3.2 Environmental Processes

Definition: Those processes, actions, operations, and cycles that occur naturally in the environment without the intervention or aid of man. This framework element serves as a broad placeholder for all natural processes. All subcategories currently emphasize the driving forces that directly act upon an endowment. The SDI Group will eventually expand the definition to include all underlying environmental processes that control the driving forces.

Definition Source: None

Environmental Processes Categories:

3.2.1 Alteration by Natural Events: Changes in an endowment brought about by short-term, localized, naturally occuring phenomena. This includes all weather (e.g., storms), goelogical (e.g., earthquakes), and hydrological events (e.g., floods).

------3.2.1.1 Extreme Geologic Events

------3.2.1.2 Extreme Weather Events

3.2.2 Biological Processes: Changes in human and social capital caused by desease, aging, and illness. (Definition Source: None)

3.2.3 Large Scale Phenomena: Changes to an endowment due to large-scale regional or global phenomena, including global climate change, el nino, drought

------3.2.3.1 Climate Change

------3.2.3.2 El Nino