Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Risk in Our Modern Society

In the Middle Ages, some of the leading engineers and architects were employed as church builders. In this period, churches changed from being built in the Romanesque style to the Gothic style. This transition implied a move from fairly massive stone structures with thick walls, limited height, and relatively small and few windows to a style with much more slender structures, rising higher, and with more and larger openings in the walls for windows. This technological development had a price, with frequent collapses of the new churches. A prominent example is the collapse of Cathedrale Saint‐Pierre de Beauvais in 1284 and then again in 1573 (Murray 1989).

Figure 1.1 The Beauvais Cathedral (Source: Photo by David Iliff. License: CC‐BY‐SA 3.0).

This is a good example of how technology traditionally has evolved, through trying and failing. The church builders of the Middle Ages moved beyond what had been done earlier, and this sometimes led to catastrophic failures.

In the Middle Ages, accidents were seen as acts of God, punishing man for attempting to construct such huge buildings. Today, we have a different view on why accidents occur, and society is not willing to accept failure to the same degree as in the Middle Ages. Accidents result in loss of life or serious environmental damage and are often very expensive. ...