Glossary
International Glossary for Resilience
Clear communication is essential, yet we all have had experiences in which the same terms are used to describe different situations. For example, which term do you use to describe a fire? Is it an emergency, an incident, an event, a disaster, or all of the above? Sometimes the discrepancies are subtle, sometimes not. In everyday situations, ambiguity can be comical, confusing, or at worst, annoying. In a crisis, unclear definitions can be dangerous.
As the oldest and largest nonprofit organization of its kind, DRI International is the industry thought leader and service is our mission. Our Certified Professionals and the greater resilience community look to us for guidance. When we were asked to offer a DRI glossary, we accepted the challenge. The question we posed was quite simple: What can we create to best serve the profession? We soon realized that the industry already has many glossaries and terms. These various documents offer much insight and are already widely used in various parts of the world. Rather than add to the abundant number of existing glossaries, we felt that DRI should act as an arbiter of existing definitions. For this reason, the DRI glossary does not create new definitions. Instead, we select and present the best-in-class definitions already in use in the English language.
In keeping with the makeup of our Certified Professionals, the process had to be international, inclusive, and apolitical, so we established a volunteer committee of industry leaders to review and vote on the terms and definitions that would ultimately appear in this document. The initial version was the result of nearly two years of effort to build a standard set of terms. We always expected that this would be a living document, subject to revisions and changes. There have been numerous additions and edits over the years as well as the introduction of versions in Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish, but this is the first major revision. We are eager for your feedback, as well as the participation of representatives from each of the source documents.
The objectives of maintaining a comprehensive glossary are:
- to promote a common set of universal terms
- to reduce confusion and remove inconsistencies between parties
- to facilitate coordination
- to provide a standard translation of technical terms specific to the profession.
The International Glossary for Resilience and its translations are maintained by their respective committees
Glossary Committee
Dean Gallup
MBCP, Committee Chair
Kathy Acevedo
ABCP, Coordinator
Jerry Bedwell
MBCP
Lyndon Bird
Mary Crea
MBCP
John Franchy
CBCP
Andrea Abrams
MBCP
Peter McEvoy
James Price
MBCP, CBCV
Gary Villeneuve
MBCP, CBCLA, CPSCP, ARMP, CBCV
Bobby Williams
MBCP
Mark Wilson
MBCP
Rob Zegarra
MBCP, CCRP
Chinese Glossary Committee
Gary Liu
MBCP
Song Bing Zhang
CBCP
Yue Song
CBCP
Li Li
CBCP
Arabic Glossary Committee
Waleed Aldakheel
CBCP
Waleed Al Dakheel
CBCP
Nabil Al Ofi
CBCP
Ahmed Riad Ali
CBCP
Spanish Glossary Committee
Norman Ramírez
MBCP, CRMP, CCRP, Presidente
Ana Terrada
CBCP
Mariana Quiros
CBCP
Hector Miguel Opazo
CBCP
Agustín López
DRI Spain
Mauricio Carvajal
MBCP
Juan Carlos Torres
MBCP
Karol Cordero
CBCP