title: Research and Evaluations of the Health Aspects of Disasters, Part VIII: Risk, Risk Reduction, Risk Management, and Capacity Building.
abstract: There is a cascade of risks associated with a hazard evolving into a disaster that consists of the risk that: (1) a hazard will produce an event; (2) an event will cause structural damage; (3) structural damage will create functional damages and needs; (4) needs will create an emergency (require use of the local response capacity); and (5) the needs will overwhelm the local response capacity and result in a disaster (ie, the need for outside assistance). Each step along the continuum/cascade can be characterized by its probability of occurrence and the probability of possible consequences of its occurrence, and each risk is dependent upon the preceding occurrence in the progression from a hazard to a disaster. Risk-reduction measures are interventions (actions) that can be implemented to: (1) decrease the risk that a hazard will manifest as an event; (2) decrease the amounts of structural and functional damages that will result from the event; and/or (3) increase the ability to cope with the damage and respond to the needs that result from an event. Capacity building increases the level of resilience by augmenting the absorbing and/or buffering and/or response capacities of a community-at-risk. Risks for some hazards vary by the context in which they exist and by the Societal System(s) involved. Birnbaum ML , Loretti A , Daily EK , O'Rourke AP . Research and evaluations of the health aspects of disasters, part VIII: risk, risk reduction, risk management, and capacity building. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(3):300-308.
authors.affiliation: 1Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Physiology,School of Medicine and Public Health,University of Wisconsin,Madison,WisconsinUSA; Emeritus Editor-in-Chief, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.
authors.forename: Marvin L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Birnbaum
authors.affiliation: 2Consultant;Retired from the World Health Organization,Geneva,Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loretti
authors.affiliation: 3Nursing Section Editor, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine; Executive Secretary,World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine,Madison,Wisconsin,USA.
authors.forename: Elaine K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Daily
authors.affiliation: 4Associate Professor,Division of General Surgery,Department of Surgery,School of Medicine and Public Health,University of Wisconsin,Madison,WisconsinUSA.
authors.forename: Ann P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D012106:Research; D012308:Risk Management; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior
keywords: HVA hazard-vulnerability assessment; ISO International Organization for Standardization; UN United Nations; UN-OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; WHO World Health Organization; capacity building; consequences; risk; risk management; risk reduction