Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

RISK ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT FOR CRITICAL ASSET PROTECTION

JERRY P. BRASHEAR AND J. WILLIAM JONES

ASME Innovative Technologies Institute, LLC, Washington, D.C.

1 INTRODUCTION

The current economic crisis and events of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, terrorist attacks and natural disasters at home and abroad have heightened the nation's awareness of the risks to critical infrastructures. This awareness has stimulated the requirement that risks and risk-reduction options be assessed in ways permitting the direct comparisons needed for rational allocation of resources. Numerous risk methodologies are in use by individual firms and industries, but their results are generally not comparable with other firms or industry sectors or, in some cases, not even with other facilities within the sector. Most are qualitative or ordinal only, producing relative results that can be compared only locally, if at all. Moreover, several of the available methods require the assistance of specialized consultants and/or considerable amounts of time, money and personnel resources, which discourages their use and makes them costly to use on a regular basis. The RAMCAP Plus process—through the cost-effective application of common and consistent terminology, processes and metrics—provides an objective, repeatable basis for assessing risk, resilience, and the benefits and costs of improvements in a transparent, consistent, quantitative, and directly comparable manner.

2 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

Following the attacks ...