The document defines risk management as a 5-step process that includes identifying hazards, assessing vulnerability, assessing risk, analyzing impacts, and transferring assessments to a risk management sheet. It explains each step in detail. Hazard identification involves defining potential hazards and their characteristics. Vulnerability assessment identifies elements at risk and why, combining hazard information with an inventory of exposed property and population. Risk assessment evaluates the likelihood of an event occurring and who and what would be affected. Impact analysis examines social, environmental, economic and political consequences by matching impacts to vulnerabilities. All assessments are then documented on a risk management sheet for action planning.

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RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS
UNESCO (2010) defines Risk as “The probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths,
injuries, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from
interactions between natural or human-induced hazards and vulnerable conditions. Conventionally risk is
expressed by the notation…”
Risk = Hazards x Vulnerability
“Some disciplines also include the concept of exposure to refer particularly to the physical aspects of
vulnerability. Beyond expressing a possibility of physical harm, it is crucial to recognize that risks are
inherent or can be 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.” (UNESCO, 2010)
“Risk is the chance or likelihood that a hazard will occur, and the exposure of human population and assets
to such a hazard. Risk is not only the probability that a hazard will occur, but also is dependent on the
probability and possibility of exposure to that potential hazard. Risks are quantifiable and measurable over
a specified time period.” They could be: (COL. 2004)
 health risks
 safety
 security risks
 environmental risks
 public welfare risks or
 financial risk.
Risk is a function of hazard intensity and vulnerability. It is determined by exposure potential (or avenues
of contact) and characteristics of exposed human beings and assets (receptors), and their capacity to
manage or resist the impacts of the hazards. Risk is often measured using the following formula:
Risk =
Probability (likelihood of occurrence) x Consequence (expected loss)
Capacity to manage
The fundamental difference between hazards and risks is that a hazard is an agent that has the potential to
cause harm and is a source of risk, while risk is the possibility of a hazard occurring, and it’s potential to
cause harm over a period of time.
“Disaster Risk Management is the application of disaster risk reduction policies and strategies, to prevent
new disaster risks, reduce existing disaster risks, and manage residual risks, contributing to the
strengthening of resilience and reduction of losses. Disaster risk management actions can be categorized
into; prospective disaster risk management, corrective disaster risk management and compensatory disaster
risk management (also referred to as residual risk management).
RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS
Risk management is a five-step process. (Figure 1)
 Step 1: Hazards Identification
 Step 2: Vulnerability assessment
 Step 3: Risk assessment
 Step 4: Impact analysis- Examining the impacts
 Step 5: Transfer all assessments to the risk management sheet

2. Disaster Management (5584)-2020
Step 1: Hazards Identification:
The process of defining and describing potential hazards is called hazard identification. Hazards may be…
 natural or human-induced.
 internal or external.
 predictable or sudden.
For the purpose of risk assessment, hazard identification would involve hazard assessment and analysis.
Hazard assessment is the process of defining a hazard’s physical characteristics, causative factors,
probability and frequency of occurrence, magnitude and severity, and locations of likely occurrence. The
basis of hazard assessment could be historical data, hazard mapping, or physical characteristics of land, soil
and climate (for natural hazards), and operations, maintenance and safety systems within large industrial
setups.
Step 2: Vulnerability assessment:
 Vulnerability means assessing the threats from potential hazards to the population and to
infrastructure. (Wikipedia, 2019)

Vulnerability Assessment: Identify what elements are at risk and why (refer to unsafe conditions,
dynamic pressures and root causes). (NDMA, 2010)

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“Vulnerability assessment is the second level of hazard assessment combines the information from the
hazard identification with an inventory of the existing property and population exposed to a hazard. It
provides information on who and what are vulnerable to a natural hazard within the geographic areas
defined by hazard identification. Vulnerability assessment can also estimate damage and casualties that will
result from various intensities of the hazard.”(NDMA, 2010)
Vulnerability or susceptibility could be any one (or combination) of the following and their exposure to the
hazard:
 people
 assets
 preparedness
 time
Vulnerability is measured as low, medium or high depending upon the combination of the above
factors. (COL, 2004)
Step 3: Risk assessment:
When assessing risks first assess the likelihood of a hazardous event occurring and then assess who
and what would be affected and to what extent. Following tools and techniques can be used to assess
risk:
 Hazard maps: to identify the exposure levels, exposed areas and populations.
 Historical data: identifying how many times the hazard has affected the same setting in the
past and by conducting a probability analysis to assess the possibility of it occurring again
during the current or subsequent years. Historical data or predictions could be used to
estimate certainty of occurrence of hazard.
 Determine the risk factors for each exposed valued commodity such as buildings, facilities
and density of the population affected in the likely hazard area.
 Acceptance of risk: Level of acceptance of risk would vary from the kind of hazard and the
vulnerability of the exposed populations and valuables. (COL, 2004)
Step 4: Impact analysis
 Examining the impacts: Impact analysis may also be termed as loss estimation. Impacts may
be: social, environmental, economic and political.
 Match the impacts to the vulnerabilities: for example social impact would be the number of
deaths, injuries, homelessness, family dislocation and disintegration of social fabrics etc.;
Environmental impact would be quality and quantity of soil; Economic impact would be
destruction of crops; Political impact would be public perception of blame, etc.
 Hazard vulnerability mapping: spatial maps can be drawn identifying the highest zones of risk
due to different hazards. These zones can be coloured differently to match the high-risk areas
for a specific hazard. (COL, 2004)
Step 5: Transfer all assessments to the risk management sheet:
Risk analysis transferred to a recapitulation sheet (Table 1) provides sufficient information for action
planning with the most vulnerable spot that would be at greatest risk from a specific hazard. (COL,
2004)

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Hazard Risk Rating
Vulnerability
Rating
Impact Analysis Certainty
Risk & Vulnerability
Analysis
Table 1: Risk management recapitulation sheet
REFERENCES
COL. (2004). E9 Disaster Management. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
NDMA. (2010). Training Manual- Disaster Risk Management. Islamabad: National Disaster Management Authority.
UNESCO. (2010). Glossary of basic terminology on disaster risk reduction. Retrieved from
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000225784
Wikipedia. (2019, December 13). Vulnerability assessment. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerability_assessment