NATURAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC RISKS: PROPOSAL FOR AN INTERDISCIPLINARY GLOSSARY

In the past few years, Italy has been ravaged by catastro- phic events of natural or anthropogenic origin. These events have highlighted, once again, the need to take prevention measures in order to mitigate the damage that similar future events could inflict on the Italian social and economic system. As the costs of these measures might be very high, available resources should be allocated carefully, assigning priority to areas with the highest potential risk. Therefore, estimating the potential damage caused by events expected both in the near future and on a longer timescale in a reliable way might be an important tool for pursuing an effective prevention policy. The growing diversification and extent of urbanised areas and economic activities make the estimation of the above effects increasingly complex. Hence, reliance should be made on a combination of disciplines that may be very different from or that have often developed independently of one another over the years. However, this combination has resulted in discre- pancies in methodological approaches, which have impaired the effectiveness of communication to the authorities in char- ge of prevention policies. This document proposes a common way through which the scientific community may present its arguments and ex- press its opinions about risks at the request of policymakers. In particular, the document proposes the use of a glossary with a view to overcoming “language” barriers among the va- rious disciplines and defining a common lexicon. The construction of a glossary requires the definition of key terms and their mutual relations, which may become a common legacy within a scientific and technical community. Moreover, a glossary may help overcome possible differences in the usage of those terms across the various disciplines, con- sidering both consolidated uses at international level and ope- rational practices at national level. Thus, the proposed glossa- ry is not a mere listing of terms with their definitions. Indeed, the meaning of the definitions depends only on the use of the related terms in the reasoning process and in the opinions that represent the outcome of this process. In this sense, the construction of a glossary requires the adoption of a common approach by the members of the scientific community involved. The document is organised as follows. The second sec- tion provides an overview of the rationale for a common ter- minology and the features that it should have, explaining its logical structure and normative purpose. Section 3 defines the concept of risk analysis in simple terms, highlighting the pos- sible ambiguities associated with this concept that need fur- ther insights. Section 4 proposes a formalisation of the logical process to be followed in carrying out assessments and ex- pressing opinions on various risks. This section also deals, in general terms, with the main items of information considered and their mutual relations. Section 5 presents the glossary, i.e. a list of terms, their definitions, and, where necessary, their application contexts. Finally, a short list of references used in the document is provided.