Chapter 2What is risk?
A main objective of a risk analysis is to describe risk. To understand what it means, we must know what risk is and how it is expressed. In this chapter, we define what we mean by risk in this book. We also look closer at the concept of vulnerability.
2.1 The risk concept and its description
We consider an activity, real or thought-constructed, for a specified period of time. The activity leads to some future consequences 
and these are not known—they are uncertain (
). These two components, 
and 
, constitute risk:
The risk concept (
) covers (i) that the activity leads to some consequences
, and (ii) that these consequences are not known (
).
The consequences are with respect to something that humans value (health, the environment, assets, etc.). The consequences are ...
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