Safety and security, dealing with risks

Abstract

Reducing risks and confining them to an acceptable level can be regarded as an essential commitment of technical applications for safety purposes and the public security measures. Rating the efficiency of such measures requires an assessment of the risk that is supposed to be reduced. However, approaching this subject means to face a plethora of existing literature and an ongoing discussion if and how this can be achieved. On one hand, it remains a rather uncertain estimate particularly if it comes to rare interrupting events. On the other hand, making a decision responsibly requires a certain rational base. Several approaches exist for assessing risks, from verbal to quantitative, depending on the individual case. The frequently quoted Delphi technique represents the verbal one, others such as the Bayesian statistics a quantitative one or the consequence/probability matrix in-between. A problem remains with understanding probability. Even if an event is highly unlikely it may happen right now. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.