_______ is a measure of the expected effects of an incident scenario.

• A. A consequence
• B. A risk
• C. A probability
• D. A severity

Answer: (A)

Consequence is the collection of outcomes an incident would produce—the actual effects on people, operations, environment, and assets. It answers what happens if the scenario occurs, capturing the expected results. This differs from probability, which is about how likely the incident is to occur, and from risk, which combines probability with consequence to express overall hazard. Severity, while related, focuses on how serious the effects are rather than describing the full set of effects themselves. So, when we're talking about the measure of the expected effects, consequence is the best fit because it represents the real outcomes that result from the incident.