Floods Glossary

risk

This term has different meanings:

1. In general terms risk means the possibility of a loss resulting from the exposure to a hazard.

2. In insurance terms the object to be insured is referred to as risk.

3. In risk sciences the term risk encompasses the probability and the amount of harmful consequences or expected losses resulting from interactions between natural or human induced hazards and vulnerable conditions.

4. In economics and social sciences the term risk is associated with an individual decision for an alternative under conditions of uncertainty in terms of "to venture". In the negative case (risk as hazard) one risks to sustain a loss or damages, in the positive case (risk as chance) to benefit.

The quantification of risk can be carried out for selected elements of risk or for one or more loss indicators. For example, the following loss indicators can be estimated: number of fatalities, injuries and/or evacuated people, economic replacement or current value of damaged assets (infrastructures, buildings, contents, machines, stocks, vehicles, agricultural and forestry products etc.), value of indirect economic losses (due to business or traffic disruption, obsolescence of financial assets) as well as socio-cultural losses due to a damage to cultural assets, natural resources (e.g. polluted water, polluted soil), unique ecosystems or landscapes. Beyond expressing a possibility of physical harm, it is crucial to appreciate that risks are always created or exist within social systems. It is important to consider the social contexts in which risks occur and that people therefore do not necessarily share the same perceptions of risk and their underlying causes.