Hazard Information Profiles

What are the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles?

Every year, extreme events and hazards of different origins lead to disasters affecting thousands of people and resulting in significant human, environmental and economic losses. Countries and communities are implementing initiatives to reduce disaster risks and plan for response and reconstruction.

Figure 1: Access full report at https://www.undrr.org/publication/hazard-definition-and-classification-review-technical-report

The first step of these initiatives is to better understand the different hazards they face. A better understanding of hazards constitutes one of the four priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global framework approved by 187 countries in 2015 [1].

To support this priority, an initiative was launched by scientists in May 2019, during the 6^th session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), to address paragraph 24j of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030: “To strengthen technical and scientific capacity to capitalize on and consolidate existing knowledge and to develop and apply methodologies and models to assess disaster risks, vulnerabilities and exposure to all hazards.”

Led by the UNDRR and the ISC, this initiative aimed to establish a standardized classification and definition of hazards, and resulted in two reports:

1. The UNDRR/ISC Hazard Definition & Classification Review, [2]

2. The UNDRR/ISC Hazard Information Profiles [3]

Figure 2: Classification of the 302 identified hazards in the 8 groups and 48 clusters; reproduced from Murray V., et al., 2022. Policy Brief: Using UNDRR/ISC Hazard Information Profiles to manage risks and implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, ISC, 8 pp.0

The UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles, supplement to the technical report, explored the definition of a hazard as a “process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation” [4] and provided guidance to the scope of issues that should be considered as part of holistic disaster risk management strategies.

These reports present a classification, definition and information profile for 302 hazards classified in 8 groups and 48 clusters (Figure 2).

Each Profile (HIPS) is a concise document, between 1 and 4 pages, providing:

1. A definition and associated reference

2. Annotations which include subsections on synonyms, additional scientific description, metrics and numeric limits, key relevant UN convention/ multilateral treaty, and examples of drivers, outcomes, and risk management

3. References (ideally open source)

Figure 3 presents the Profile on carbon monoxide, as an example.

Figure 3: Example of the HIP of a chemical hazard: Carbon Monoxide (CH0002); reproduced from [3], p. 358-359, or online https://www.preventionweb.net/understanding-disaster-risk/terminology/hips/ch0002

The review Process

Scientific information on hazards evolves constantly, and so do the needs of the users. Recognizing these drivers of change, these reports also included a set of recommendations to maintain the usefulness of the HIPs over time.

1. Recommendation 1: Review regularly and update.

2. Recommendation 2: Facilitate the development of a multi-hazard information system.

3. Recommendation 3: Engage with users and sectors for greater alignment and consistency of hazard definitions.

4. Recommendation 4: Use this hazard list to actively engage policymakers and scientists in evidence-based national risk assessment processes, disaster risk reduction and risk-informed sustainable development, and other actions aimed at managing risks of emergencies and disasters.

5. Recommendation 5: Conduct further work to operationalise parameters for exposure, vulnerability and capacity, building on the UNGA definitions.

6. Recommendation 6: Address cascading and complex hazards and risks.

Under the joint leadership of the UNDRR and the ISC, the second phase of the Hazard Information Profiles has been initiated in August 2023. This Phase 2 corresponds to the first cycle of review and update of the HIPs and focuses on recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 6.

Since their publication in 2021, the UNDRR/ISC Hazard Information Profiles (HIPs) have been utilized in various contexts, including disaster risk reduction planning, disaster response planning, monitoring, research, and teaching. A recent survey of HIP users across science, intergovernmental organizations, governments, the insurance sector, and civil society indicates that the HIPs are considered concise yet detailed and comprehensive, reliable, well-structured, well-referenced, agreed upon, and standardized.

However, both experts and users agree that information on the “multi-hazard context” needs to be added to the HIPs. This involves identifying direct and well-established relationships between hazards, which shed light on how one hazard might trigger or magnify another. Additionally, enhancing interoperability and machine actionability is necessary to improve the applications of the HIPs.

The User’s feedback reinforced the ‘light touch’ approach selected for this review process where changes are in general limited to the addition of new relevant scientific information in all sections of the HIPS, addition of information on the multi-hazard context and the review of existing references.

The classification of the current 302 hazards presented in the HIPs will also be reviewed. While the eight hazard types will remain, some clusters may change. Hazards may be added if they meet the three inclusion criteria identified during the development of the HIPs: potential impact on communities, available proactive and reactive measures, and measurable spatial and temporal components. Conversely, other hazards may be removed or merged following a careful assessment of the relevance of their disaggregation and classification with respect to the hazard definition and users’ needs. The review and potential revision of the hazard classification have three main objectives:

1. Readability and accessibility: Improve the classification’s clarity and ease of use for a wide range of users, including non-experts.

2. Coherence in disaggregation: Ensure a consistent level of detail in the classification of individual and groups of hazards. For example, some hazards currently correspond to single agents or diseases, while others correspond to groups of agents or diseases.

3. Future-proofing the HIPs: Prepare the HIPs for future developments, particularly concerning chemical hazards. As new chemical hazards with similar characteristics to existing ones may emerge, one option under discussion is to create “chapeau HIPs” that correspond to classes of agents with the same characteristics, with specific hazards having their own detailed HIPs as examples.

The review process, led by the UNDRR and the ISC, is guided by a Steering Group, bringing together experts from UN agencies, academia, private sectors, and international organizations. The Steering Committee is supported by eight technical teams, each one dedicated to one of the hazard groups. The main responsibility of these technical teams is to ensure the scientific information on each HIP is accurate, robust, up to date and understandable for non-specialists. In addition to these eight technical teams, the Steering Group is also supported by two specific working groups: one dedicated to the multi-hazard context and another one dedicated to machine actionability.

A User Group has also been set up to provide feedback from a user point of view to ensure that the HIPs continue to be usable, useful and used by different stakeholders in a broad range of sectors. The User group will also advise UNDRR, ISC and all other participating organizations on opportunities to further disseminate and apply the HIPs and widen the community of HIPs’ users.

The updated HIPs will be launched at the 8^th session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva in June 2025. It is expected that they will be available in two versions, a pdf version similar to the one available on the ISC Website and an online version on PreventionWeb [5]. The development of a machine actionable version is also part of the project.

Special Focus: the chemical hazards

The Chemical Hazard Group currently includes 25 hazards distributed in 9 clusters: gases, heavy metals, food safety, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants, hydrocarbons, CBRNE, other chemical hazards and toxins, and fisheries and aquaculture. This review is intended to examine the ways in which the HIPs can be made more useful and usable, to include new hazards such as PFAS, and provide means of reporting on a wider range of hazards than originally covered. 

The main changes envisaged include the addition of new HIPs that cover groups or classes of chemical hazards, in addition to those that have HIPs themselves, and relating the HIPs to the UN Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). This information will make it easier for non-expert users to identify, respond to, and report on hazards since the GHS classifications and their associated pictograms are already widely used.

The technical team for this group of hazards is led by Richard Hartshorn. His team is made of experts associated with the IUPAC Division of Chemistry and Human Health as well as experts from UN agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and is coordinated via IUPAC project 2023-036-1-700 [6].

Conclusion

The Hazard Information Profiles published in 2021 provide concise but comprehensive information on 302 hazards organized in eight groups: Meteorological & Hydrological, Extraterrestrial, Geological, Environmental, Chemical, Biological, Technological and Societal. When they were first published in 2021, they were accompanied by a recommendation to review them regularly. A first review cycle is currently ongoing, informed by new scientific information and feedback from users to strengthen their scientific relevance and ensuring they are “useful usable and used.” The revision of the HIPs is conducted by expert groups from within the United Nations relevant organizations as well as scientific organizations from within and beyond the membership of the International Science Council.

If you are interested in learning more about the project or contributing to the technical review of the HIPs, please contact Helene Jacot Des Combes (helene.jacotdescombes@council.science); see https://council.science/our-work/hazards-definition-and-classification/