The Human Element to Disasters and Their Impact: Issues Related to Response and Recovery

The five articles collected in this paper were written under the auspices of the Canadian Natural Hazards Assessment Project, being carried out by a group of scientists, scholars, and practitioners interested in learning about and coping with natural hazards and disasters. Their purpose is to assess understanding of the causes and consequences of natural hazards and disasters in Canada, and to identify gaps in both knowledge and action. The articles in this collection address an assortment of human aspects of disasters in Canada: lessons learned and forgotten; psychosocial aspects of relief and recovery; risk assessment and management in local government emergency planning; disaster response systems; and the need for education – not just training – of emergency planners and responders.