If you listened to the videos in the download section, you may know that each building will have different characteristics as well. This is not verified info, but it appears that you will be able to change wages, price of exports, etc., of your industries. I put three videos in Downloads section. Two are short interviews with Tropico's creator Phil Steinmeyer. The third is probably taken at the E3 computer games expo.
Disasters can include weather, rebellion, accidents and foreign intervention.
It will be an open ended game, but there will also be a scenarios You can be tossed out of power by a rebellion or military coup. It's based on your popularity. If your people hate you they will rebel. There will be a map editor Feeding your people is a land use issue. The land will have generated usefulness qualities for certain crops.