Emergency management is the organization and management of the resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies (preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery). The aim is to reduce the harmful effects of all hazards, including disasters.
The World Health Organization defines an emergency as the state in which normal procedures are interrupted, and immediate measures (management) need to be taken to prevent it from becoming a disaster, which is even harder to recover from. Disaster management is a related term but should not be equated to emergency management.