Citation

Iovine G, Aubrecht C, Cohen D, Pastor M. Nat. Hazards 2018; 91(Suppl): 1-5.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11069-018-3274-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Risk to people and properties commonly derives from different types of dangerous phenomena, either natural or man-made. The potential worth of loss depends on vulnerability of the exposed elements at risk, and on worth of these latter. Vulnerability generally refers to heterogeneous sets of elements and should be analysed by considering both actual and expected conditions, in terms of exposure and of potential effects on economic activities, environmental education and availability of authorities for forecasting and monitoring. Furthermore, the probability of occurrence (hazard) of a given type of phenomenon must be evaluated within a specific zone and temporal frame of interest. The above factors are all needed to assess the overall risk, but they can be very difficult to measure.

If different types of dangerous phenomena threaten a given site, or when cascading effects are expected, the evaluation of the combined risk is required, with overlapping and amplification issues often hard to quantify. To decrease the level of risk at local or regional scales, different techniques are available, based on inventories, spatial analyses, damage mapping, vulnerability and susceptibility mapping, numerical modelling, monitoring, and land-use planning, in addition to knowledge dissemination and realising of remedial works. Real-time monitoring systems may allow to implement early warning procedures for civil protection and, if combined with innovative modelling techniques, may help in defining reliable standards and implementing effective strategies for risk mitigation...

Language: en