ABSTRACT
Central to hazard management are social roles and relationships, particularly the relationships of power and entitlements. These roles and relationships play out before, during and after disasters. As a species people live within ecosystems which lie on the interface between two interrelated dynamic systems: the meteorological and the geological/geomorphological. Volcanoes can eject sufficient fine ash into the atmosphere to significantly affect climate, whilst rain, wind, and cold are the primary causes of land erosion and deposition. Some natural hazards represent a perturbation in one of either the meteorological or geological/geomorphological systems. Two major changes occurring over time are the increase in populations and the increase in wealth. Consequently, it is very difficult to make good assessments of trends in losses over time because the real value of losses is changing. Institutions are defined by sets of informal or formal rules. Consequently, any institution has two forms of boundaries: spatial and functional.
