GAR 2015 Main Report

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Glossary

GAR15 uses a set of terms and definitions that build on those included in the previous three GAR.

Disaster risk is considered to be a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Disaster risk is normally expressed as the probability of loss of life, injury or destroyed or damaged capital stock in a given period of time. Generic definitions of these and other terms are available in the UNISDR Glossary. ⁱ The way these terms are used in GAR15 is explained below.

GAR15 uses the term physical (rather than natural) hazard to refer to hazardous phenomena such as floods, storms, droughts and earthquakes. Processes such as urbanization, environmental degradation and climate change shape and configure hazards; therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to disentangle their natural and human attributes. Exposure is used to refer to the location of people, production, infrastructure, housing and other tangible human assets in hazard-prone areas. Vulnerability is used to refer to the susceptibility of these assets to suffer damage and loss due to socially constructed factors that result in unsafe and insecure conditions in the built and human environments. Resilience is used to refer to the capacity of systems (ranging from national, local or household economies to businesses and their supply chains) to anticipate, absorb or buffer losses, and to recover.

Extensive risk is used to describe the risk of low-severity, high-frequency disasters, mainly but not exclusively associated with highly localized hazards. Intensive risk is used to describe the risk of high-severity, mid to low-frequency disasters, mainly associated with major hazards. Emerging risk is used to describe the risk of extremely low-probability

disasters associated with new patterns of hazard and vulnerability. Geomagnetic storms, for example, have always occurred, but the associated risks are now magnified by the growing dependence of modern societies on vulnerable energy and telecommunications networks. Underlying risk drivers are processes such as badly planned and managed urban and regional development, environmental degradation, poverty, climate change and weak governance, which directly shape risk patterns and trends. Risk inequality is used to describe the uneven social, economic and territorial distribution of disaster risk.

Direct disaster losses refer to damage to human lives, buildings, infrastructure and natural resources. Economic direct losses are calculated using proxies for replacement costs. Indirect disaster losses are declines in output or revenue, as a consequence of direct losses or owing to impacts on a supply chain. Wider impacts include longer-terms social and economic effects, for example in education, health, productivity or in the macro economy.

The Global Risk Assessment uses a probabilistic approach. Probability is defined as the likelihood of a loss occurring compared to all the possible losses that might occur. The exceedance probability is the likelihood of a loss of a given magnitude occurring or being exceeded within a defined time span. Frequency is the expected number of times that a particular loss occurs in a defined time span. Return period is the average frequency with which a particular loss is expected to occur. It is usually expressed in years, such as 1 in X number of years. This does not mean that a loss will occur once every X numbers of years, but rather that it will occur once on average every X number of years.

	cclxviii Glossary Glossary GAR15 uses a set of terms and definitions that build on those included in the previous three GAR. Disaster risk is considered to be a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Disaster risk is normally expressed as the probability of loss of life, injury or destroyed or damaged capital stock in a given period of time. Generic definitions of these and other terms are available in the UNISDR Glossary. ⁱ The way these terms are used in GAR15 is explained below. GAR15 uses the term physical (rather than natural) hazard to refer to hazardous phenomena such as floods, storms, droughts and earthquakes. Processes such as urbanization, environmental degradation and climate change shape and configure hazards; therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to disentangle their natural and human attributes. Exposure is used to refer to the location of people, production, infrastructure, housing and other tangible human assets in hazard-prone areas. Vulnerability is used to refer to the susceptibility of these assets to suffer damage and loss due to socially constructed factors that result in unsafe and insecure conditions in the built and human environments. Resilience is used to refer to the capacity of systems (ranging from national, local or household economies to businesses and their supply chains) to anticipate, absorb or buffer losses, and to recover. Extensive risk is used to describe the risk of low-severity, high-frequency disasters, mainly but not exclusively associated with highly localized hazards. Intensive risk is used to describe the risk of high-severity, mid to low-frequency disasters, mainly associated with major hazards. Emerging risk is used to describe the risk of extremely low-probability disasters associated with new patterns of hazard and vulnerability. Geomagnetic storms, for example, have always occurred, but the associated risks are now magnified by the growing dependence of modern societies on vulnerable energy and telecommunications networks. Underlying risk drivers are processes such as badly planned and managed urban and regional development, environmental degradation, poverty, climate change and weak governance, which directly shape risk patterns and trends. Risk inequality is used to describe the uneven social, economic and territorial distribution of disaster risk. Direct disaster losses refer to damage to human lives, buildings, infrastructure and natural resources. Economic direct losses are calculated using proxies for replacement costs. Indirect disaster losses are declines in output or revenue, as a consequence of direct losses or owing to impacts on a supply chain. Wider impacts include longer-terms social and economic effects, for example in education, health, productivity or in the macro economy. The Global Risk Assessment uses a probabilistic approach. Probability is defined as the likelihood of a loss occurring compared to all the possible losses that might occur. The exceedance probability is the likelihood of a loss of a given magnitude occurring or being exceeded within a defined time span. Frequency is the expected number of times that a particular loss occurs in a defined time span. Return period is the average frequency with which a particular loss is expected to occur. It is usually expressed in years, such as 1 in X number of years. This does not mean that a loss will occur once every X numbers of years, but rather that it will occur once on average every X number of years.	Page 1 Page 10 Page 20 Page 30 Page 40 Page 50 Page 60 Page 70 Page 80 Page 90 Page 100 Page 110 Page 120 Page 130 Page 140 Page 150 Page 160 Page 170 Page 180 Page 190 Page 200 Page 210 Page 220 Page 230 Page 240 Page 250 Page 258 Page 259 Page 260 Page 261 Page 262 Page 263 Page 264 Page 265 Page 266 Page 267 Page 268 Page 269 ->Page 270 Page 271 Page 272 Page 273 Page 274 Page 275 Page 276 Page 277 Page 278 Page 279 Page 280 Page 281 Page 282 Page 290 Page 300 Page 310