| Climate change | Change in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and is additional to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods |
| Global warming | The process of increasing the average temperature of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere caused by massive emissions of gases that intensify the greenhouse effect, resulting from a range of human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use (such as deforestation), as well as from various other secondary sources. |
| Climate | Climate in a strict sense is generally defined as the average climate or, more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the average and variability of relevant quantities over a period ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for the average of these variables is 30 years (climatological normal), as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are mostly surface variables, such as temperature, precipitation and wind. |
| Adaptation to climate change | In human systems, it is the process of adapting to the current or expected climate and its effects to moderate damage or exploit opportunities. In natural systems, it is the process of adjustment to the current climate and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to the expected climate and its effects. |
| Bioclimatic/thermal comfort | Condition that expresses satisfaction with the surrounding thermal environment. It corresponds to a situation in which the temperature range in which a person's body is comfortable varies between 36 and 37°C. To stay within this range, there is an exchange of heat between the human body and the environment in which it is located, according to each person's metabolism. There are five important processes in this heat exchange: thermal conduction, convection, radiation, evaporation of sweat and respiration. |
| Extreme weather event | Weather event that is rare at a particular place and time of year. When an extreme weather pattern persists for some time, such as a season, it can be classified as an extreme weather event, especially if it yields an average or total that is itself extreme (e.g. drought or severe rainfall over a season). |
| Impacts | The consequences of hazards realized in natural and human systems, where risks result from the interactions of climate-related hazards (including extreme weather events) and vulnerability. Impacts generally refer to effects on life, livelihoods, health and well-being, ecosystems and species, economic, social and cultural assets, and infrastructure. Impacts can be referred to as consequences or outcomes and can be adverse or beneficial. |
| Exhibition | The presence of people, livelihoods, environmental services and resources, infrastructure or economic, social, or cultural assets in places that could be negatively affected. |
| Heatwave | A period of six days when the maximum air temperature is 5ºC higher than the average value of daily maximum temperatures in the reference period (from 1961 to 1990). |
| Risk | Usually presented as the probability of occurrence of an event multiplied by the impact caused by that event. In the context of climate impact assessment, the term risk is often used to refer to the potential for adverse consequences of a climate-related hazard, or adaptation or mitigation responses to it, on life, livelihoods, health and well-being, ecosystems and species, economic, social, and cultural assets, and infrastructure. |
| Zoo Reservoirs | Spaces that harbour disease-carrying vectors |
| Disease vector | A living creature capable of transmitting an infectious agent, either actively or passively. |
