazard (noun)

    The side of the court into which the ball is served.

  • Hazard (noun)

    A problem with the instruction pipeline in CPU microarchitectures when the next instruction cannot execute in the following clock cycle, potentially leading to incorrect results.

  • Hazard (verb)

    To expose to chance; to take a risk.

  • Hazard (verb)

    To risk (something); to venture, to incur, or bring on.

    “I’ll hazard a guess.”

  • Disaster (noun)

    An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent change to the natural environment.

    “People would suffer disasters when society’s morality degenerates.”

  • Disaster (noun)

    An unforeseen event causing great loss, upset or unpleasantness of whatever kind.

Wiktionary

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