- • Average Annual Loss: The modeled average annual loss (AAL) is calculated by dividing the total impact of a hazard, such as an earthquake, over a specified long duration (e.g., 10,000 years) by the number of years in that period.
• Building Construction Class: This classification helps determine a structure's vulnerability to specific hazards based on its construction materials. For instance, traditional wooden buildings are more susceptible to damage from tropical cyclones compared to steel-reinforced concrete buildings, which influences risk assessments in areas with such constructions.
• Disaster risk reduction: Strategies and approaches to prevent new disaster risks, reduce existing disaster risks, and manage residual risks, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of disaster losses.
• Early warning system: An integrated system of hazard monitoring, forecasting and prediction, disaster risk assessment, communication and preparedness activities systems and processes that enables individuals, communities, governments, businesses and others to take timely action to reduce disaster risks in advance of hazardous events.
• Emergency management: The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, particularly preparedness, response and rehabilitation.
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): The process of evaluating the potential environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, considering inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse.
• Exposure/Exposed Assets - Exposure involves assets like buildings, critical facilities, and transport networks that might incur damage from hazards. Factors like location, occupancy, and structural characteristics help determine an asset's vulnerability.
• Flood: An overflow of a large amount of water beyond its normal limits, especially over what is normally dry land.
• Forest fires: Uncontrolled fire occurring in vegetation more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) in height. These can be categorized as wildfire or forest fire, depending on their location and the type of vegetation involved.
• Hazard: A hazard represents the potential destructive forces from a peril, such as flood inundation or cyclonic winds. A single peril can produce multiple hazards, such as a tropical cyclone causing wind damage, storm surge, and flooding.
• Impact - Impact refers to the damage or losses resulting from a hazard affecting exposed assets, typically measured in monetary terms.
• Replacement Value: This is the estimated cost to replace damaged or destroyed physical assets.
• Return Period (RP): This metric denotes the frequency of an event's occurrence, such as RP10, RP100, or RP250, indicating events expected once every 10, 100, or 250 years, respectively. The probability of an event occurring in any given year is the inverse of the return period.
• Risk: Risk quantifies the potential of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, often expressed probabilistically, such as through average annual loss, accounting for all possible events in a model.
• Risk assessment/management: The systematic process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking. This often refers to the risk to humans, property, and the environment, which is a central part of disaster risk reduction.
• Vulnerability: Vulnerability assesses how susceptible an exposure is to the forces of a hazard, factoring in aspects like building materials (defined by Building Construction Class) and the building's function (defined by Building Type).
