Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which organisations, businesses and communities reduce vulnerabilities to hazards and cope with emergencies and disasters.
Emergency management does not focus on the management of minor events with limited impacts that should be managed through the day-to-day management and functions of an organisation or business. Instead, emergency management focuses on the management of larger scale events and disasters, that produce more impacts than a organisation or business can handle on its own or by simply using normal management processes.
The management of these events tends to require some combination of activity from individuals, organisations, local government and/or higher levels of regional or national government. Although many different terminologies exist globally, the activities of emergency management can be generally categorised into preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery. Some other terms such as disaster risk reduction and disaster prevention are also common. The outcome of emergency management is to prevent emergency events and disasters and where this is not possible, to reduce their harmful impacts.
Emergency Management is a common term in North America, and to a large extent is an umbrella term for the Emergency Response and Business Continuity functions.