Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
This domain tests whether you can identify and profile hazards, combine likelihood and consequence transparently, and justify prioritisation with defensible evidence. The exam expects you to distinguish hazard assessment from vulnerability and capacity assessment while showing how they combine into risk.
Core rules and concepts
- Hazard identification draws on historical records, hazard maps, community knowledge, sector data and climate projections. It should consider natural, technological and biological hazards and their interactions.
- A hazard profile covers frequency, magnitude, duration, speed of onset, spatial extent, seasonality and probability. These attributes shape preparedness and response options.
- Risk assessment combines likelihood or probability with impact or consequence. Methods range from qualitative descriptions to semi-quantitative risk matrices to quantitative modelling. The method must match the decision and the available data.
- Assess multi-hazard and cascading effects, critical infrastructure dependencies and dynamic changes in exposure. Record assumptions, data quality and uncertainty.
Worked example
A district compares landslide and drought. Landslide likelihood is scored 4 and consequence 5, giving 20; drought likelihood is 3 and consequence 4, giving 12. The matrix places landslide first. The reasoning does not stop there: drought may affect far more people and last longer, so the team checks whether the consequence score captured spatial extent and livelihood impacts. It also tests sensitivity by asking whether a one-point change in likelihood would reverse the ranking. The final priority is documented with the scores, assumptions and a note that matrix results support judgement rather than replace it.
Traps that cost marks
- Ranking hazards by frequency alone.
- Using national averages for a local decision.
- Ignoring cascading impacts and infrastructure dependencies.
- Presenting a risk score without assumptions or uncertainty.
- Calling hazards “natural” when exposure and vulnerability drive the damage.