Disaster management and research constitute an important area of applied anthropology because disasters are not merely natural or technical events; they are also social, cultural, economic and political processes. Anthropology contributes to disaster management by examining how individuals, families, communities and institutions understand, experience and respond to hazards. From an applied anthropological perspective, effective disaster management requires attention to local culture, social organisation, livelihood systems, inequality, indigenous knowledge and community participation. Anthropologists therefore help connect scientific and administrative disaster responses with the lived realities of affected populations. A disaster occurs when a hazardous event interacts with a vulnerable population and causes serious disruption to social life, livelihoods, infrastructure and institutions. Floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, landslides, epidemics, industrial accidents and other hazards may have different physical causes, but their effects are unevenly distributed. Applied anthropology studies why some groups suffer more than others and why communities possess different capacities to cope and recover. Factors such as poverty, caste, class, gender, age, occupation, disability, ethnicity, migration status and access to political resources can influence vulnerability. Thus, anthropological research moves beyond the idea that disasters affect everyone equally. One of the major contributions of anthropology is the study of vulnerability and resilience. Vulnerability refers to the social and economic conditions that make people more likely to experience severe harm from hazards. For example, poor households may live in flood-prone or unstable areas because safer land is unaffordable. Their houses may be less resistant to disasters, and their livelihoods may depend on agriculture, fishing, daily wage labour or other activities that are easily disrupted. Anthropologists investigate these conditions through ethnographic fieldwork, household studies, interviews and participant observation. Such research can reveal forms of vulnerability that may not be visible in official statistics.