ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the difference between a risk assessment and an impact assessment and provides an example of the evolution of impacts as they have manifested themselves in practice of impact assessments. It discusses how looking back at similar times of change in history can yield clues for critical thinking and exploration to the way in which impact assessments could be conducted looking forward. Threats and hazards are estimated in a risk assessment, e.g., computer hardware outages to the catastrophic possibilities of tornados and terror attacks. Risk assessments are only the first part of understanding potential terror attacks and disasters; impact assessments are the other half of that equation, i.e., understanding the impacts that stem from those events. In emergency management and counterterrorism, an impact assessment measures impacts as serious as mortality rates, massive financial losses, and even the complete loss of governmental control.
