Uses of Risk Analysis to Achieve Balanced Safety in Building Design and Operations (1991) / Chapter Skim
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3. Using Risk Analysis to Enhance Building Safety and Protect Property Values
3. Using Risk Analysis to Enhance Building Safety and Protect Property Values
Pages 17-26
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From page 17... ...
While nuclear facilities practices and new fire safety models demonstrate the application of risk analysis procedures, there remains substantial untapped potential for broader application of risk analysis, particularly in federal government programs where one entity effectively retains authority in all phases of a facility's life cycle. However, this is also 17
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From page 18... ...
Adequate data are not available to support sophisticated analysis of all facility risks, and more extensive data collection is a pressing need if the fullest benefits of risk analysis procedures are to be realized. Nevertheless, simplified analysis methods, using existing data and professional judgment may be applied more broadly now to enhance risk management.
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From page 19... ...
The committee seeks to assure similar safety levels relative to the variety of hazards to which people are exposed in and around buildings. NEED FOR INFORMATION AND DATA The principal model building codes use two broad parameters to describe building characteristics that determine requirements for safety and health: construction type and building occupancy.
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From page 20... ...
Such analyses can quickly become quite complex and technically sophisticated, and are therefore used primarily when dealing with very complex and highly sensitive facilities (such as nuclear power plants) or as a research tool for exploring policy options (for example, development of fire safety codes)
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From page 21... ...
Iborc ~ no comprobcus~c data base to support broad asscssmcut of risk ~d around buDdings. Data tbal ~c ~aWable cannot easHy be used to deal ~tb d~ersc hazards.
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From page 22... ...
Investigations of particular facility or component failures are a valuable source of information about causes of failure, and may yield insights that support estimation of probabilities of similar circumstances occurring elsewhere and leading to failure. From the perspective of improving technical understanding of risk and its management, it is unfortunate that such investigations are often conducted within the context of insurance claims and court litigation procedures, so that detailed data are not made generally available for use by researchers.
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From page 23... ...
Risk analysis could assist public officials to formulate reasonable responses to occasional disasters that motivate public concern, for example the call for tightening local building codes that frequently follow major fires. Risk analysis could provide similar assistance when new information (for example, scientific evidence that earthquakes are more likely than previously thought)
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From page 24... ...
The institutional setting within which risk and safety decisions are made does not utilize economic information alone, and efforts to reduce decisions to strictly economic terms may founder. INSTITUTIONAL SETTING FOR SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT Responsibility for safety in and around buildings is distributed among owners, designers, constructors, the insurance industry, regulatory agencies, building occupants, and the public at large and is subject to interpretation and redistribution by the courts.
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From page 25... ...
However, the industry has pursued a loss-based approach to business and has not undertaken broad, systematic study of the technical measures of risk associated with hazards in and around buildings.28 Risk management professionals employed by private firms and state and local governments focus primarily on actions to reduce financial loss exposure, rather than reduction of technical risk.
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From page 26... ...
, may include particular hazards and risk mitigation actions to avoid losses. However, risk is not necessarily addressed and some observers suggest- may be avoided because of analysts' concerns that the public will not fully appreciate the inevitability of some risk and may respond negatively to explicit risk assessment.
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