Voluntary risk
A risk that a person faces voluntarily in order to gain some benefit.

Vulnerability
The degree of loss to a given element or set of elements within the area affected by a hazard. It is expressed on a scale of 0 (no loss) to 1 (total loss). Also, a set of conditions and processes resulting from physical, social, economic, and environmental factors, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards.

Vulnerability analysis
The process of estimating the vulnerability to potential disaster hazards of specified elements at risk. For engineering purposes, vulnerability analysis involves the analysis of theoretical and empirical data concerning the effects of particular phenomena on particular types of structures. For more general socio-economic purposes, it involves consideration of all significant elements in society, including physical, social and economic considerations (both short- and long-term), and the extent to which essential services (and traditional and local coping mechanisms) are able to continue functioning.

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