This publication is the result of an international workshop on societal risk organised by the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management with additional support from the Directorate for Transportation (DG VII) of the European Union. Managing risks, equally when there is a strong man-made or nature-made component, basically means assessing alternative options under uncertainty. The possibility of multiple fatalities is one of the factors than can vary between options. The volume is concerned with one particular type of risk, that is the risk of death of a number of people at one accident, and with one particular tool, that is the probabilistic risk analysis, as they are developing in various domains of societal nowadays. Generally, this risk is labelled societal risk. This book shows how at present such comparisons are shaped in the various hazard domains, such as: (a) flood protection; (b) location and physical planning of industry; (c) transportation of chemicals; and (d) the prevention of aircraft accidents. It examines how to represent aggregate risks from major hazards in ways that can be handled by policy-makers. The purpose of this book is to increase the awareness of societal risk, disseminate available knowledge of existing approaches, and exchange information of applications from various domains. (A)
Abstract