This is the second edition of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Risk Lexicon and represents an update of the version published in September 2008. More than seventy terms and definitions were included in the first edition of the DHS Risk Lexicon. The 2010 edition includes fifty new terms and definitions in addition to revised definitions for twenty-three of the original terms. It was produced by the DHS Risk Steering Committee (RSC). The RSC, chaired by the Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate and administered by the Office of Risk Management and Analysis (RMA), has produced a DHS Risk Lexicon with definitions for terms that are fundamental to the practice of homeland security risk management and analysis.
The RSC is the risk governance structure for DHS, with membership from across the Department, formed to leverage the risk management capabilities of the DHS Components and to advance Departmental efforts toward integrated risk management. The DHS Risk Lexicon makes available a common, unambiguous set of official terms and definitions to ease and improve the communication of risk-related issues for DHS and its partners. It facilitates the clear exchange of structured and unstructured data that is essential to the exchange of ideas and information amongst risk practitioners by fostering consistency and uniformity in the usage of risk-related terminology for the Department. The RSC created the Risk Lexicon Working Group (RLWG) to represent the DHS risk community of interest (COI) in the development of a professional risk lexicon. The RLWG’s risk lexicon development and management process is in accordance with the DHS Lexicon Program. Terms, definitions, extended definitions, annotations, and examples are developed through a collaborative process that is open to all DHS Components.
Definitions are validated against glossaries used by other countries and professional associations. Terms, definitions, extended definitions, annotations, and examples are then standardized grammatically according to the conventions of the DHS Lexicon Program. All terms in the DHS Risk Lexicon were completed using this process and represent the collective work of the DHS risk COI. The DHS Risk Lexicon terms and definitions will be included as part of the DHS Lexicon, and future additions and revisions will be coordinated by the RSC and RLWG in collaboration with the DHS Lexicon Program.