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In the broad non-technical sense ‘hazards’ are defined as those processes and situations, actions or non-actions that have the potential to bring about damage, loss or other adverse effects to those attributes valued by mankind. The concept is thus applicable to all walks of life. In industry a hazard might be a power failure or a computer malfunction, in business it might be a breach of security or a poor investment decision, and in the environment it might be a spill of toxic substances or even a damaging landslide. Although the potential for something adverse to occur is appreciated, there is uncertainty as to when the hazard will realize its potential, and thus the threat is generally expressed as a likelihood or probability of occurrence of a given event magnitude in a specified period of time. Technically, we refer to this adverse condition as ‘the hazard’. Thus, in common usage, the term ‘hazard’has two different …