looks at the physical characteristics of potential disasters

estimating potential future losses - need to create a catalogue of possible future events (possible f.e. hurricanes, that may strike, their intensity, the likelihood they will strike)

for those catalogues are simulated statistical and physical models

collection of samples for potential realisations what could happen are called ensembles

thus any year in the catalogue gives a snapshot of the potential hurricane experience in a single calendar year

accesses to damageability of buildings and their contents

after simulating an event of a given magnitude, the damage it does to buildings must now be computed