Abstract: The project Systemic Pandemic Risk Management (SPRM), funded by the Research Council of Norway, has developed methods to assess and manage pandemic systemic risks. The project consortium includes an enterprise leading the project, public partners and research institutions in Norway, Sweden, and Italy. Kristiansand municipality, a partner in the SPRM project, adopted the project methods to assess and manage systemic risks. Based on a scenario about the potential spread patterns of the COVID-19 Omicron variant developed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, staff from Kristiansand employed the SPRM project’s approach to facilitate systemic risk assessment and management workshops. Practitioners and decision-makers from the main hospital in the Agder county and several municipalities proposed risks, their causal consequences and identified practical and impactful mitigation strategies. The strategies were implemented at the county level. The approach can improve handling of systemic risk scenarios beyond pandemics.

Abstract: Innovative technologies such as monitoring the quality of surface water aquifers with satellite images, applying UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and drone technology for a variety of operations, water quality measurements with improved techniques along with IoT (Internet of Things) and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), can provide sufficient data for enhancing water safety in urban water utilities. Specifically, these data could be an effective tool for improving risk assessment process and management of water supply systems. Nevertheless, till now, there is a relative lack of published works that validate the efficiency of combing these technologies on water safety processes by incorporating most of them with a systematic way and during real working conditions in water utilities. This work aims to present the preliminary design concept of a platform that embraces innovating water safety technologies planned to be applied to Thessaloniki's Water Supply and Sewerage Co. S.A Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).

Abstract: In this paper ongoing developments regarding the conceptual setup and subsequent implementation logic of a seamless spatio-temporal population dynamics model are presented. The DynaPop model aims at serving as basic input for social impact evaluation in crisis management. In addition to providing the starting point for assessing population exposure dynamics, i.e. the location and number of affected people at different stages during an event, knowledge of spatio-temporal population distribution patterns is also considered crucial for a set of other related aspects in disaster risk and crisis management including evacuation planning and casualty assessment. DynaPop is implemented via a gridded spatial disaggregation approach and integrates previous efforts on spatio-temporal modeling that account for various aspects of population dynamics such as human mobility and activity patterns that are particularly relevant in picturing the highly dynamic daytime situation.

Abstract: Project management has become a standard in business. Unfortunately, the projects as well as companies are increasingly subject to major disruptions. In this context, it is of prime importance to have the ability to manage the risks inherent to these projects to best achieve their objectives. The existing approaches of crisis management in the literature no longer seem to be adapted to this new normality. The future of research lies in a more systematic crisis assessment and a better conceptualization of the uncertainty associated with risks. It is necessary to rely on the collection of heterogeneous data in order to maximize the understanding of the project environment and to find a way that best describes and visualizes the influence of crises on the project management processes. This article uses the POD approach and applies it in the context of project management to address these issues.

Abstract: Critical energy infrastructures are more and more focused upon by politics and society. Modern society depends on these structures, since they enable the steady support of electricity and other types of energy. Deliberately precipitated hazards of certain critical parts of electrical transmission systems (ETS) can lead to catastrophic consequences. Therefore, the analysis of feasible security hazards and resulting consequences for the operation of transmission systems are a concern to transmission system operators (TSO). Alas, there is no common method available that comprehensively identifies these feasible security related scenarios and classifies them according to their overall criticality for the safe operation of the ETS. To tackle this challenge, we propose a comprehensive, yet easy-to-apply method to systematically identify and assess the criticality of security threat scenarios. It is conducted in four steps and consists of a matrix based consistency check of threat scenarios in a defined solution space and a convenient semi-quantitative assessment of a risk factor for the ETS. The approach is illustrated by the simplified generic example of an EETS.

Abstract: Risk assessment aims at improving prevention and preparedness phases of the crisis management lifecycle.
Qualitative risk assessment of a system is important for risks identification and analysis by the various stakeholders and often requires multi-disciplinary knowledge. We present an automatic approach to qualitative
risk assessment in metropolitan areas using semantic techniques. In particular, users are provided with a computational support to identify and prioritize by relevance risks of city services, through generation of
semantic descriptions of risk situations. This approach is enabled by a software system consisting of: TERMINUS, a domain ontology representing city knowledge; WS-CREAM, a web service implementing risk identification and ranking functions; and CIPCast, a GIS-based Decision Support System with functions of risk
forecast due to natural hazards. Finally we present the results of a preliminary validation of the generated risks concerning some points of interest in two different areas of the city of Rome.

Abstract: This article describes the definition and characteristics of borderland resilience studies as an academic field, and precisely its core phenomenon, major themes or components and challenges. The phenomenon of borderland resilience is firstly defined. The results of empirical studies complete the conceptual description. Finally, the article proposes a set of research and development challenges.

Abstract: It is frequently conveyed, especially in the media, an idea of “increasing impact of natural hazards” typically attributed to their rising frequency and/or growing vulnerability of populations. However, for certain hazard types, this may be mostly a result of increasing population exposure due to phenomenal global population growth, especially in the most hazardous areas. We investigate temporal changes in potential global population exposure and impacts from earthquakes in the XXth century. Spatial analysis is used to combine historical population distributions with a seismic intensity map. Changes in number of victims were also analyzed, while controlling for the progress in frequency and magnitude of hazard events. There is also a focus on mega-cities and implications of fast urbanization for exposure and risk. Results illustrate the relevance of population growth and exposure for risk assessment and disaster outcome, and underline the need for conducting detailed global mapping of settlements and population distribution.

Abstract: Offshore wind farms (OWFs) have become an increasingly relevant form of renewable energy in recent years, with the German North Sea being one of the most active regions in the world. However, the safety and security of OWF have become increasingly important due to the potential threats and risks associated with their growing share in the security of energy supply. This paper aims to present a comprehensive and systematic indicator-based approach to assess the safety and security status of OWFs in the German North Sea. The approach is based on the results of a survey of people working in the offshore industry and draws on the work published by Gabriel et al. (2022). The results of the study suggest that the indicator-based approach is a useful tool for end users to assess the security status of offshore wind farms and can be used for further research and development.

Abstract: The mankind has passed through a significant historical frontier, including technological processes where hazardous substances are the potential threats for the employees, the public, environment and property and therefore it is inevitable to pay increased attention to the occurrence of the industrial accidents and mainly to their prevention. The area of safety of technical and technological systems is very closely connected not only with the reliability of the processes but also with the technical as well as social, legal and other aspects. There exist several systematic approaches, methods and techniques to assess industrial processes and risks linked to these processes on the European Union level and also on the national level of each member state. We can mention some basic systematic approaches – MOSAR, CPQRA, ARAMIS, PRA (PSA) widely used in this area. But according to the analyst's needs they usually miss structured and systematic approach, how to complete the risk assessment in steps and what the content of each of these steps is. The main focus of this paper is to discuss the theoretical aspects of the risk assessment in industrial processes and to show the possible approach of structured and systematic methods with support of logical diagrams to fulfill all tasks concerning the industrial accident assessment. Last but not least it is to present the research activities of the Department of Crisis Management, University of Žilina in Žilina, Slovakia. © 2012 ISCRAM.

Abstract: Forest fire risk assessment is an important task for forest fire management and planning. This paper presents current work on the definition and implementation of forest fire risk assessment models in the Wildfire AnalystTM software with the purpose of providing support and increased value in risk assessment. Three models are presented based on the concept of forest fire risk: forest fire structural hazard model that provides the assessment of the expected easiness that a fire has to spread in a certain area, a stochastic model that assesses the fire growth potential considering as potential ignition points critical elements of electric supply networks and a stochastic model that assesses the potential impact of forest fires on these infrastructures.

Abstract: The present paper introduces a comprehensive Transportation Security Risk Assessment Framework for assessing related risks and provides cohered contingency management procedures in interconnected, interdependent and heterogeneous transport networks. The proposed approach includes elements, methodological tools and approaches found in the literature, in addition to operational experience from the organization of major events.

Abstract: In the event of natural disasters and extreme events like storms, floods and earthquakes, not only people, residential buildings and infrastructure, but also industry can be seriously affected. Direct losses to installations as well as indirect losses e.g. interruption of production can cause severe damage to companies and the economy as a whole. For a comparative and quantitative risk assessment and as a prerequisite for emergency planning and crisis management (e.g. planning of mitigation measures), a financial appraisal of industrial assets at risk is needed. This paper presents the reference installation approach which is a methodology that allows a consistent and transparent assessment of individual industrial asset values. In this bottom up approach due to the consideration of the heterogeneity of various industrial sectors, the obtained results can be depicted for a detailed spatial distribution and on a high degree of accuracy.