Language of Risk - FLOODsite

FLOODsite Language of Risk 2 nd Ed.
Contract No:GOCE-CT-2004-505420
5. Glossary
In the glossary below, some of the terms arose from the work of the FLOODsite tasks; in these cases
the task number is provided as (Task N)
Accuracy - closeness to reality.
Adaptive capacity - Is the ability to plan, prepare for, facilitate, and implement adaptation options.
Factors that determine a community adaptive capacity include its economic wealth, its technology and
infrastructure, the information, knowledge and skills that it possesses, the nature of its institutions, its
commitment to equity, and its social capital.
Aims - The objectives of groups/individuals/organisations involved with a project. The aims are taken
to include ethical and aesthetic considerations.
Attenuation (flood peak) - lowering a flood peak (and lengthening its base).
Basin (river) (see catchment area) - the area from which water runs off to a given river.
Beach Overwash (Task 5)
Beach overwash can be defined as the flow of water and sediment over the crest of a beach that does
not directly return to the water body from which it originated.
Bias - The disposition to distort the significance of the various pieces of information that have to be
used.
Catchment area - the area from which water runs off to a river
Characterisation - The process of expressing the observed/predicted behaviour of a system and it's
components for optimal use in decision making.
Coastal Dune (Task 5)
A coastal dune is a ridge or mound of loose wind-blown material, usually sand, located on the
landward side of the beach.
Cognition - The conscious or unconscious process of deriving meaning from sensory data. So
‘perceived risk’ might be more correctly termed “cognated” risk.
Conditional probability - The likelihood of some event given the prior occurrence of some other
event.
Confidence interval - A measure of the degree of (un)certainty of an estimate. Usually presented as a
percentage. For example, a confidence level of 95% applied to an upper and lower bound of an
estimate indicates there is a 95% chance the estimate lies between the specified bounds. Confidence
limits can be calculated for some forms of uncertainty (see knowledge uncertainty), or estimated by an
expert (see judgement).
Consequence - An impact such as economic, social or environmental damage/improvement that may
result from a flood. May be expressed quantitatively (e.g. monetary value), by category (e.g. High,
Medium, Low) or descriptively.
Coping capacity — The means by which people or organisations use available resources and abilities
to face adverse consequences that could lead to a disaster.
T32_04_01_ FLOODsite_Language_of_Risk_D32_2_v5_2_P1 30 April 2009
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