Glossary

Emergency an event, actual or imminent, which endangers or threatens to endanger life, property or the environment, and which is beyond the resources of a single organisation to manage or which requires the coordination of a number of significant emergency management activities.
Hazard

A situation or condition with potential for loss or harm to the community or environment.”1 , including:

  • Natural events such as earthquake, cyclone, or epidemic
  • Human-made hazards include those arising from technology, human fault and hostile action.

Some major natural hazards such as bushfires and cyclones are seasonal and regional but other types of hazards; particularly those created by humans, are less predictable and could occur at anytime and anywhere.


Hazard Management Agency An organisation which, because of its legislative responsibility or specialised knowledge, expertise and resources, is responsible for ensuring that emergency management activities pertaining to the prevention of, preparedness for,
response to and recovery from a specific hazard is undertaken. It is responsible for the preparation, promulgation, testing and maintenance of hazard emergency management plans.

All Hazard Approach means one plan fits all hazards including evacuation - no matter what the cause, the procedure for evacuation is the same.
Key Business Processes are those processes that are essential to the achievement of business objectives. Loss of a key business process for any period longer than the maximum acceptable outage (see below) is defined as a business interruption
Business Interruption Event A risk event that has a business consequence
Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Identifies, quantifies and qualifies all potential impacts and projects their effects on the organisation. The BIA is undertaken for all key business processes and establishes the recovery priorities, should those processes be disrupted or lost.
Outage An extraordinary event causing a disruption to or loss of key processes, and which has a significant impact on the organisation.
Maximum Acceptable Outage (MAO) The time before an outage is likely to stop an organisation achieving its business objectives. The MAO defines the maximum time an organisation can survive without key functions before continuity plans and recovery procedures must commence.
Risk Event Any non trivial event that affects the ability of an organisation to achieve
its business objectives.

BCP Business Continuity Plan
BIA Business Impact Analysis
BRP Business Resumption Plan
CBP Critical Business Processes
DEMC District Emergency Management Committee
DCD Department of Community Development
DRP Disaster Recovery Plan
FESA Fire & Emergency Services Authority
HMA Hazard Management Agency
KPI Key Performance Indicator
LEMC Local Emergency Management Committee
LG Local Government
MEMC Metropolitan District Emergency Management Committee
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
PPRR Prevention/mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery
SEMC State Emergency Management Committee
SES State Emergency Services
SECG State Emergency Management Committee
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis
WESTPLAN Western Australian Emergency Management Plan

1 Emergency Management Australia - Emergency Risk Management Applications Guide 2001