Civil Protection Department

For civil protection purposes, risk is the possibility that a natural or man-made phenomenon may cause damage to the population, inhabited and production areas and infrastructures in a given area in a certain period of time.
The concept of risk is linked not only to the capacity to calculate the probability that a hazardous event may occur, but also to the capacity of defining the damage caused. Risk and hazard are not the same thing: hazard is the calamity that may strike a certain area (the cause), the risk refers to its possible consequences, in other words the damage that may be expected (the effect).

For concrete assessment of a risk therefore, it is not enough to know the hazard, but it is also necessary to carefully estimate the exposed value, in other words the assets in the area that may be affected by an event.

Risk can therefore be expressed by the formula: R = H x V x E

H = Hazard: the probability that a phenomenon of a certain intensity occurs in a certain period of time, in a certain area.
V = Vulnerability: vulnerability of an element (people, building, infrastructures, businesses) is the potential for damage following vibration caused by an event of a certain intensity.
E = Exposure: or Exposed value: is the unit number (or “value”) of each of the elements at risk in a given area, like human lives or inhabited areas.

Italy a geologically young country. This “youthfulness” derives from the particular dynamics of the country, at a high risk of natural calamities, from earthquakes to volcanic eruptions. In addition to natural phenomena there are also those caused by man, often linked to bad territory management.