The Hazard & exposure dimension reflects the probability of physical exposure associated with specific hazards. There is no risk if there is no physical exposure, no matter how severe the hazardous event is. Therefore, the hazard and exposure dimensions are merged into Hazard & exposure dimension. As such it represents the load that the community has to deal with when exposed to a hazardous event. The exposed population to Earthquake, Tsunami, Flood, Tropical Cyclone and Droughts are aggregated using geometric average to develop the Hazard and Exposure Index.

The Vulnerability dimension addresses the intrinsic predispositions of an exposed population to be affected, or to be susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard, even though the assessment is made through hazard-independent indicators. So, the Vulnerability dimension represents economic, political and social characteristics of the community that can be destabilised in case of a hazardous event. The two categories- socio-economic vulnerability and vulnerable groups are aggregated using geometric average to develop vulnerability index. Socio-economic vulnerability category refers to the demography of a country in general, and the vulnerable group category captures social groups with limited access to social and health care systems.

The Lack of coping capacity dimension measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of formal, organised activities and the effort of the country’s government as well as the existing infrastructure, which contribute to the reduction of disaster risk. Lack of coping capacity index is developed by aggregating the geometric mean of two categories- Institutional and Infrastructure. Institutional category covers the existence of DRR programmes, which address mostly mitigation and preparedness/early warning phase, and the Infrastructure category measures the capacity for emergency response and recovery.