Earthquakes Glossary

damage, loss

Disasters cause humanitarian, ecological and economic losses. Various types of losses are generally distinguished into direct and indirect losses. Direct losses results from the physical impact of the hazardous event, whereas indirect losses are induced by the event but occur - in space or time - outside the event. Depending on whether or not losses can be expressed in monetary values, both types of losses are further classified into tangible and intangible losses. On a microeconomic scale these are common definitions of loss: Direct losses occur in terms of damages to private property and loss of assets and infrastructure. Indirect losses, i.e. negative impacts in the flow of goods and services, e.g. business interruption in production and sales, are the results thereof. If there is protection against these types of loss by the means of insurance contracts, the covered loss is called insured loss.