Natech Risk Assessment and Management by Elisabeth Krausmann; Ana Maria Cruz; Ernesto Salzano
Reducing the risk of Natural-hazard Impact on Hazardous Installations
The problem that is currently on the rise is that of technical disasters triggered by previous natural disasters or natural events. Examples include frost, heat, drought, rainfall, floods, earthquakes, whether or not combined in tsunamis, lightning strikes, etc.
In Natech Risk Assessment and Management‘s extensive introduction, the authors give a number of examples of what these natural phenomena can do. And that is quite something: ranging from power cuts and pipe breaks, to destruction of storage tanks and explosions. These in turn give rise to an evacuation of the employees of the company, the environment, with or without death toll, as well as a possible enormous economic damage and the stagnation of (parts of) the economic activity in the affected area. It is therefore not for nothing that people want to arm themselves against the even worse domino effects of such events. To this end, these so-called Natech events are studied. To make the world a little safer.
Unfortunately, no two Natech disasters are the same. Although performing risk assessments makes progress in this regard, according to the authors, it remains (for the time being) an impossible task to compare the results of risk assessments. That makes it difficult to prioritize. Yet there are some standard works that the authors regularly refer to, among many other things in their detailed literature lists. Namely the so-called purple book, red book, green book and yellow book from TNO. But perhaps more important for their discussion are the software packages RAPID-N, PANR, the methods of TRAS 310 and TRAS 320, risk curves and ARIPAR-GIS. These contain qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative risk assessment modules.
After a number of chapters in which RAPID-N, ARIPAR-GIS and RISKCURVES are illustrated with discussion of the results, two chapters deal respectively with structural (technical) measures and organizational (more administrative) measures.
An innovative framework, which the authors say is worthwhile, was proposed by IRGC and consists of the following five elements:
- Risk preassessment: an early warning and “framing” of the risk to provide the problem with a structured definition. Or how it is framed by the various stakeholders and interested parties, and how best to deal with it.
- Risk assessment. By combining a scientific risk assessment (of the hazard and the probability of it) combined with a systematic ‘concern’ assessment (of public concerns and perceptions) to form the basis of knowledge for taking subsequent decisions.
- Characterization and evaluation: making use of scientific data and a thorough understanding of the societal values affected by the risk to determine whether the risk is acceptable, tolerable (with or without mitigation of the risk as a requirement) or intolerable (unacceptable).
- Risk management: all actions and remedies that are necessary to avoid, reduce, share or retain a risk.
- Risk communication: how stakeholders and interested parties and society understand the risk and participate in the risk governance process.
The work is, in particular, a piece of “compulsory” reading material for continuity managers and risk managers of large companies that are important for the economic motor of a region or country with large industrial installations. It requires a healthy portion of common sense, but also a sufficient knowledge of process engineering to grasp the storylines. In addition, an open view of a wide range of sciences, technical and non-technical, and of society, is necessary to correctly assess the importance of this work.