Natural and man-made emergencies entail certain consequences. Depending on the scale, they can manifest themselves in different spheres of the life of the individual, society and the state in the general sense. It is worth noting that the manifestation of the consequences can occur both immediately after an emergency, and within a relatively long period of time. As a rule, the impact of industrial and natural emergencies leads to the actualization of the following chain: consequences - certain losses - damage - its compensation. In our article, we will talk about the types of damage that exist today, as well as compensation for damage and types of liability.
What is a loss?
As it turned out, the consequences of emergencies should be understood as the result of exposure to certain factors. So, the consequences of such cases unite all varieties of changes in the political, socio-economic, scientific-technical and other areas of the life of the individual, society and the state as a whole, which are initiated or enhanced to some extent through emergency situations.
Under losses, it is advisable to consider part of the consequences associated with negative changes in key areas of the state’s life. This term has a narrower meaning. So, by sanitary and irretrievable losses, we can mean victims of emergency cases.
Damage category
Before considering the types of damage, one should define such a concept that is so widespread in society. So, damage is nothing but the result of negative changes due to certain phenomena, events, actions, conditions of objects, which are expressed in violation of their integral appearance or deterioration of other properties.
These are possible or actual economic and social losses. That is why the modern classification separately considers the types of economic damage, material, social and so on. A vivid example in this case is the deviation of an individual’s health from the average statistical value, in other words, his illness or even death. In addition, this is a violation of the process of adequate economic work or the loss of any type of property, other cultural, material, natural or historical values. Environmental damage is also considered a type of damage.
Understanding Kulman
It is interesting to note that in the Introduction to Security Science, Kuhlman under the damage (precisely in the context of technological type safety) refers to harming a specific individual, his intangible and material benefits, protected by law, as a result of chemical or physical effects in the process of using technology. So, in this case, the concept of damage includes irretrievable and sanitary losses.
Determining the consequences of an accident or natural disaster is non-economic, generalized. In turn, the concept of damage characterizes the economic quantity that must be represented in value terms. In other words, the category of damage is the estimated consequences. It is worth adding that the assessment of damage consists in determining its extent in monetary or physical terms (this is called the economic assessment of damage).
Kinds
Further, it is advisable to consider the classification of the category. To date, it is customary to distinguish the following types of damage:
- Depending on the problem being solved, it is customary to determine the following varieties: actual (estimate) and estimated (forecast).
- By place and time of manifestation: indirect, direct, indirect distant (in terms of time).
- By objects of influence (we will consider separately).
Classification by objects of influence
Depending on the object of influence, it is customary to distinguish the following types of damage caused:
- Biomedical, caused by individual individuals, and social, associated with the population as a whole.
- The moral, economic and material damage. The categories presented may apply to both individuals and legal entities.
- Socio-economic, associated with socio-economic systems.
- Socio-political, related to the state.
- Ecological, relevant to the natural environment.
Real damage
Consider the category and types of real damage. Under it should be understood not only the costs associated with evacuation, emergency recovery work, funds allocated from the regional and federal budgets. It refers, as a rule, to harming various objects (organizations, individuals, the environment or the state) in accordance with various components.
For example, the result of a catastrophe, depending on its size, location, duration, weather conditions, time of release, may result in the death of one or another number of people, their illness or injury, with subsequent partial or complete permanent or temporary disability, as well as the death of aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals; loss (partial or total) of immovable and movable property complexes of third parties (both physical and legal); loss of agricultural or other products and lack of income at the costs incurred, underproduction of marketable products and services due to production downtime; moral damage to the evacuees or victims, which is associated with changes in living conditions (even short-term ones), which, as a rule, leads to feelings of stress, or even depression.
Moral damage
The experience of the most developed countries shows that the extent of moral damage at times can be several times greater than compensatory cash payments due to illness. In accordance with all these consequences, the victims, as a rule, bring an action against the owner of the object, which served as a source of harmful influence, regarding compensation for the damage caused, as well as the costs of emergency rescue activities. This is necessary to reduce the consequences (extinguishing fires, evacuating people and property, medical assistance to victims in the zone of influence of negative factors, and so on).
Natural and value expression
It is important to note that the components of harm can be estimated in kind, characteristic of the considered variety of harm, and a certain proportion of the components - in value units.
Nevertheless, to compare the consequences of various negative cases, taking into account the different components of damage, develop rational protective measures, in the process of calculating damage prevented by the measures taken, as well as the effectiveness of measures to ensure safety in economic terms, all components of the category should be evaluated in the same units , in other words, give them a valuation in value terms.
The valuation of the incurred or possible damage should be performed by specialized valuation structures in accordance with agreed methods, ensuring compliance with the economic interests of legal entities and individuals involved in this process, and the laws of the country. The basis for the assessment methods are:
- current prices for marketable products and services;
- arbitrage practice;
- practice of personal and property insurance, which has (although substantially subjective) an extensive assessment base, multifaceted and multifaceted statistics.
Conclusion
So, we fully examined the category of damage, its varieties and features. We found out that among the types of compensation for damage, a special role is played by value. In conclusion, it should be noted that the consequences of emergencies represent a special chain of successive events that are interconnected. The number of links in it can be large. It is advisable to attribute direct damage to destruction, radioactive contamination, damage, chemical contamination, adverse effects of harmful and damaging factors on objects of the national economy and nature (land, society, flora and fauna, structures, equipment, buildings, commercial products, semi-finished products, raw materials , cattle, crops and so on), in other words, everything that is in the field of interests (that is, the conscious needs) of the individual and society as a whole. The impact of the same consequences on the functioning and condition of other objects of the national economy and nature, not subjected to the direct influence of damaging factors, is usually attributed to indirect damage.