People and the environment are increasingly suffering from the effects of natural disasters' People vutnerability to disasters depends on the social, cultural, economical and political environment. Vulnerability to disaster is closely linked with population density and economic resources. SoutheasAt sia is exposedt o all types of hazards and has been coping with for hundreds of years. Asian countries are at different stage of institutional development with respect to disaster reduction. The impact of natural disaster in the Asian countries with low and tnediuml evelso f human developmenti s'severe. There are a number of reasons for this such as high population growth and density, migration, unplanned urbanization and environmental degradation. In these countries the economic factor is most apparent as many poor people are forced to live on marginal land. The socio-economic impacts of natural disasters have brought about a shift in the political approach to dealing with the concept of risk in *od.* societiesi n the regions.S ome countries have moved towards having national policies for disaster management. For example Japan has long-establisheds ystem of disasterm anagement so the socio-economic impacts of natural disasters are low. These policies, which are essentiaf to development planning recognized that disaster managenlent and risk reduction are of governmenrt esPonsibiitl ies.

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