Urban System
An Urban System is a human-made system placed in a specific space and time. It is composed of essential parts, which are Infrastructure, Geosphere, and Population. Population is a collective of agents who live or use the urban space and the tangible Infrastructure (hard infrastructure) through services (soft infrastructure). In turn, the Urban Space (Geosphere) is the territory, the place where the population (resident or non-resident) lives or uses the soil as well as where the infrastructure is located.
Urban System at Risk
An urban system is a set of interconnected parts (population, urban space, and infrastructure). An urban system at risk has one or more parts vulnerable or exposed to certain risk drivers in certain situations. In hazardous events, urban systems at risk participate as objects: living objects, such as people, animals, and non-living objects: urban infrastructure and urban space. In the Return ontology, an urban system at risk is an urban system exposed to one or more hazardous events that lead to one or more urban risk situations. Urban systems at risk participate in both hazardous events and urban risk situations, which creates a cascading effect.
Hazard Magnitude
Impact Value
The impact value of a hazard impact is a measure of its potential consequences on people, property, operations, and the economy, expressed in a scale (e.g., high, medium, low) or numerically, and often incorporates its severity, exposure, and vulnerability to determine an overall risk. It helps prioritize risks by quantifying the potential damage and informing the allocation of resources for mitigation and prevention efforts.
Response
A response to a hazardous event involves the immediate and systematic actions taken during and after the hazardous event to minimize its negative effects, save lives, ensure safety, and address basic human needs. It primarily focuses on immediate and short-term needs, employing specialized agencies and community participation to address effects on people, property, urban infrastructure, and the environment until full recovery efforts can begin.
Adaptation
Adaptation involves adjusting to the current or future effects and impacts of a hazardous event. For climate change, for example, this could mean building seawalls to protect against rising sea levels or developing drought-resistant crops. For other hazardous events: building of flood-resistant infrastructure in vulnerable areas, changing land use to avoid high-risk zones, or creating emergency shelters.
Mitigation
Mitigation is defined as the implementation of actions or activities aimed at limiting the adverse impacts of hazardous events and urban risks that have already occurred.
Damage
Damage is categorized as material damaged and immaterial damage. Material damage, also known as property damage, is damage to a person's assets or urban system assets, i.e. the loss of goods or things that have economic value. Material damages include losses actually suffered (emergent damages), as well as amounts that the person has failed to receive (lost profits). Immaterial damage refers to a decrease in integrity, size, efficiency, or conditions that a community deems detrimental as a result of an adverse event. Depending on the application, damage can be measured in different ways using metrics appropriate for each type of risk analysis. Non-physical damage, in particular, affects the social life of an urban system. This type of damage is understood as a measure of social disruption in terms of the deterioration of social relations and functions that a natural or human-caused event causes a community in the short to medium term (e.g., homelessness) or psychological symptoms in part of the population, such as anxiety and panic disorder, which are correlated with the possibility of the risk events occurring again.
Loss
Loss (resulting from being deprived of something) is a measure (quantified or not) of the damage or destruction caused by a disaster. This includes the loss of human life in hazardous events.
Risk Driver2
1. A risk driver is an event that leads to a hazardous event. Risk drivers can be agent-made (e.g. human actions) or non-agent-made (e.g. natural phenomena). 2. [IPCC] Any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in a system (adapted from MA, 2005). 3. It encompasses both natural and human-induced factors, processes, or conditions that result in a direct or indirect alteration of a system. Available at: https://civil-protection-knowledge-network.europa.eu/eu-overview-risks
Hazard Impact
A hazard impact refers to the potential negative effects that a hazardous event can cause. It is the result of a hazard interacting (exposition) with something vulnerable, like people, property, or the environment. The impact can range from minor inconveniences to major catastrophes, depending on the nature of the hazard, its magnitude, and the vulnerability of the affected urban system elements. The taxonomy of hazard impacts in Return ontology comprehends: 1. Impact on Cryosphere 2. Impact on Hydrosphere 3. Impact on Atmosphere 4. Impact on Geosphere 5. Impact on Population 6. Impact on Forest 7. Impact on Crop 8. Impact on Infrastructure
Assigner
These roles are played by agents (human, group, institutional, or AI) who assign a value or probability to hazardous events, risks, impacts, or elements of the urban system. Using their expertise, quantitative data, and tools such as risk matrices, these professionals determine the likelihood and potential impact of identified risks. This enables informed decision-making for risk mitigation and management within organizations.
Urban Risk Situation
A risk situation is caused by a convergence of hazardous events and the exposure of urban systems (or parts of them) to these events, as well as the vulnerabilities of these systems. 'Threat' is also a synonym for 'negative risk'. In the Return ontology, stakeholders are only interested in negative impacts of risks. Each Urban Risk Situation is assigned a risk probability, which determines its classification. The calculus of risk is a comprehensive framework that considers the following elements: Risk_Probability = Hazard.occurrence x Hazard.magnitude x Impact.severity x Vulnerability(Urban System.Hazardous_Event) x ExposureLevel(Urban System, Hazardous_Event) x Complexity(Urban System) x RiskResponse.capacity(UrbanSystem, Hazardous_Event) x RiskResponse.capacity(UrbanSystem, Hazard_Impact)
Risk
Risk is defined as the likelihood or probability of occurring a hazard or its impacts. In this sense, it is a relation between the probability of a hazard occurring and its magnitude, the severity of its potential impact, the vulnerability of the object to the hazard, the level of its exposure to the hazard and its impacts, the complexity of the object (considering its size, economic and social importance, population and infrastructure density), and its ability to respond to the hazards and their impacts.
Hazard Likelihood
Impact Likelihood
Avoidance
Transfer
Acceptance
Impact on Forest
Impact on Crop
Impact on Population
Impact on Infrastructure
Impact on Geosphere
Impact on Atmosphere
Impact on Hydrosphere
Impact on Cryosphere
Impact Magnitude
In general, 'impact magnitude' refers to the size or extent of an impact, or the degree to which something is affected. It can also refer to the severity or intensity of the impact, or the number of people or things affected. In specific contexts, such as earthquake analysis or risk assessments, 'magnitude' may have more precise definitions. Impact magnitude can be measured as high, medium, or low, relating to a percentage index. These indices are established by considering impact severity (e.g., how large or wide-ranging the impact is, how intense the effect is, and how many individuals, systems, or areas are impacted). Also, the impact measure considers the probability of a hazard occurring within a time interval as High, Medium, or Low.
Impact Severity
The impact severity of a hazard impact is a measure of the negative consequences or degree of harm that the event could cause, considering factors such as the number of people affected, amount of capital lost, damage to buildings, infrastructure disruption, or impact on life expectancy. It assesses "how bad things could get" if the risk materializes and is ranked on an ordinal scale (e.g., negligible, minor, moderate, major, severe, catastrophic) to prioritize responses and management efforts.
Institutional Agent Population
It is a collection of fictitious persons that exist in the legal system, which are entities such as corporations, firms (business entities), and some government agencies. They are treated in law as if they were persons, i.e. they can do the things that a human person can normally do in law - such as make contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. There are no natural persons (human beings) in this category.
AI System Population
�AI system� means a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Source: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/3/
Biological Population
Biological Population is a group of biological organisms living in the same place at the same time.
Commuter Population
It is a collective of people who regularly travel some distance to work or study.
Artificial Population
Artificial Population is all populations that do not encompass natural beings (humans or not) and are designed by human beings. For instance, autonomous systems, institutional agents, intelligent artificial agents, etc.
Bacterial population
It is the collective of bacteria of a specified gender and species. A bacterial colony may expand in a geometric or exponential fashion.
Mold Population
It is the collective of mold, a subtype of fungus that grown indoor.
Fungus Population
It is a collective of Fungus, which is any of about 144.000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, including yeasts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms.
Wild Animal Population
Urban wildlife animal populations consist of species that utilize human-dominated ecosystems.
Pet Population
It is a collection of any domesticated or tamed animal that is kept as a companion and cared for affectionately.
Tourist Population
It is a collective of people who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure or interesting.
Non-Resident Population
It is the collective of individuals who are not registered with the Registry of the Resident Population in a given municipality in a given time. It can be a tourist or a person who is temporally living in a particular place without the duties and rights of the residents.
Resident Population
It refers to the collective of people enlisted with the Resident Population Registry in a particular local authority area in a given time. The classification of a Resident Person as a <<role>> derives from residency being an incidental characteristic of a human being.
Non-Human Population
Non-Human Being Population is all populations that do not encompass human beings but it is natural. It is subcategorized as: 2.1) Pet Population, 2.2) Wild Animal Population, 2.3) Plant Population, 2.4) Mobile Genetic Element Population (MGE), 2.5) Fungus Population, 2.6) Protist Population, and 2.7) Bacteria Population. There is a subtype of MGE, which is the Virus Population. Also, there is a subtype of Protist Population, which is Mold Population.
Human Population
It is a subtype of the Biological Population collective, covering the subtypes of resident, non-resident populations in a given space and at the same time.
Plant Population
It is the collection of plants per unit area of land. Plant populations are characterized by their size (or density) and their structure (the number of individuals of different ages and sizes).
Virus Population
It is a collective of a kind of virus. It is possible that viruses originated from mobile genetic elements that acquired intercellular migration capabilities. They could be descendants of formerly free-living organisms that adopted a parasite replication strategy.
Elderly
"Elderly" is a concept that cannot be absolutely defined, as it has different meanings in different societies and historical periods. The United Nations refers to those aged 60 and over as "older persons", while ISTAT and the Ministry of Health speak of people aged 65 and over. In 2018, during the National Congress of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG - Congresso Nazionale della Societ� Italiana di Gerontologia e Geriatria), an adjustment to 75 years was proposed. Given the increase in average life expectancy at birth (85 for women, 82 for men in Italy), SIGG argues for a distinction among people over 65 between those in the so-called third age (characterized by good health, social integration and access to resources) and those in the fourth age (characterized by dependence on others and physical decline). In this ontology, the elderly are all people over the age of 65.
Registered Family
It is a group of people tied together by relationships of marriage, kinship, affinity, adoption, protection or affection. Rule: The members must live and be habitually resident in the same municipality (Article 4 of Italian Presidential Decree 30/05/1989, n. 223)
Family
1. A human community generally formed by people tied together by a relationship of coexistence, of kinship, of affinity, which constitutes the fundamental element of every society, since it is aimed, in its processes and relations, at the perpetuation of the species through reproduction. 2. A family is the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children (�Family.� Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family. 3. A group of two or more persons related by birth, blood, marriage, de facto union, or adoption who live together. 4. All the descendants of a common ancestor. (Oxford Language)
People Community
A group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings. Community can be defined by a sense of identification with and emotional connection to others through common symbol systems, values, and norms; shared interests; and commitments to meeting mutual needs. Source:https://www.evms.edu/education/resources/community-engaged_learning/glossary_of_terms/
Biological Agent
A biological agent is a broad category that encompasses all biological agents present or potentially present in an urban system. These agents can have both a component role in the urban system and a risk driver role, actively participating in risk events initiated by hazardous situations.
Artificial Agent
Artificial agent is a broad concept that encompasses both technological agents (AI systems, for example, robots, etc.) and agents socially built to act in social reality (e.g., companies, public entities with legal personality, etc.).
AI System
�AI system� means a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Source: EU Artificial Intelligence Act. https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/3/
Commuter
A commuter is someone who travels a significant distance each day between home and place of work or study.
Non-Human Agent
It is every non-human being with agentive capacity to influence an urban system. This category is classified as Pet, Plant, Wild Animal, Fungus, MGE, Virus, Mold, and Bacteria. 1) Pet is any domesticated or tamed animal that is kept as a companion and cared for affectionately. 2) Wild animal in a urban system is any non-domesticated animal that has adapted its lifestyle to living in the cities or in suburban neighborhoods. 3) A plant is a living and natural organism of the kind exemplified by trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, ferns, and mosses, typically growing in a permanent site, absorbing water and inorganic substances through its roots, and synthesizing nutrients in its leaves by photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll. 4) Mobile genetic element (MGE), also known as transposable element (TE), is a type of moving genetic material that can either move around within a genome or jump across different genomes. 5) Viruses may have arisen from mobile genetic elements that gained the ability to move between cells. They may be descendants of previously free-living organisms that adapted a parasitic replication strategy. Viruses can leave the cell and move to other cells and organisms; mobile genetic elements generally just move around the genome within a cell. 6) Fungus is any member of a kingdom of organisms called Fungi that lack chlorophyll, leaves, true stems, and roots, reproduce by spores, and live as saprotrophs or parasites. The group includes moulds, mildews, rusts, yeasts, and mushrooms. 7) A mold is a microscopic fungus that grows and lives on plant or animal matter or on non-organic objects. Most molds are made up of filaments and reproduce through the production of spores. Spores spread by air, water, or insects. There are many thousands of species of fungi. Mold is the colloquial term used for indoor fungi. Fungal spores occur naturally outdoors easily be transferred inside well they can sit on surfaces. Mold organisms are extremely resilient and have evolved to adapt to survive in sub-optimal conditions. Types of indoor mold differ according to geographical location.
Deceased Person
It is the phase in which a person is no longer alive. A person cannot be alive and not alive at the same time. Therefore, it is a disjointed phase from the Alive phase.
Living Person
It is a phase or stage of being alive, as opposed to being dead, during which your organs work and carry out their functions.
Adult
It is a phase or stage of human development that occurs after the stage of adolescence and puberty. There are three distinct stages: early (ages 19 to 45), middle (ages 45 to 60), and late (the later years thereafter). There is no consensus about the starting age for these three stages of adulthood. The stages used here are extracted at https://psychologydictionary.org/adulthood/ However, the Italian population statistics by age group are arranged as follows at https://www.statista.com/statistics/789270/population-in-italy-by-age-group/ Here, the adult phase is 18 ? age ? 64
Teenager
It is the last phase of the childhood that a human being goes through 13 ? age ? 17 years.
Child
It is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. It may also refer to an unborn human being. For the UNICEF Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, the majority is attained earlier. In the context of urban systems, the Child is a phase that a human being goes through. The following subphases are covered: Early childhood (birth to age 5), middle childhood (ages 6 to 12).
Institutional Agent
A juridical person is a legal person who is not a natural person but an organization recognized by law as a fictitious person such as a corporation, government agency, non-governmental organization, or international organization (such as the European Union). Juristic Person. An entity, such as a corporation, that is recognized as having legal personality, i.e. it is capable of enjoying and being subject to legal rights and duties. It is contrasted with a human being, who is referred to as a natural person. Source: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100027393
Tourist
It is a role played by a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure or interest.
Resident Person
It is a person who is enlisted with the Resident Population Registry in a particular local authority area in a given time. The classification of a Resident Person as a <<role>> derives from residency being an incidental characteristic of a human being.
Non-Resident Person
It is a role played by persons who are not registered in the Register of Residents in a given municipality at a given time. It can be a tourist or a person who temporarily lives in a certain place without having the rights and duties of residents.
Person
It is every human being with the capacity to influence and act on an urban system. Person is categorized by life phases, phases of existence, and if a person is resident or not. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OCL forms ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ a Person is in Elderly phase if isElderly = true context Person::isElderly: Boolean derive: self.age >= 65 The set of Elderly people is given by context Human Population::elderlyHumanPopulation: Set(Person) derive: Person.allInstances()->select(p: Person | p.isElderly)
Health
Population
It is a collection of Agents (biological or artificial) of the same taxonomic class, counted or sampled at a given location or area, given a time interval. The population density is a measurement of how crowded a place is, calculated by dividing the number of people in an area by its total land area.
Population at Risk
It is a collection of Agents (biological or artificial) of the same taxonomic class, counted or sampled at a given location or area, given a time interval that is at risk.
Desertfire
Tourism Building
Peri-urban Zone
Electricity Grid
Fire-Extinguishing Infrastructure
Key Components of Fire-Extinguishing Infrastructure: Fire Extinguishers: Portable devices containing extinguishing agents like water, foam, dry powder, or CO2, used for initial fire suppression. Fire Sprinkler Systems: Automated systems that release water when heat is detected, typically used in buildings and industrial settings. Fire Alarm Systems: Detects smoke or heat, triggering alarms and potentially initiating other fire suppression measures. Specialized Suppression Systems: Systems like clean agent or foam-based systems are used in areas where water damage is a concern or for specific fire types. Emergency Exits and Signage: Clearly marked exits and signage are crucial for safe evacuation during a fire. Fire Hydrants: External water sources connected to a building's water supply, used by firefighters. Fire Pumps: Boost the water pressure in sprinkler systems or other fire suppression systems.
Fire Truck
Fire Station Building
Bus
Airplane
Truck
Train
Car
Subway
Railway
Mobile Urban Element of Transportation
Mobile element of transportation or modes represent the conveyances, mostly taking the form of vehicles used to support the mobility of passengers or freight. Some modes are designed to carry only passengers or freight, while others can carry both. See https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter1/what-is-transport-geography/core-components-transportation/
Fixed Urban Element of Transportation
The physical support of transport modes, where routes (e.g. rail tracks, canals, or highways) and terminals (e.g. ports or airports).
Urban Element of Transportation
Consists of urban elements that are used for transportation of people and goods, including fixed infrastructure (e.g. bridges, roads, highways) and mobile element of transportation (e.g., cars, trains, plains, etc).
Hazardous Building
These types of buildings include any building which is used for storage, handling, manufacturing, or processing of highly combustible explosive materials or products that are liable to burn extremely rapidly, which may produce poisonous fumes.
Storage Building
These buildings are generally used for the storage or sheltering of goods, wares, or merchandise like warehouses, cold storages, garages, stables, transit sheds, etc.
Mercantile Building
These shall include buildings used for soap, markets, stores, wholesale or retail.
Business Building
It is any building type or part of a building that is used for business transactions, keeping records of accounts, town halls, city halls, courthouses, etc.
Assembly Building
These buildings may include any building or part of a building where a group of people gathers for recreation, amusement, social, religious, or such types of purposes such as theaters, assembly halls, exhibition halls, restaurants, museums, club rooms, auditoria, etc.
Health Building
These buildings include any building or part which is used for medical treatment etc. Such as Hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, sanatoria, jails, prisons, mental hospitals, etc.
Educational Building
These buildings include any building used for school, college, or daycare purposes involving assembly for instruction, education, or recreation.
Residential Building
A building should be considered a residential building when more than half of the floor area is employed for dwelling purposes. Other buildings should be considered non-residential. A residential building is one that is designed and accordingly built for inhabitants to measure in and call House. Inhabitants can either be a family, single, a couple, roommates or may be in a group. A residential building has basically: - A sleeping room(bedroom)/space, - A living room/space, - Conveniences (as in toilet and bath), - Cooking room/area (kitchen). All of those functions can either be in shared rooms or spaces or have exclusive rooms per function. These types of buildings include one or two private dwellings, apartment houses (flats), bungalows, duplexes, storey houses, terrace buildings, apartment buildings, condominium buildings, hotels, dormitories, semi-detached buildings, etc. Source: https://dailycivil.com/types-of-buildings/
Industrial Building
These types of building are mainly used for manufacturing purposes. Here products or materials of all kinds and properties are fabricated, assembled, or processed, for example, gas plants, refineries, mills, dairies, etc.
Street
Zoological Park
Urban Agricultural Land
It refers to the land within the urban development boundary designated for small-scale farming activities and growing crops for personal use or sale in surrounding markets. This encompasses vertical production, warehouse farms, community gardens, rooftop farms, hydroponics, aeroponic, and aquaponic facilities, as well as other innovative techniques.
Urban Garden
Protection Forest
Urban Green Area
Urban green space refers to open areas reserved for parks and natural environments - encompassing plant life. The landscape of urban open spaces typically ranges from playing fields and highly maintained environments to more natural landscapes. It links ecological processes and functions and encompasses protection forests, roadside trees, park trees, garden trees, and nature conservation areas. In the context of urban land-use growth and its impact on the environment, green spaces offer ecosystem services to promote human health. Green spaces such as parks, public gardens, and roadside trees are vital components of urban planning. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/land10020105
Building Green
Building Green or Green Construction encompasses a set of practices and principles that aim to make the design and utilization of the built environment as environmentally friendly as possible. These practices minimize the negative impact on the natural environment.
Rail
Water Network
It is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply for an urban system.
Transportation Network
Transportation Network is a conglomerate of heterogeneous urban elements, such as roads, streets, paths, railways, bridges, etc., used for the mobility or transportation of goods and people.
Urban Network
It is an ordered composition of heterogeneous urban structures, arranged according to their application in an urban system, e.g., a transportation network.
Urban Element
It is a category of constructed items encompassing buildings, bridges, roads, footpaths, streets, rails, and other related infrastructures.
Park
Green Vertical Structure
Green Roof
Perforated Pipe
Rain Barrel
Permeable Paviment
Bridge
Blue Infrastructure
Blue Infrastructure integrates blue areas, such as lakes, aquifers, wetlands, floodplains, canals, and coastal areas, to the urban context.
Road
Grey Building
A Grey Building is one built with a traditional structure with walls and a roof standing more or less permanently in one place. For example a house or factory. Buildings serve several societal needs � primarily as shelter, living space, privacy & security, to store materials, workspace, etc. In this model, grey building are classified by its functionality/occupancy (the use of a structure: for housing, for educational, etc.) based on Table 6 of GEM Building Taxonomy combined with the building taxonomy proposed in NBC 2005. In additional, Grey Building is classified by its structure based on GEM Building Taxonomy, following 13 attributes have been included in the GEM Building Taxonomy Version 2.0 (v2.0): 1. direction 2. material of the lateral load-resisting system 3. lateral load-resisting system 4. height 5. date of construction or retrofit 6. occupancy 7. building position within a block 8. shape of the building plan 9. structural irregularity 10. exterior walls 11. roof 12. floor 13. foundation system. Source: https://cloud-storage.globalquakemodel.org/public/wix-new-website/pdf-collections-wix/publications/GEM%20Building%20Taxonomy%20Version%202.0.pdf https://dailycivil.com/types-of-buildings/
Grey Infrastructure
It is a category of all tangible/physical elements that are (mostly) of atrophic origin (that is, artificial), in other words, engineered assets that provide one or multiple services required by society. This is in turn preliminary subdivided into Urban Elements (e.g., buildings, bridges, rails, roads, streets, and public spaces) and Urban Networks (a composition of these urban elements).
Green Infrastructure
It is a fusion of natural resources and man-made structures (grey infrastructure) designed to work with the nature to provide social, environmental, and economic benefits to urban populations, such as air filtration, temperature regulation, noise reduction, flood control, and recreational areas.
Urban Resource Allocate
It is an event that allocates resources (human, natural or hard infrastructure resources) to provide a service in the context of an urban system. In this event participates an agent playing the role of Urban Service Provider as well as the resource to be allocated. This event creates the historical foundational of a relationship called Urban Resource Allocation between the allocated urban resource and the Urban Service Provider.
Urban Service Offer
It is an event that offer a service in the context of urban system such as health, transport, education (dynamic aspect). In this event participates one Urban Service Consumer Community and one or more agents (Juridical Person), playing the role of Urban Service Offeror. This event creates the historical foundational of a relationship called Urban Service Offering between Urban Service Consumer Community and the Urban Service Offeror.
Firefighting Service
Soft Infrastructure
Soft infrastructure refers to the intangible things needed to maintain or improve the utilities and services such as financial, health, cultural, and social in an urban system. The population uses the infrastructure of an urban system through services offered by public or private agents.
Hard Infrastructure
It is the built environment, the physical connections between places that move people, materials, information, and energy. These "fixed" things include roads, railroads, pipes, buildings, cables, and the networks composed of these constructions. Moreover, encompasses the green infrastructure, which is a category of ecological-oriented designed structures, i.e., a combination of grey and green infrastructures; and the Blue Infrastructure defined as the blue areas, a mix of natural resources (rivers, sea, beaches, etc) and human-designed elements.
Urban Infrastructure
Urban infrastructure is a mix of structures built horizontally or vertically by humans, which provide a variety of utilities and services such as housing, transportation, and leisure. The design of these structures serves to ensure accessibility and convenience to meet the needs of the urban dwellers.
Urban Infrastructure at Risk
Urban infrastructure is a mix of structures built horizontally or vertically by humans at risk.
Hazard Vulnerability
Physical Vulnerability
Physical vulnerability is the propensity of the built environment (e.g., buildings and infrastructure) built-up areas, infrastructure, and open spaces to suffer the physical impact of hazardous events (Douglas 2007; Birkmann et al. 2013) .
Social Vulnerability
Social Vulnerability is the social dimension refers to the propensity for human well-being to suffer harm due to disruptions to individual and collective social systems (Birkmann et al., 2013). This dimension addresses how the attributes of individuals and groups make them vulnerable in a particular context (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age, etc.), as well as how social relations across scales shape vulnerability (Singh, Eghdami, and Singh 2014).
Economic Vulnerability
Economic vulnerability is the propensity of economic assets and processes to be harmed by exogenous shocks (Cardona et al. 2012) , such as the potential impacts of natural and man-made hazards (i.e., business interruption, secondary effects such as increased poverty and job loss).
Environmental Vulnerability
Environmental vulnerability: potential natural resource depletion and resource degradation (destruction of forest, farmland, or crops, lower yields) following a hazardous event (United Nations Environment Programme 2011) .
Institutional Vulnerability
The institutional dimension relates to the attributes of institutions and governance systems that influence the predisposition of a system, communities, or individuals to withstand, cope and recover from being adversely affected by the impact of a natural hazard (Papathoma-K�hle et al., 2021). This dimension is connected to the decision-making power across society and the ability of institutions/governments to implement policies related to disaster risk and climate change adaptation on the ground.
Single-Hazard Vulnerability
Single-hazard vulnerability is the propensity of exposed elements to suffer adverse effects when impacted by a specific hazard, avoiding potential vulnerability interactions.
Multiple-Hazard Vulnerability
Multiple-hazard vulnerability: the propensity of exposed elements to suffer adverse effects when impacted by two or more hazards, involving the potential exacerbation of vulnerability when hazards occur close in time.
Hard Infrastructure Vulnerability
Sewage System Vulnerability
Lack of Road Infrastructure
Plant and Pipeline Maintenance Process Vulnerability
Lack of Irrigation Infrastructure
Vulnerability by Quantity of People
Vulnerability by Anthropomorphic Aspect
Individual Vulnerability
Household Vulnerability
Collective Vulnerability
Community Vulnerability
Vulnerability by Age
Vulnerability by Gender
Vulnerability by Health
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. Vulnerability encompasses a variety of concepts and elements, including sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt. Vulnerability expresses the relationship between the intensity of a hazardous event, the features of the elements at risk (assets, community, system, environment) that affect their behavior, and the measure of the impact, resulting from the hazardous event. In the literature, vulnerability is defined in different ways depending on the types of risk being assessed. In seismic risks, vulnerability is the probability that an element at risk, belonging to a specific behavioral class (vulnerability class), experiences or exceeds a damage threshold (according to a predetermined scale of damage) upon the occurrence of an event of an assigned intensity. In flood risks, vulnerability expresses the expected damage to the elements at risk, the extent of damage ranging from 0 (no damage) to 1 (total destruction).
Bushfire
Hazardous Event
[Definition 1] A hazardous event is a circumstance in which people, infrastructure, urban spaces, or the environment are exposed to harm, injury, damage, or adverse impacts arising from a natural or human-induced origin. In the RETURN ontology, a hazard is represented as a hazardous event that possesses the quality of being 'hazardous.' Additionally, every hazardous event has a date on which it occurred within an urban system. This attribute is used to calculate the frequency of event occurrences and their increase. Format: YYYY.MM.DD Hazard, as an inherent quality, is a type of quality with two attributes: occurrence frequency and magnitude. Some actions, such as driving a car or traveling by plane, have the potential to cause an adverse event, i.e., an event with a negative impact, such as damage or loss. These activities can trigger a sequence of hazardous events, such as driving on poorly maintained roads. This hazardous situation can activate existing vulnerabilities in the car or driver (e.g., worn tires or a lack of driving experience), leading to exposure to danger and potentially resulting in an adverse event (e.g., a collision or rollover). Hazardous events lead to urban risks. An urban risk is a situation or scenario where can occur potential damage or loss to the urban system. The impact of a risk can be measured by the value of the elements potentially affected by the hazard impact. According to the literature, a hazard is "a source of energy or physiological factors and behaviors that, if uncontrolled, will lead to harmful events or occurrences" (Shinar, Gurion, & Flascher, 1991, p. 1095). Grimaldi and Simonds, 1984, p. 236). It is also defined as "a condition or set of circumstances that has the potential to cause or contribute to injury or death" (Sanders & McCormick, 1993, p. 675). The IPCC defines hazard as "the possibility of a physical event or pattern of events, whether natural or human-caused, that has the capacity to result in loss of life, injury, or other detrimental health effects, as well as damage or loss of property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems, and environmental resources."
System
A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole. In Return Project, in the ontological model, a system is categorized as 1) made by humans (artificial systems) and 2) a natural system, which is a set of elements that arise naturally, without human construction. Both types of systems are coupled, that is, human systems interact with natural systems and vice versa in multi-levels and aspects. There are several kinds of human-made systems (e.g., urban systems, economic systems, judicial systems) and natural systems. An urban system is a human-made system placed in a specific space and exists at a specific time. It is composed of essential parts, which are Resource and Population. A Resource is an essential part of one or more urban systems, for instance, a river can be a resource for different countries, and different cities. The resource is subcategorized as Urban Infrastructure and Agent as a Resource.
Hard Infrastructure as a Resource
It is the tangible infrastructure, i.e. the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, ports, etc., that are managed as assets in the context of an urban system.
Emergency Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of emergency services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the public emergency service provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Grassfire
Urban Resource Allocation
It is the (reified) relationship between the Allocated Urban Resource and Urban Service Provider grounded by the Urban Resource Allocate event.
Transport Service Execution
Commuting Service Provider
Commuting Service
Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community.
Urban Element of Transportation as a Resource
Allocated Urban Element of Transportation as a Resource
Transport Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of transport services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the public transport service provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Geosphere at Risk
Urban Risk
It is a relational structure that links Risk Drivers and Urban Systems at Risk. In the case of urban systems, risks are assessed based on two different types of phenomena: 1) natural phenomena; and 2) man-made phenomena. Natural phenomena are events that do not have a human cause; examples include earthquakes, tsunamis, and solar storms. Conversely, human phenomena are events caused by human action. For example, pollution, urbanization, extensive monoculture, and deforestation. [IPCC] Risk is defined by IPCC v.6 as the potential for adverse consequences for human or ecological systems, recognizing the diversity of values and objectives associated with such systems. In the context of climate change, risks can arise from potential impacts of climate change as well as human responses to climate change. Relevant adverse consequences include those on lives, livelihoods, health and well-being, economic, social and cultural assets and investments, infrastructure, services (including ecosystem services), ecosystems and species. In the context of climate change impacts, risks result from dynamic interactions between climate-related hazards with the exposure and vulnerability of the affected human or ecological system to the hazards. Hazards, exposure and vulnerability may each be subject to uncertainty in terms of magnitude and likelihood of occurrence, and each may change over time and space due to socio-economic changes and human decision-making (see also risk management, adaptation and mitigation). In the context of climate change responses, risks result from the potential for such responses not achieving the intended objective(s), or from potential trade-offs with, or negative side-effects on, other societal objectives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (see also risk trade-off). Risks can arise, for example, from uncertainty in implementation, effectiveness or outcomes of climate policy, climate-related investments, technology development or adoption, and system transitions. Source: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2021/02/Risk-guidance-FINAL_15Feb2021.pdf
Urban Natural Resource
Urban natural resource is a set of any biological, mineral, or aesthetic asset afforded by nature without human intervention that can be used for some form of benefit, whether material (economic) or immaterial. What is considered a �resource� (or, for that matter, �natural�) has varied over time and from one society to another. Examples of assets that can be considered natural resources include forests, surface water and groundwater, and the fertile lands or the soil and minerals within them (rather than the crops that grow on them), as well as energy resources (such as petroleum, natural gas, and heated water [that is, geothermal energy]) contained within layers of rock. Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/natural-resource
Agent
Any agentive Object, either physical (e.g. a person, a robot, an oak), or social (e.g. a corporation, an institution, a community). Defined by: https://w3id.org/italia/onto/l0
Cropfire
Drought
Urban Human Resource
Urban human resources is the set of people who make up the workforce of an urban system.
Forest Fire
Allocated Hard Infrastructure as a Resource
It is a hard infrainstructure asset (e.g., bridge, road, street) allocated in a service provided in the context of urban system.
Allocated Urban Resource
Allocated resources as a Service (RaaS).
Hazard
It is a quality carried by a hazardous event. Hazard is a condition or set of circumstances that has the potential to cause or contribute to injury or death" (Sanders and McCormick, 1993, p. 675).
Natural System
It is a set of elements that arise naturally, without human construction.
Financial Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of the financial system and the agent who provides it. For instance, the financial system (e.g., banks) provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Periurban Place Fire
Urban Service
It represents all services provided by a municipality, either directly or by contract, to any of its current residents. For example: sanitation, water, fire protection, parks, open space, recreation, and streets, roads, and mass transit. The Return Project views urban services as a relationship between the service consumer and the service provider in urban systems. This relation is usually formalized in a document (Normative Description) called Service Contract
Geosphere
The geosphere is the collection of physical and geological elements that contribute to shaping the Earth's surface. In the urban environment, the geosphere provides the foundation upon which population and infrastructure develop so that the elements of the geosphere affect them, but the population and infrastructure can also modify the geosphere. For example, urban development and even risk mitigation often involve excavations that interact with and often modify the underlying geology. Therefore, urban development requires an understanding of the local geology, such as soil stability, groundwater conditions, and subsurface characteristics. The geosphere includes the following elements: subsurface, soil, topography, resources, and hydrology.
Urban Service Consumer
In general, a service consumer can be anything from a system, to an application, to an artificial agent, to a person. A service consumer is a user of products and services provided by a service provider, which can be either a company or a person. In the domain represented by urban systems, we restrict the definition of service consumer to people and service provider to companies (Juridical Person). Between a service consumer and a service provider, a contract is signed and establishes a bind (a service contract) based on legal rules for the consumption of services.
Health Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of health services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the public health service provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Element as a Urban Resource
It is every element that is used to satisfy the human needs in the context of urban systems.
Urban Place Fire
System Element
According to standard ISO/IEC 15288:2015, a system element is a discrete part of a system. A system element can be hardware, software, data, humans, processes, procedures (e.g., operator instructions), facilities, materials, and naturally occurring entities (e.g., water, organisms, minerals), or any combination.
Allocated Urban Natural Resource
It is a natural asset (e.g., river, sea, lake, soil, sky) allocated in a service provided in the context of urban system.
Hazardous Event Origin
Hazardous events can originate from natural processes within Earth's systems, such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions; human activities, such as industrial accidents or transportation failures; or a combination of both. These events create hazards or increase their impact, which can lead to damage to life, property, or the environment. Type format: string. < human > | < natural > | < combination of human and natural >
Water Scarcity Hazard
Urban Service Offeror
It is a role plays by a Juridical Person in a relationship with the Urban Service Consumer Community. In this relation, Juridical Person offers a set of urban services for a group of people in an urban system.
Recreational Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of recreational services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the public recreational service provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Non-Material Damage
Decreased integrity, size, efficiency (function), or conditions that are not considered beneficial by a community as a result of an adverse event. Depending on the application, damage can be measured in different ways, using metrics appropriate for each type of risk analysis. In particular, non-physical damage affects the social life of an urban system. This type of damage is understood as a measure of social disruption, in terms of deterioration of social relations and functions, that a natural or anthropogenic event causes to a community in the short to medium term (i.e. homelessness) or psychological symptoms in a part of the population, such as anxiety, panic syndrome, correlated with the possibility of new occurrence of the risk events.
Temperature Increase
Urban Service Consumer Community
It is a group of people connected by their shared interest in a service provided in a urban system.
Veldfire
Wildland Fire
A wildland fire or wildfire is a fire that originates from an unplanned ignition source, such as lightning, volcanoes, or human activity. It burns in areas known as wildlands, which are generally underdeveloped and uninhabited. Wildlands include forests, grasslands, brushlands, and other ecosystems, as well as croplands.
Material Damage
Material damage, also known as property damage, is damage to a person's assets or urban system`s assets, i.e. the loss of goods or things that have economic value. Material damages include losses actually suffered (emergent damages), as well as amounts that the person has failed to receive (lost profits).
Impact Situation
Impacts generally refer to effects on lives, livelihoods, health and well-being, ecosystems and species, economic, social, and cultural assets, services (including ecosystem services), and infrastructure. Impacts may be referred to as consequences or outcomes and can be adverse or beneficial. In the model, only the type of adverse impact. Impacts are also defined as the quantification of the overall potential damage and losses that a reference event may generate in the same area and in a set timeframe. Effects on natural and human systems. In this report, the term �impacts� is used to refer to the effects on natural and human systems of physical events, of disasters, and of climate change. Source: https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/special-reports/srex/SREX-Annex_Glossary.pdf
Human-Made System
A system designed by human beings.
Risk Driver
A risk driver as an event refers to a specific, significant incident or occurrence that directly leads to a hazardous event, creating a risk situation and influencing its likelihood or impact. Risk drivers are events that are uncertain but will result in negative consequences (losses or damages) or positive opportunities (not to represent in Return ontology), and they can stem from underlying factors or conditions such as climate change, a natural disaster, a human actions. The event itself is the trigger that creates or increases a risk. For example, a pandemic is a risk driver event that can drive various risks for urban systems. Other definitions used by stakeholders that converge to the Return definition of risk driver. 1. [Civil Defense] Risk drivers are processes or conditions that influence the level of disaster risk by increasing levels of exposure and vulnerability, or reducing capacity. They include climate change, urbanization, environmental degradation, the changing security paradigm, and technological developments. Source: https://civil-protection-knowledge-network.europa.eu/eu-overview-risks/risk-drivers 2. [IPCC] A climatic impact-driver is a physical climate condition that directly affects society or ecosystems. Climatic impact drivers may represent a long-term average condition (such as the average winter temperatures that affect indoor heating requirements), a common event (such as a frost that kills off warm-season plants), or an extreme event (such as a coastal flood that destroys homes). Source: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/faqs/IPCC_AR6_WGI_FAQ_Chapter_12.pdf 3. [Millennium Assessment] Any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in a system Source: https://millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.272.aspx.pdf).
Urban Service Provider
It is a role play by a Juridical Person who is active in service relationships with Urban Resources or Urban Service Consumer/Community. In this role, a Service Provider has the scope to offer, provide, and run urban services such as health, transportation, etc.
Allocated Urban Human Resource
It is a person or a set of people allocated in a service provided in the context of urban system.
Urban Service Offering
It represents the relation between Urban Service Consumer Community and Urban Service Offeror. This relation is usually presented through oral or written publicity that binds the Service Offeror.
Water Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of water services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the public water service provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Urban Service Execution
It is an event that executes a service in the context of urban system (health, transport, education). In this event participates one or more allocated urban resources and an agent (Juridical Person), playing the role of Urban Service Provider. This event creates the historical foundational of a relationship called Urban Service between the allocated urban resource and the Urban Service Provider.
Law Enforcement Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of law enforcement services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the legal system (courts, mediation courts, policy, etc) provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Educational Service
It is a service relation between the consumer of educational services and the agent who provides it. For instance, the public educational service provided by a public entity to people in a city.
Transfer is shifting the financial burden of potential losses and damages to a third party. For example, an insurance policy to cover the costs of damage from a hurricane or other natural disaster or catastrophe bonds, i.e., financial instruments where investors receive payments in exchange for providing insurance coverage for catastrophic events.
Pandemic Hazard
Epidemic Hazard
Biological Hazard
Windstorm Hazard
Fire Hazard
Landslide Hazard
Seismic Hazard
Heatwave Hazard
Urban Flood Hazard
Tsunami Hazard
urban_system_complexity
exposition_type
exposure_level
impact_value_scale
Level: low, medium, high
impact_amount
Impact amount is a numeric value of the hazard impact.
damage_type
damage_amount
In case of material damages.
loss_quantity
starting_date
ending_date
assigner_name
assigner_type
urban_risk_scenario_description
risk_probability
occurrence_prob
magnitude_index
impact_severity_scale
gender_bacteria_population
specie_bacteria_population
gender_fungus_population
specie_fungus_population
wild_animal_population
pet_specie_population
name_pet_population
age_pet_population
name_tourist_population
status_non_resident_population
origin_non_resident_population
residence_zone_population
name_non_person_population
ethnical_group_population
name_plant_population
minAge
maxAge
qty_person
birthDate_person
name_population
total_land_area
total_population
year_populational_census
vulnerability_type
occurrence
magnitude
Type
Hazardous Event Origin is the cause of an Hazardous Event. Types: Natural, Human, or Hybrid cause.
origin_type
Risk Group
is_exposed_to
assigned_to
assigns
participates
is_greater_than
Axiom Impact.Magnitude context Impact :: greater_than : Set ( Impact ) derive : Impact . allInstances () - > select ( i : Impact | self . magnitude.magnitude_unit > i.magnitude.magnitude_unit)
allocates
provides_service_to
grounds
offers
provides_transportation_service_to
allocates transportation infrastructure
drives
utilizes
runs
has
lives_in
is_built_in
lives
interacts_with
uses
affects
is_part_of