Overview of natural and man-made disaster risks the European Union may face (2017)

This overview focuses on 11 main disaster risks extracted from national risk assessments in the European Union: flooding; extreme weather; forest fire; earthquake; pandemic; epizootic; industrial accident; critical infrastructure disruption; nuclear and radiological accident; cybercrime and terrorism. An insight into new and emerging risks and a series of annexes presenting some national risk assessment good practices complete the overview.

The overview does not constitute, in itself, a European assessment of disaster risks. It builds on nationally-assessed disaster risks to reflect the complex landscape of disaster risks across Europe, the supra-national dimension of disaster risks and the relevance of their management to many policy areas at national, regional and European levels. The overview informs decision-makers of the main disaster risks to which Participating States in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) are exposed, of the perceptions and assessments of these risks, and on the wealth of relevant processes, instruments and initiatives in place at the European level.

This technical exercise provides a basis for observations on how to improve national outputs and European added value for risk assessment and for the full disaster management cycle.