2.1 Hazard and vulnerability analysis
The level of risk to which a country or population group is exposed when a violent event occurs depends on a combination of two factors: the hazard itself and the vulnerability. As a result, defining risk requires assessing the hazards and the vulnerability of the people and elements exposed to them.
There are various tools for assessing hazards. The CAPRA platform includes the models most commonly used to assess the different types of hazards. It is important to emphasize that the analysis itself is the responsibility of national agencies and it requires the participation of technical and scientific institutions in fields related to geology, seismology, volcanology, hydrometeorology, and epidemiology, among others. In general, little can be done to change hazards, especially when they are of natural origin, and thus prevention (elimination of the risk) is more an ideal than a practical reality.
The vulnerability of a community—its infrastructure, population and resources—is characterized by its susceptibility to damage from a specific hazard or a set of hazards, and is a function of the probability, type, and extent of the social, economic, physical, environmental, ecological, and other damage to which it is exposed. Depending on the type of vulnerability being analyzed, one or another methodology will be called for, along with the relevant disciplines.