DRTSS Learner Knowledge key terms

The potential for loss of life, injury, damage to assets and livelihoods, or disruption of services, arising from the interaction of a hazard with exposed, vulnerable people and systems.

A process, phenomenon, or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury, property damage, social or economic disruption, or environmental harm. It is a potential source of danger, not the disaster itself.

The people, property, systems, livelihoods, and resources located in hazard-prone areas that could be harmed. Exposure is one of the three components of disaster risk, alongside hazard and vulnerability.

The conditions, determined by physical, social, economic, and environmental factors, that increase the susceptibility of an individual, community, or system to the impacts of a hazard.

The combination of strengths, attributes, and resources available within a community, organization, or system that can be used to manage and reduce disaster risk and to respond to and recover from shocks.

The ability of a system, community, or society to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform, and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient way, including through preserving essential functions.

Policies, practices, and measures aimed at preventing new disaster risk, reducing existing risk, and managing residual risk. It spans prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and recovery, and is applied across development sectors.

The application of disaster risk reduction policies and strategies to prevent new risk, reduce existing risk, and manage residual risk, through coordinated processes across prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Intensive risk is concentrated in high-exposure hotspots and produces high-severity, low-frequency losses; extensive risk is dispersed across many locations and produces low-severity, high-frequency losses that cumulatively erode development gains.

The systematic process of determining which hazards exist or could occur in a defined area, and characterizing their likely location, magnitude, frequency, duration, and seasonality so that risk can be assessed.

The technical study of a hazard's characteristics, including its intensity, probability of occurrence, spatial extent, and potential impacts, often using historical records, modeling, and monitoring data.

A process that combines hazard analysis with analysis of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity to estimate the likelihood and potential consequences of disaster impacts on people, assets, and systems.

A method that estimates the likelihood of different levels of loss by modeling the probability distributions of hazards and their interaction with exposed and vulnerable assets over time.

The average interval, usually expressed in years, between events of a given magnitude or greater at a specific location. A 100-year event has roughly a one percent chance of occurring in any single year.

A tool that ranks risks by combining likelihood and consequence ratings into a grid, helping analysts and decision-makers prioritize which risks require treatment and in what order.

A voluntary, non-binding global agreement adopted in 2015 that sets seven global targets and four priorities for action to reduce disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, health, and assets by 2030.

The seven measurable outcomes of the Sendai Framework, covering mortality, affected persons, economic loss, critical infrastructure, national strategies, international cooperation, and access to early warning and information.

A country-level policy instrument setting objectives, priorities, institutional responsibilities, and time-bound measures to prevent new disaster risk and reduce existing risk across sectors and administrative levels.

The deliberate integration of disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation objectives into routine planning, budgeting, and decision-making across sectors, rather than treating them as separate stand-alone programs.

The knowledge, capacities, and actions developed by governments, organizations, and communities to anticipate, respond to, and recover effectively from the impacts of likely, imminent, or current disasters.

A document that sets out the arrangements, roles, resources, and procedures an organization will use to respond to a specific potential emergency, based on agreed scenarios and assumptions.

A plausible description of a future hazard event and its likely consequences, used to test plans, design exercises, and identify gaps in capacity before an actual emergency occurs.

An integrated set of hazard monitoring, forecasting, and detection capabilities, combined with communication and dissemination arrangements, that enables people and organizations to act in advance of an impending hazard.

The final stage of the warning chain, where a message reaches and is acted upon by at-risk individuals and communities. Gaps here are a common cause of warning failure even when detection works well.

The planned and controlled movement of people and assets away from an area threatened by a hazard to safer locations, requiring clear triggers, routes, shelters, and public communication.

A designated facility and coordination structure where response agencies gather, share information, and make decisions to manage an emergency under a unified command and coordination arrangement.

A standardized, modular management structure for command, control, and coordination of emergency response, defining common roles, terminology, and reporting lines across responding agencies.

A coordination model that groups humanitarian actors into sectors such as shelter, health, and water, each with a designated lead agency accountable for coordination, needs assessment, and gap identification.

The structured collection and analysis of information after a disaster to determine the number of affected people, the severity of needs, and priorities for relief assistance and recovery support.

The principle of using recovery and reconstruction to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience, rather than simply restoring pre-disaster conditions, including through improved standards and safer siting.

The medium- to long-term process of rebuilding destroyed or damaged physical assets, housing, infrastructure, and services after a disaster, ideally incorporating risk reduction measures and improved standards.

The process of restoring or improving livelihoods, health, economic, physical, social, cultural, and environmental assets and services in the aftermath of a disaster, guided by risk reduction principles.

Adjustments in ecological, social, and economic systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli and their effects, aimed at moderating harm or exploiting beneficial opportunities.

An adaptation or development action that inadvertently increases vulnerability or reduces the capacity of other groups, sectors, or future generations to adapt, often by shifting risk elsewhere.

An approach in which at-risk communities participate actively in identifying hazards, analyzing vulnerability and capacity, planning risk reduction measures, and implementing and monitoring them locally.

A method that involves community members and local stakeholders in mapping hazards, resources, and vulnerability, using their knowledge to produce locally relevant risk information and priorities for action.

The differential susceptibility of groups to harm based on factors such as age, gender, disability, income, ethnicity, and access to services, which shape both exposure and capacity to cope.

The deliberate involvement of marginalized and at-risk groups, including persons with disabilities, older people, women, and minorities, in risk assessment, planning, decision-making, and access to services.

A structured record of disaster events and their impacts, such as deaths, affected people, and economic damage, used to track trends, validate risk models, and report on targets.

The systematic tracking of activities, outputs, and outcomes against planned objectives, combined with periodic assessment of relevance, effectiveness, and impact, to inform learning and decisions.

A quantitative or qualitative measure that signals the state or change of a condition, used to track progress toward targets and to compare performance across time or locations.

The disaster risk that remains after prevention and mitigation measures have been applied, and which must be managed through preparedness, response, and recovery arrangements and risk transfer.

The process of formally or informally shifting the financial consequences of disaster risk from one party to another, for example through insurance, reinsurance, or catastrophe bonds.