UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR) Terminology aims to promote
common understanding and common usage of disaster
risk reduction concepts and to assist the disaster risk
reduction efforts of authorities, practitioners and the
public. The previous version “Terminology: Basic terms
of disaster risk reduction” was published in “Living with
risk: a global review of disaster risk reduction initiatives”
in 2004. The following year, the Hyogo Framework for
Action 2005-2015 requested the UNISDR to “update and
widely disseminate international standard terminology
related to disaster risk reduction, at least in all official
United Nations languages, for use in programme and
institutions development, operations, research, training
curricula and public information programmes”.
The 2009 version is the result of a process of ongoing
review by the UNISDR and consultations with a
broad range of experts and practitioners in various
international venues, regional discussions and
national settings. The terms are now defined by a
single sentence. The comments paragraph associated
with each term is not part of the definition, but is
provided to give additional context, qualification and
explanation. It should be noted that the terms are not
necessarily mutually exclusive, and in some cases may
have overlapping meanings.
The Terminology has been revised to include words
that are central to the contemporary understanding
and evolving practice of disaster risk reduction but
exclude words that have a common dictionary usage.
Also included are a number of emerging new concepts
that are not in widespread use but are of growing
professional relevance; these terms are marked with
a star (*) and their definition may evolve in future. The
English version of the 2009 Terminology provides the
basis for the preparation of other language versions.
Comments and suggestions for future revisions are
welcome and should be directed to the UNISDR
(see www.unisdr.org).