How do you prioritize risks in emergency planning?

1 Identify your hazards

The first step is to identify the potential hazards that your community may face, such as natural disasters, pandemics, terrorism, cyberattacks, or civil unrest. You can use historical data, expert opinions, scenario analysis, or other sources to compile a list of hazards that are relevant to your context and objectives. You should also consider the frequency, duration, and magnitude of each hazard, as well as the factors that may increase or decrease its likelihood or severity.

2 Analyze your vulnerabilities

The next step is to analyze how vulnerable your community is to each hazard, and how it may affect your critical assets, functions, and populations. You can use a vulnerability assessment tool, such as the FEMA Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) or the UN Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) framework, to evaluate the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of your community to each hazard. You should also consider the direct and indirect impacts, the cascading effects, and the recovery time of each hazard.

4 Rank your risks

The final step is to rank your risks based on their probability and consequences, and prioritize them accordingly. You can use a risk matrix, such as the FEMA Risk Assessment Matrix or the UN Risk Management Matrix, to assign a score or a rating to each risk based on its likelihood and impact, and plot them on a grid. You should also consider the uncertainty, complexity, and dynamism of each risk, and how they may change over time or under different conditions.

By following these steps, you can prioritize your risks in emergency planning and make informed decisions about how to allocate your resources and improve your resilience. However, risk prioritization is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process that requires regular monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment. You should also involve your stakeholders, partners, and beneficiaries in your risk prioritization process, and communicate your results and actions clearly and transparently.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?