Hazard, Risk, & Disaster Management

Reading

• Smith Chapters 1-5

Hazard

• Naturally-occurring/human-induced event with potential for loss

Risk

• Exposure to a hazard

Disaster

• Occurrence of hazard resulting in serious damage/loss of life

Human-Centred Viewpoint

• People see hazards to environment as less important than risks to people or property

Human-Centred Viewpoint

• People more impressed by rapid-onset events with big, visible, impacts than by slow-acting events with subtle impacts.

Risk Assessment

• Assessing the risks which are probable– counting, probability– judgement– appears scientific

Risk Assessment

• Done by “experts”– presented as “objective”

• Done by ordinary people– presented as “poorly-informed”

Lay Risk Assessment

• People more prepared to tolerate voluntary risks than involuntary ones– by a factor of 1000 (pp. 57-9)

Risk Assessment

• In reality, expert risk assessments are not objective– require judgements– tendency to use technical detail to hide the

partisan judgements

• No “value-free” risk assessment

Ralgreen Crescent, Kitchener

• 1960s suburban subdivision

• Built on old city dump

• Landfill-related explosion demolishes house in 1969

• City hires Heath Consultants to measure methane

1990s

• Houses cracking, tilting

• Basements leaking smelly liquids and vapours

• People getting sick– Leukemia cases

• Residents discover history of property

1990s

• City gets Heath Consultants to do risk assessment– soil and other tests– uses industrial criteria– reports contaminants at acceptable levels

• Residents unimpressed

1990s

• Residents seek their own risk assessment

• Hard to hire a consultant– costs money– consultants reluctant to offend the city

• Eventually succeeds:– uses new residential criteria for contamination– finds significant health risks in several

properties

2000s

• Residents sue

• City settles with residents– buys the worst affected houses– bulldozes them

• Other alarmed residents not bought out– risk assessment does not justify it

Disaster Management

• Where should we spend whose money to undertake what programmes to save which lives with what probability? (Zeckhauser & Shepard 1984)

Disaster Management

• Levels of intervention– Educate people to avoid disaster– Subsidise people to avoid disaster– Force people to avoid disaster

Disaster Management

• Safety has a price

• People don’t want to pay

• Example:– TFD wants Ontario Building Code altered to

require sprinklers in new residential construction

– Emergency Measures Ontario given virtually no money pre- Sept 11

Disaster Management

• Pre-Disaster Protection

• Post-Disaster Recovery

Pre-Disaster Protection

• Risk assessment

• Mitigation

• Preparation

Post-Disaster Recovery

• Relief & rescue

• Rehabilitation

• Reconstruction

Plastimet Fire July 1997

• Hamilton waterfront

• Plastics recycler burns– after multiple earlier fires, 39

previous fire-code violations

Hamilton FD

• fails to evacuate/protect areas downwind– Hamilton General Hospital– Hamilton-Wenworth Detention Centre

• places fire-fighters in unnecessary danger– air supply runs out while above fire

• no disaster pre-planning

• inadequate hazardous materials equipment, training, planning

Adjustment to Hazard

• Modify the loss burden

• Modify hazard events

• Modify human vulnerability

Modify the loss burden

• Insurance

• Disaster relief

• Emergency aid

Modify hazard events

• Engineering

• Hazard-resistant designs

Modify human vulnerability

• Community preparedness

• Forecasting, warning & evacuation systems

• Land use planning