Research will be led by social scientists, with a focus on the interface between the physical hazard and the human impact. It will cover modeling of the role of the built environment in hazards, and of the exposure and vulnerability of individuals, businesses and communities. Workshops are planned to draw the physical and social science communities together through agreed definitions of key words and concepts, which will be documented in a white paper. Research will initially focus on building a community of interested scientists across NHMSs, academia and the private sector to review recent experience and current capabilities, to document the requirement and state-of-the-art in meeting it, and to identify and prioritise gaps in hazard prediction inputs, impact models and evaluation capability. This will inform subsequent activities in impact monitoring and in the construction, evaluation and deployment of impact models. Identifying and sharing best practice will be a recurrent activity for this theme, while Demonstration Projects will provide opportunities for evaluating new capability.