Risk assessment
analysis with risk acceptance criteria or other decision parameters
Risk assessment is a process for identifying
hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact (harm) an individual(s), asset(s), and/or the environment
likelihood (probability) of those hazards occurring
consequences of those hazards
actions (risk reduction methods) which can mitigate these hazardous effects.
As the first stage of a risk assessment process, hazard analysis identifies the situations and events for all potential or foreseeable hazards.
As part of the risk assessment process, judgments may be made "on the tolerability of the risk on the basis of a risk analysis" (i.e. risk evaluation taking into account costs and benefits of further risk reduction). Sometimes risks can be deemed tolerable, meaning the risk "is understood and tolerated .. usually because the cost or difficulty of implementing an effective countermeasure for the associated vulnerability exceeds the expectation of loss."
Results of a risk assessment process may be expressed in a quantitative or qualitative fashion.
Risk assessment forms a key part of a broader risk management strategy to help reduce any potential risk-related consequences.
Rapid technological change, increasing scale of industrial complexes, increased system integration, market competition, and other factors have been shown to increase societal risk since the 90's. As such, risk assessments have become increasingly critical in mitigating accidents, improving safety, and improving outcomes.
More simply, risk assessment consists of an objective evaluation of risk in which assumptions and uncertainties are clearly considered and presented.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Risk assessment” as analysis with risk acceptance criteria or other decision parameters. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as analysis with risk acceptance criteria or other decision parameters. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1058438. The Library of Congress control number is sh87002638. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Risk assessment” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.