Disaster Agent Variability
Disaster Agent Variability :
"Disaster agents may and do vary along different dimensions. These dimensions and their variants can be combined in multiple and almost endless ways. Thus, it is all but impossible to develop a meaningful but simple typology of disaster agents. Nevertheless, knowledge of how disaster agents may differ along one dimension is still useful for emergency planning. Such knowledge should sensitize the planner to possible variants that have to be taken into account. Furthermore some dimensions are more likely to be operative and varying in certain localities than others". (1) Predictability (2) Frequency (3) Controllability (4) Speed of onset (5) Length of forewarning (6) Duration of impact (7) Scope of impact (8) Intensity of impact. (Dynes, et al., A Perspective on Disaster Planning, 1981, pp. 6-7)
