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On the cost-efficiency, significance and effectiveness of terrorism risk reduction strategies for buildings

Thöns, Sebastian LU and Stewart, Mark G. (2020) In Structural Safety 85.
Abstract
We analyse the performance of risk reduction strategies for terrorist attacks with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for large governmental building structures in terms of cost-efficiency, significance and effectiveness accounting for life safety in conjunction with societal preferences and capabilities. The approach builds upon an extended Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis and the principles of the marginal lifesaving costs based on the Life Quality Index (LQI). The decision scenario is formulated for a decision maker responsible for the safety of governmental or large commercial buildings and consequently the direct risks, the indirect risks due to fatalities and economical importance of the building beside the expected cost for... (More)
We analyse the performance of risk reduction strategies for terrorist attacks with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for large governmental building structures in terms of cost-efficiency, significance and effectiveness accounting for life safety in conjunction with societal preferences and capabilities. The approach builds upon an extended Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis and the principles of the marginal lifesaving costs based on the Life Quality Index (LQI). The decision scenario is formulated for a decision maker responsible for the safety of governmental or large commercial buildings and consequently the direct risks, the indirect risks due to fatalities and economical importance of the building beside the expected cost for the individual risk reduction strategies are modelled, aggregated and optimised. The considered risk reduction strategies encompass an explicit consideration and distinction of information and actions such as (i) threat surveillance may trigger the temporary evacuation of the building, (ii) the implementation of protection provisions provided by codes and guidelines, (iii) a detailed progressive collapse assessment and specific protection measures and (iv) the combination of protection and surveillance. All considered strategies are found to contribute to risk reduction and can be cost-efficient, especially for higher threat probabilities. The risk reduction strategies comply with societal macroeconomic and demographical characteristics and societal preferences according to the LQI. The progressive collapse assessment with targeted protection measures is found to be the most cost-efficient, significant and effective counter-terrorism strategy. This finding points to the necessity for a comprehensive utilisation of scientific methods and sophisticated engineering for progressive collapse assessment to determine targeted protection measures. (Less)
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author
and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Structural Safety
volume
85
pages
8 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85082726247
ISSN
0167-4730
DOI
10.1016/j.strusafe.2020.101957
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
e327e544-1eb2-4958-ab4b-c6027c7532c0
date added to LUP
2020-09-08 18:42:43
date last changed
2023-06-07 04:00:18
@article{e327e544-1eb2-4958-ab4b-c6027c7532c0,
  abstract     = {{We analyse the performance of risk reduction strategies for terrorist attacks with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for large governmental building structures in terms of cost-efficiency, significance and effectiveness accounting for life safety in conjunction with societal preferences and capabilities. The approach builds upon an extended Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis and the principles of the marginal lifesaving costs based on the Life Quality Index (LQI). The decision scenario is formulated for a decision maker responsible for the safety of governmental or large commercial buildings and consequently the direct risks, the indirect risks due to fatalities and economical importance of the building beside the expected cost for the individual risk reduction strategies are modelled, aggregated and optimised. The considered risk reduction strategies encompass an explicit consideration and distinction of information and actions such as (i) threat surveillance may trigger the temporary evacuation of the building, (ii) the implementation of protection provisions provided by codes and guidelines, (iii) a detailed progressive collapse assessment and specific protection measures and (iv) the combination of protection and surveillance. All considered strategies are found to contribute to risk reduction and can be cost-efficient, especially for higher threat probabilities. The risk reduction strategies comply with societal macroeconomic and demographical characteristics and societal preferences according to the LQI. The progressive collapse assessment with targeted protection measures is found to be the most cost-efficient, significant and effective counter-terrorism strategy. This finding points to the necessity for a comprehensive utilisation of scientific methods and sophisticated engineering for progressive collapse assessment to determine targeted protection measures.}},
  author       = {{Thöns, Sebastian and Stewart, Mark G.}},
  issn         = {{0167-4730}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Structural Safety}},
  title        = {{On the cost-efficiency, significance and effectiveness of terrorism risk reduction strategies for buildings}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.strusafe.2020.101957}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.strusafe.2020.101957}},
  volume       = {{85}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}