Supporting hazard and risk assessment
Risk assessment determines the nature and extent of existing and potential future risk and its components. It involves the identification, analysis and evaluation of hazards in terms of their location, intensity, frequency, duration and probability; of vulnerability in terms of its physical, social, economic and environmental dimensions; of the exposure of people and assets; and of the effectiveness of prevailing or alternative coping and adaptive capacities. On the other hand, post-disaster loss and damage data serves as input for estimating future impacts. Such data needs to be quality-assured, temporally and geographically referenced with the hazard event, consistently catalogued and properly archived. Hydrometeorological observations and forecasts by NMHSs are fundamental input for sound risk assessments.