Safety and Risk Assesments

One of the pillars and key values of RI is risk analysis and safety engineering. But what do we mean by risk? What are ways to determine risks? How do we deal with uncertainty and the ‘unknown unknowns. In this collection we will address these important questions.

Important Definitions:

Risk assessment:

Determine risks of a new technology and then decide whether these risks are acceptable. Risk is mathematically defined as the product of likelihood of a certain outcome and severity of consequences from that outcome.

However, the problem is that we often cannot easily calculate the probability of certain outcomes occuring, resulting in uncertainty. Furthermore, we may not even know all possible consequences. This is called ignorance.

Precautionary Principle:

When an activity raises threats to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken, even if some cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.

Part of

Safety and Risk Assesments

Introduction to Risk Analysis

Risk Analysis Frameworks

Dealing with an Uncertain Future

Technology Assessment and Responsible Innovation

Risk, Uncertainty and Ignorance in Technological Design

Introduction to Advanced Quantitative Risk Assessment