Die Anschläge in New York und Washington am 11

Crisis communications 
All communicative activities pursued in connection with a 
crisis. In practice, crisis communications entails the clear 
allocation of areas of authority and responsibility and a 
clear line of communication to ensure uniform content and 
cohesive argumentation. In this context, agreement is also 
necessary as to how the media are to be involved in 
presenting the crisis. 

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Crisis management 
Establishment of conceptual, organisational and 
procedural basis to support the process of restoring a 
normal state of affairs as quickly as possible after the 
occurrence of an exceptional situation. 
Criticality 
Assessment of the extent and probability of failure of a 
critical infrastructure area/process. 
Damage 
Destruction and impairment of concrete or abstract assets. 
This includes impaired health, erosion of opportunities in 
life and quality of life and the loss of monetary assets. This 
category also includes forms of non-material damage, such 
as the loss of trust in the integrity of political decision-
makers.
Damage by natural 
forces 
Damage resulting from natural phenomena (e.g. fire, heat, 
lightning, flooding, storm tides, frost, avalanches, rockfall, 
earthquakes). 
Danger 
Possibility of an incident (natural phenomena, technical 
failure, human error, human misconduct) which may lead 
to injury or cause damage to material assets and the 
environment or result in social and economic disturbances.
Danger analysis 
Method of identifying and evaluating regions, 
infrastructures, facilities and installations which may be at 
risk as a result of possible incidents.
Danger categories 
Systematisation of individual dangers according to the 
initiating events.