Impact

A Guide To Climate Change Impacts, On Scotland’s Historic Environment, published by Historic Environment Scotland in October 2019, defines impact as: ‘the potential result of a ‘hazard’ occurring. In the ‘Impact Tables’ the description highlights the causative factor (hazard) and the effect of its occurrence.’

AR5 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Glossary, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines impacts (consequences or outcomes) as: ‘Effects on natural and human systems. In this report, the term impacts is used primarily to refer to the effects on natural and human systems of extreme weather and climate events and of climate change. Impacts generally refer to effects on lives, livelihoods, health, ecosystems, economies, societies, cultures, services, and infrastructure due to the interaction of climate changes or hazardous climate events occurring within a specific time period and the vulnerability of an exposed society or system. Impacts are also referred to as consequences and outcomes. The impacts of climate change on geophysical systems, including floods, droughts, and sea level rise, are a subset of impacts called physical impacts.’

Impact assessments might include:

• Environmental impact assessment.
• Ecological Impact Assessment.
• Regulatory Impact Assessment.

Impact may also refer to an object coming forcibly into contact with another. In terms of structural design, this is a form of live load.

Impacts may result in impact sound, a form of structure-borne sound that occurs when an object impacts on another, resulting in the generation and transmission of sound.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Hazard.
• Risk.
• Impact sound.
• Environmental impact assessment.
• Ecological Impact Assessment.
• Regulatory Impact Assessment.
• Live load.