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APPENDIX F
Glossary of Terms Used in CAPTA
Risk Assessment Terms
Risk--The quantitative or qualitative expression of possible loss that considers both the proba-
bility that a hazard or threat will cause harm and the consequences of that event.
Target/Asset--Persons, facilities, activities, or physical systems that have value to the owner or
society as a whole.
Threat/Hazard--The potential natural event or intentional or unintentional act capable of disrupt-
ing or negatively impacting an asset. In the case of natural events, the hazard is the frequency
and magnitude of a potentially destructive event. Hazards can be expressed in probabilistic
terms where data are available.
Consequences--The loss or degradation of use of an asset resulting from a threat or hazard. Con-
sequences may also be determined by loss of life (casualty). Mission-related consequences
include destruction or damage causing real loss or reduction of functionality. Potential for
consequences grow as a function of an asset's criticality. However, a critical asset may be dam-
aged without total loss of functionality.
Vulnerability--A weakness in asset design or operations that is exposed to a hazard or can be
exploited by a threat resulting in negative consequences. Specific hazards or threats may
expose or exploit different vulnerabilities. Note that an asset may be susceptible to hazards or
threats that may increase its vulnerability, such as having publicly accessible information
(e.g., drawings, schedules, secure areas) that could assist a terrorist in planning and executing
a successful attack.
Consequence Threshold--The planning factor used to set the level of consequences at which the
decision maker or agency assumes greater responsibility for managing the risk.
Consequence Categories
Potentially Exposed Population (fatalities and injuries)--This consequence is concerned with the
number of people who may become a casualty. Occupancy limits, or capacity is a surrogate
data point for this category.
Property Loss--This concerns the cost to repair or rebuild a damaged or destroyed structure.
These monetary estimates are standardized unit cost estimates based upon square or linear
footage of an asset, or an amount provided by the user for special designed structures such as
a cable stay bridge.
Mission Disruption--This concerns the adverse impact on the transportation system due to the
loss of the functionality of an asset. Implying the redundancy of the road and rail networks,
detour lengths to and from a disabled asset are used as a surrogate for mission disruption
level. Detour length is readily available in current agency databases for bridges and tunnels.
Transit facilities are assessed using ridership levels of an asset.
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Glossary of Terms Used in CAPTA 55
Social/Cultural Disruption--The social consequence reflects how the population might respond
to the event through significant behavioral changes. These may include fear of travel or avoid-
ance of a transportation mode or route. Fear and avoidance of transportation modes will lead
to a decrease of commercial activity. There may also be adverse reaction by the public to the
imposition of security measures, such as personal searches, needed to prevent a disruption or
mitigate the effects of a disruption.
Major Asset Categories
Road Bridges--Any aerial structure designed to carry vehicular traffic across a body of water or
land. This category is most effective when used to capture structures whose length spans
greater than one beam.
Road Tunnels--All tunnels bored, mined, or immersed that convey rubber tire vehicles, buses,
and trucks.
Transit/Rail Bridges--All raised aerial structures designed to carry rail rolling stock.
Transit/Rail Tunnel--A transit system with a major rail capability is likely to have an extensive
network of tunnels.
Transit/Rail Station--Classes of access rail transit points in CAPTA. Length of platform, capacity,
and building type can serve as common characteristics for a class.
Administrative and Support Facilities--Fixed asset facilities a transportation operator may own
or operate, with the exception of transit or rail stations. The fixed facilities in this category
may range from offices of executives, to airside passenger terminals.
Ferry--All watercraft used in the regulated transportation of passengers and vehicles for a sched-
uled service. The size of the vessel does not matter. In the rare cases where ferries constitute
a significant portion of the transportation agency's passenger capacity, an effort should be
made to separate the vessels into classes.
Fleet--Regularly used individual passenger vehicle. The most common assets in this category will
be buses and passenger transit/rail cars. The base unit for this category is one asset, whereby a
train may consist of four to six individual fleet cars. The similarities of fleet vehicles readily
lend themselves to groupings into classes.
Threats (Intentional Actions)
Small Explosive Devices--Explosive materials containing less than 250 pounds of TNT or equiv-
alent. Delivery is by means of one to five aggressors transporting the payload.
Large Explosive Devices--Explosive materials containing greater than 500 pounds of TNT or
equivalent. The method of delivery is either by vehicle or through multiple persons acting in
concert to transport the payload.
Chemical/Biological/Radiological (C/B/R) agents--Gases, liquids, or solids introduced with the
intent of causing physical harm or property loss.
Criminal Acts--Lower intensity threats representing the range of illegal activities as defined by
federal code, state statute, or local ordinance. Examples of criminal acts include handgun vio-
lence and illegal discharge of hazardous waste.
Unintentional Hazards
Fire--Sources may be disparate and triggered by any combination of flammable material and
ignition. Fire may result from happenstance and does not require an intentional act to occur.
Fire, or the pre-fire hazard of smoke, will immediately have a negative impact upon all trans-
portation assets by inducing the evacuation of persons and equipment within the structure
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56 CAPTA Final Report
and surrounding areas. Fire and smoke will decrease visibility to unsafe levels, precipitate col-
lision of vehicles and equipment, and cause personal injury. A fire controlled by firefighting
may still result in smoke and water damage at a level sufficient to render a transportation asset
unfit for use or occupancy.
Structural Failure--Any decrease in the physical integrity of the transportation asset to bear the
weight required to carry passengers or freight. The loss of physical integrity requires the asset be
inspected and major repair be completed prior to its reopening for beneficial use by the public.
Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT)--Liquid, solid, or gaseous materials for which the quantity of
material introduced may be minimal but that cause a hazard to users of the system. Hazardous
materials include common industrial cleaners used by transportation workers and canisters
of pepper spray set off by transit users. In both circumstances, it is unlikely that the maintenance
worker or the commuter entered the transportation system with the intent of discharging
material into the air. Materials may also include hazardous liquid, which include debris or
waste products moved into the transportation system by a vehicle, truck, or rail car. For CAPTA
purposes, hazardous materials require specialized remediation that will close a roadway or
transit transportation to allow processing.
Natural Hazards
Flooding--The condition of excessive water inflow to an asset exceeding the engineered pumping
capacity, and causing a hazard or threat to people and property. Flooding is typically caused
by a calamitous weather event; however, it may be caused by defective pipeline transfer.
Earthquake--A seismic anomaly that weakens the fitness of a structure to standards less than that
designed and intended by the owner. The earthquake will present a hazard to transportation
users while it is occurring, due to flying debris and geotechnical instability. The earthquake may
present a hazard upon its conclusion by weakening assets such that they are no longer usable.
Extreme Weather--All means and methods of extreme wind, rainwater, snow, ice, or other act
of God that is unusual for its ferocity. An extreme weather event will be characterized by the
exhaustion of all available equipment previously assembled for remediation and the exceed-
ing of all planning thresholds in place at a transportation agency for the conditions of snow,
ice, wind, water, and other acts of God. This characteristic would normally include exceeding
the "100-year storm" guidance gathered through observation.
Mud/Landslide--The sudden massive movement of soil causing actual or potential harm to person
and property, prompted by water or geotechnical shift. The most common historical data in
this category involves soil shifts onto roadways or rail facilities because of wet conditions.
