Risk Engineering

Industrial development is essential to improvement of the standard of living in all countries. People's health and the environment can be affected, directly or indirectly by routine waste discharges or by accidents. A series of recent major industrial accidents and the effect of pollution highlighted, once again, the need for better management of routine and accidental risks. Moreover, the existence of natural hazards complicate even more the situation in any given region. In the past effort to cope with these risks, if made at all, have been largely on a plant by plant basis; some plants are well equipped to manage environmental and health hazards, while others are not. Managing the hazards of modern technological systems has become a key activity in highly industrialised countries. Decision makers are often confronted with complex issues concerning economic and social development, industrialisation and associated infrastructure needs, population and land use planning. Such issues have to be addressed in such a way that ensures that public health will not be disrupted or substantially degraded. Due to the increasing complexity of technological systems and the higher geographical density of punctual hazard sources, new methodologies and a novel approach to these problems are challenging risk managers and regional planers. Risks from these new complex technological systems are inherently different form those addressed by the risk managers for decades ago.

Klappentext

This volume attempts, for the first time, to link the science of risk analysis with the currently on-going movement on the use of stakeholders' processes. It is intended to assess the current practice of risk engineering, and to address the potential interactions with stakeholders' processes. New type models for risk screening and prioritisation at plant and regional levels are presented using fuzzy sets. The advent of integrated risk assessment Decision Support Systems in connection with stakeholders' processes, and their interactions, are put into a practice perspective for today's developments in risk engineering. Audience: Postgraduate students, practitioners in consulting engineering, national regulatory bodies interested in applying science of risk analysis to interactions with stakeholders.

Inhalt

1. Risk Engineering in a Complex World.- 1.1. Risk Engineering: An Outlook.- 1.2. Integrated Risk Analysis, Risk Assessment, and Risk Management.- 2. Introduction And Background to Risk Engineering.- 2.1. General Outlines.- 2.2. Risk Analysis and Risk Management.- 2.3. Risk Analysis for Complex Industrial Systems; Socio Economic and Safety Implications.- 2.4. Lessons to be Learned from the Swiss Project on Risk Analysis.- 2.5. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Risk Engineering.- 2.6. Designing Databases for Risk Assessment of Major Industrial Complexes.- 2.7. Indicators in a Semiotic and Communicational Perspective.- 3. Decision Sciences and Stakeholders Processes.- 3.1. Decision Process in Risk Engineering and the Role of Models and Tools.- 3.2. Overview of Decision Analysis.- 3.3. Sensitivity Analysis.- 3.4. Probability Encoding Techniques.- 3.5. Advanced Techniques for DAP.- 3.6. Decision Conferencing and Stakeholders Interaction.- 3.7. Indicators and Their Integration for Decision Making Process.- 4. Established Methods in Risk Engineering.- 4.1. Selected Basic Methods.- 4.2. Assessment of Failure Probabilities.- 4.3. Consequence Assessments.- 5. Fuzzy Logic in Risk Engineering.- 5.1. Introduction and General Views.- 5.2. Applications.- 5.3. Risk Assessment with Fuzzy Logic.- 6. Fuzzy Risk Analysis on Plant and Regional Level.- 6.1. Basic Concepts.- 6.2. Regional and Plant Specific Hazard-/Risk Judgement.- 6.3. Environmental Risk Assessment with Fuzzy Risk Analysis.- 6.4. Case Study: Fuzzy Risk Analysis.- 7. Decision Support Systems in Risk Engineering.- 7.1. Introduction.- 7.2. The GIS Interface.- 7.3. Map Editor.- 7.4. Map Applications.- 7.5. The Dispersion Model.- 7.6. Path Outputs - Examples.- 7.7. Multicriteria Optimisation of Transportation ofDangerous Goods in a Free Market Environment.- 7.8. Conclusions.- 8. Risk Engineering and Beyond.- References.