They cause significant disruption and put lives and property at risk.
Some crises arise from natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, and floods.
Man-made crises can be accidental, such as oil spills or the release of toxic substances, or they may be intentional, such as bombings by terrorists. Crises require an immediate response and a coordinated application of resources, facilities, and efforts beyond those regularly available to handle routine problems. Crisis management was selected not only because of its critical importance to public safety and well-being, but also because building good tools that are useful in meeting the extreme demands of crisis management requires significant advances across a combination of many different, broadly applicable computing and communications technologies. The challenges confronting crisis managers are extreme in several dimensions. Crises require an extraordinary quantity of resources, such as search and rescue teams, medical assistance, food, and shelter.