Understanding the terminologies: Disaster, crisis and emergency

Despite the fact that there is a difference between the terms disaster, crisis and emergency, they are closely interconnected, interdependent and overlap significantly. With a blurred line between the definitions of these terms, the mainstream literature uses the terms disaster, crisis and emergency interchangeably and in combination such as 'disaster crisis management' and 'crisis and emergency management'. The aim of this article is to systematically and critically review the arguments and counterarguments about the definitions of disaster, crisis, and emergency to date. A comprehensive literature review in the relevant field has been conducted in order to improve understanding of these phenomena. A qualitative conceptual content analysis has been carried out to establish the differences and similarities between disaster, crisis and emergency. The analysis reveals that the sudden nature of the event and the damage caused are the common features of all three terms, though emergency is not always of a sudden nature. Further, many common features have been identified between disaster and crisis, so that they can be used interchangeably up to a certain extent. The term emergency does not share many common features with the other two terms and has some contradictory features. Also, the authors conclude that both crisis and emergency would lead to disaster if the event were neglected or mismanaged.