Acceptable risk
The level of potential losses that a society or community considers
acceptable given existing social, economic, political, cultural,
technical and environmental conditions.
Adaptation
The adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or
expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or
exploits beneficial opportunities.
Biological hazard
Process or phenomenon of organic origin or conveyed by biological
vectors, including exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms, toxins and
bioactive substances that may cause loss of life, injury, illness or
other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.
Building code
A set of ordinances or regulations and associated standards intended to
control aspects of the design, construction, materials, alteration and
occupancy of structures that are necessary to ensure human safety and
welfare, including resistance to collapse and damage.
Capacity
The combination of all the strengths, attributes and resources
available within a community, society or organization that can be used
to achieve agreed goals.
Capacity development
The process by which people, organizations and society systematically
stimulate and develop their capacities over time to achieve social and
economic goals, including through improvement of knowledge, skills,
systems, and institutions.
Climate change
(a) The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines
climate change as: “a change in the state of the climate that can be
identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean
and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an
extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due
to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent
anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land
use”.
(b) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) defines climate change as “a change of climate which is
attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the
composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural
climate variability observed over comparable time periods”.
Contingency planning
A management process that analyses specific potential events or
emerging situations that might threaten society or the environment and
establishes arrangements in advance to enable timely, effective and
appropriate responses to such events and situations.
Coping capacity
The ability of people, organizations and systems, using available
skills and resources, to face and manage adverse conditions, emergencies
or disasters.
Corrective disaster risk management
Management activities that address and seek to correct or reduce disaster risks which are already present.
Critical facilities
The primary physical structures, technical facilities and systems which
are socially, economically or operationally essential to the
functioning of a society or community, both in routine circumstances and
in the extreme circumstances of an emergency.
Disaster
A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society
involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses
and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or
society to cope using its own resources.
Disaster risk
The potential disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods,
assets and services, which could occur to a particular community or a
society over some specified future time period.
Disaster risk management
The systematic process of using administrative directives,
organizations, and operational skills and capacities to implement
strategies, policies and improved coping capacities in order to lessen
the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster.
Disaster risk reduction
The concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic
efforts to analyse and manage the causal factors of disasters, including
through reduced exposure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people
and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improved
preparedness for adverse events.
Disaster risk reduction plan
A document prepared by an authority, sector, organization or enterprise
that sets out goals and specific objectives for reducing disaster risks
together with related actions to accomplish these objectives.
Early warning system
The set of capacities needed to generate and disseminate timely and
meaningful warning information to enable individuals, communities and
organizations threatened by a hazard to prepare and to act appropriately
and in sufficient time to reduce the possibility of harm or loss.
Ecosystem services
The benefits that people and communities obtain from ecosystems.
El Niño-southern oscillation
A complex interaction of the tropical Pacific Ocean and the global
atmosphere that results in irregularly occurring episodes of changed
ocean and weather patterns in many parts of the world, often with
significant impacts over many months, such as altered marine habitats,
rainfall changes, floods, droughts, and changes in storm patterns.
Emergency management
The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for
addressing all aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness,
response and initial recovery steps.
Emergency services
The set of specialized agencies that have specific responsibilities and
objectives in serving and protecting people and property in emergency
situations.
Environmental degradation
The reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives and needs.
Environmental impact assessment
Process by which the environmental consequences of a proposed project
or programme are evaluated, undertaken as an integral part of planning
and decision-making processes with a view to limiting or reducing the
adverse impacts of the project or programme.
Exposure
People, property, systems, or other elements present in hazard zones that are thereby subject to potential losses.
Extensive risk
The widespread risk associated with the exposure of dispersed
populations to repeated or persistent hazard conditions of low or
moderate intensity, often of a highly localized nature, which can lead
to debilitating cumulative disaster impacts.
Forecast
Definite statement or statistical estimate of the likely occurrence of a future event or conditions for a specific area.
Geological hazard
Geological process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury or
other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and
services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.
Greenhouse gases
Gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic,
that absorb and emit radiation of thermal infrared radiation emitted by
the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds.
Hazard
A dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition that may
cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage,
loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or
environmental damage.
Hydrometeorological hazard
Process or phenomenon of atmospheric, hydrological or oceanographic
nature that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts,
property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic
disruption, or environmental damage.
Intensive risk
The risk associated with the exposure of large concentrations of people
and economic activities to intense hazard events, which can lead to
potentially catastrophic disaster impacts involving high mortality and
asset loss.
Land-use planning
The process undertaken by public authorities to identify, evaluate and
decide on different options for the use of land, including consideration
of long term economic, social and environmental objectives and the
implications for different communities and interest groups, and the
subsequent formulation and promulgation of plans that describe the
permitted or acceptable uses.
Mitigation
The lessening or limitation of the adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters.
National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction
A generic term for national mechanisms for coordination and policy
guidance on disaster risk reduction that are multi-sectoral and
inter-disciplinary in nature, with public, private and civil society
participation involving all concerned entities within a country.
Natural hazard
Natural process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury or
other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.
Preparedness
The knowledge and capacities developed by governments, professional
response and recovery organizations, communities and individuals to
effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from, the impacts of
likely, imminent or current hazard events or conditions.
Prevention
The outright avoidance of adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters.
Prospective disaster risk management
Management activities that address and seek to avoid the development of new or increased disaster risks.
Recovery
The restoration, and improvement where appropriate, of facilities,
livelihoods and living conditions of disaster-affected communities,
including efforts to reduce disaster risk factors.
Residual risk
The risk that remains in unmanaged form, even when effective disaster
risk reduction measures are in place, and for which emergency response
and recovery capacities must be maintained.
Retrofitting
Reinforcement or upgrading of existing structures to become more resistant and resilient to the damaging effects of hazards.
Risk
The combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences.
Risk assessment
A methodology to determine the nature and extent of risk by analysing
potential hazards and evaluating existing conditions of vulnerability
that together could potentially harm exposed people, property, services,
livelihoods and the environment on which they depend.
Risk management
The systematic approach and practice of managing uncertainty to minimize potential harm and loss.
Socio-natural hazard
The phenomenon of increased occurrence of certain geophysical and
hydrometeorological hazard events, such as landslides, flooding, land
subsidence and drought, that arise from the interaction of natural
hazards with overexploited or degraded land and environmental resources.
Sustainable development
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Technological hazards
A hazard originating from technological or industrial conditions,
including accidents, dangerous procedures, infrastructure failures or
specific human activities, that may cause loss of life, injury, illness
or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and
services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.
Vulnerability
The characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset
that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.
No comments:
Post a Comment