ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the first objective of this book, which is to explore the levels and trends of disaster-induced deaths to determine whether deaths have decreased or increased in recent decades across all disaster types and selected geographical scales. If various disasters show different trends at different scales, the chapter attempts to explain such trends. Such attempts provide useful insights into which disasters and geographical scales need further interventions to reduce disaster mortality. Because many countries have intensified efforts to reduce disaster deaths by implementing preparedness and mitigation measures, this chapter assumes a downward trend in disaster fatalities across the scales and types of extreme events. This chapter also presents two additional topics: disaster deaths and outbreak of epidemics, as well as disaster-generated mass-fatalities and their management.
