Interaction between the physical climate system, exposure and vulnerability produces risk

Description

The risk of climate-related impacts results from the interaction of climate-related hazards with the vulnerability and exposure of human and natural systems. Mountains are generally hazardous places, even under conditions of natural climate variability. But hazards alone do not cause impacts or risk, as a population or ecosystem must be exposed to the hazard for a disaster to occur. Thus, climate-related impacts or disasters can be avoided if sufficient measures to avoid harmful effects are in place. Vulnerability and exposure are dynamic and vary across special and temporal scales, depending on socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors.