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The purpose of this paper is to examine if gendered differences in risk perception automatically mean that women and men rank the hazards of their community differently, focusing any risk reduction measures on the priority risks of only part of the population.

The study applies survey research through structured personal interviews in three municipalities in El Salvador. The data are analysed using SPSS to find statistically significant associations.

It was found that there are no significant differences between the ranking of hazards of women and men in the studied communities. However, several other parameters have significant associations with the ranking of hazards, indicating that there are more dividing lines than gender that may influence priorities of risk reduction initiatives.

A quantitative study can only indicate how gender and other parameters influence the ranking of hazards. In order to understand why, it must be complemented with qualitative research.

This study indicates that it is vital to communicate with and invite as wide a group of people as possible to participate in the risk reduction process. Not only women and men, but representatives with various livelihoods, income levels, level of education, locations of their dwellings, etc. If not, there is a danger that vital needs and opinions are left out and community commitments to risk reduction measures limited.

The paper presents a new pragmatic argument for wider participation in disaster risk reduction to policy makers and practitioners in the field.

Climate change is affecting people displacement in Bangladesh by both sudden environmental events and gradual environmental change. This paper aims to assess the sustainable adaptation measures for resolving the displacement problem induced by climate change considering the socioeconomic differences between the past and the present location of living places for island dwellers of the south-eastern coast of Bangladesh.

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted for conducting the study. The main tool of the household survey was a questionnaire survey. In addition to the estimate of displacement, the authors have used hazard impact analysis, weightage analysis and sustainable adaptation analysis with various ranking. Meaningful data were analyzed through SPSS software and presented through statistical techniques.

Climate change-induced different natural disasters, such as cyclone, tidal surge, tidal flood and coastal erosion, were frequent in the study areas and responsible for mass displacement. After displacement, people lost not only their identity but also social and cultural harmony and faced different economic and environmental crises. However, nearly 20 types of adaptation options were identified for protection from the displacement of coastal people.

The study prescribed 11 specific criteria and 4 principles of sustainable adaptation options for resolving the climate displacement problem. Moreover, seven adaptation practices showed high sustainability, ten showed medium sustainability and five showed low sustainability in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and implementation ability.

The study would help to establish sustainable adaptation measures through the combination of environment, economic and social harmony with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Evaluating project proposals with respect to safety and reliability objectives is extremely complex. Several tangible as well as intangible factors need to be considered. Also, most often these factors are difficult to measure objectively because of their nature and the lack of factual data and information. In addition, they involve uncertainties and risk. The project managers need to enumerate systematically all potential risk factors affecting the safety and reliability objectives of the project, determine the consequences and the impact of their severity, assess the likelihood of the occurrence of these consequences, and select the best course of action to contain and control risks in order to meet the specified project objectives. Develops such a framework by integrating system hazard analysis with the core elements of the risk management process (RMP) to assess potential risks and to evaluate response actions to control and manage the identified risks to satisfy the predetermined safety and reliability objectives.

Hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) systems facilitate a preventative and systematic approach to control food safety hazards through critical control points (CCPs). Hazards are prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels. The regulated South African abattoir hygiene management system (HMS) has adopted HACCP principles. Control points (CPs) represent the central feature of control within the HMS. However, there are no guidelines to conduct hazard analysis within the HMS. There is also no guideline to identify CPs. The purpose of this paper is to present a hazard analysis methodology that may be used at South African abattoirs to overcome these shortcomings.

A review of SANS 10330:2007 (HACCP) and the regulated HMS standards was undertaken. A generic HACCP plan was developed for a hypothetical bovine processing abattoir. A proposed hazard analysis methodology was used to analyse generic hazards to determine its significance. Thereafter, CCPs were identified using the CCP decision tree. This was done to enable meaningful comparison between HACCP-based CCPs and HMS-based CPs. The hazard analysis methodology suggested by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) namely, the two dimensional health risk assessment model used to assess the significance of food safety hazards was used as a benchmark.

The management of CPs in a HMS plan is similar to control contemplated in a HACCP plan. It was found that regulated CPs are not specifically stated as CPs, they need to be identified. Also, not all regulated CPs addressed the significant hazards that were identified using the proposed methodology in this paper. Managing only regulated CPs in the HMS plan may likely offer limited control over hazards. Therefore, hazards analysis is important to identify significant hazards and in turn, CPs that provide more comprehensive control within the HMS in addition to exercising control using only regulated CPs. It was observed that there are no decision criteria available to identify CPs, unlike HACCP. It was proposed that because CPs are defined similar to CCPs, that the CCP decision tree be used to identify CPs.

A hazard analysis methodology was proposed to develop the HMS as well as steps towards its development. A decision guideline was also presented to facilitate extracting CPs from regulations. Important definitions lacking in regulations, and relating to the HMS, have also been proposed in this paper. More robust HMSs may be developed by identifying regulated CPs as well as identifying them through hazard analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the local-level initiatives through coastal afforestation, the natural and socio-economic context of the study area (Hatiya Upazila of Noakhali District, Bangladesh) and the adaptation and DRR strategies generated through coastal afforestation in coastal Bangladesh.

Field observations, focus group discussions (FGDs), semi-structured interviews, and transects were accomplished in both the dry and wet season. Spatial database generated and land use mapping integrated social and technical investigation. Five FDG sessions with participants from different livelihood options (fishermen, farmers and social representatives) were organised and, on average, 15~18 participants participated in each participatory session.

Mangrove plantation can be used to access new land and create alternative livelihoods, which are important for local community adaptation and to reduce disaster risks. Mangrove plantations provide chances for new land management options to be developed for use in Bangladesh.

This study was conducted only at the south-central coastal district of Bangladesh. Data collection to summarise all the socio-economic issues is limited.

This paper can be used for the integration of geospatial and social research techniques to understand the community approach to fight against climate change-induced impacts.

The research is solely conducted by the authors. The conducted approach is a blend of social and technical knowledge and techniques in generating community resilience at the south-central coast of Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a change in staffing contractual arrangements, specific training in hazard identification, mentoring of supervisors and the introduction of a robust safety system could improve an organisation's safety culture. How safety conditions change under contracted out labour compared to direct labour and the influence that contracting out has on organisational safety culture is explored.

The study used a case study methodology to detail how the change occurred over a six month period in 2011. As part of the analysis a model of the change process and push‐pull factors is offered.

As a result of the change, all areas saw some improvement. Work‐related injury statistics dropped significantly, supervisors were clear of their roles, actively monitoring their crews to ensure they worked in a safer manner than before, and staff were actively addressing work‐place hazards. With the safety system in place the organisation should be deemed compliant and diligent by the state auditing authorities. This study has also shown that using contractor workers together with in‐house workers that are managed under different safety regimes is problematic. The problems don’t occur due to the contractor's safety systems being less robust than the parent company's or that contract workers are themselves less safe; it is the added complexity of managing multiple safety regimes and the lack of trust of the robustness of each system that create conflict.

The paper reports on the change process of one mining organisation in Western Australia as a case study from a managerial sample and is thereby limited.

This study demonstrates the difficulties in changing safety culture in an underground mining organisation. The paper argues the need for specialised training in identifying hazards by the staff, the mentoring of supervisory staff and the adoption of a robust safety system to support improved safety culture.

There is little research conducted in the resources sector researching changes in human resource supply and OHS management, in particular moving from contracted labour to hiring in‐house. This case provides an insight into how a change in staffing hiring arrangements, together with specific safety initiatives, has a positive impact on safety performance.

Aim of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of UNESCO Periodic Reports for the assessment of hazards affecting the UNESCO world heritage sites (WHSs) and to rank the most critical WHSs in Europe through multicriteria analysis.

The Periodic Reports represent the available continental-scale knowledge on hazards that threaten the WHSs in Europe and include 13 different natural threats. The information included in these reports has been first validated with high-quality data available in Italy for volcanoes, landslides, and earthquakes. Starting from the Periodic Reports, a multicriteria hazard analysis has been developed by using the analytical hierarchy procedure (AHP) approach. This analysis allows to identify and to rank the most critical WHSs at the European scale.

The data provided by Periodic Reports are demonstrated to be a good starting point for a continental-scale analysis of the actual distribution of natural threats affecting WHSs in Europe. The Periodic Reports appear to be reliable enough for a first-order assessment of hazards. The general overview of the hazard at the European scale shows high value of hazard index in the Eastern Mediterranean area and Balkans, due to a combination of earthquakes and landslides. The most at danger cultural site is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the most at danger natural site is Norway.

The paper gives a contribution to improve the continental-scale knowledge on hazards affecting the UNESCO heritage sites. The assessment of hazard inside the WHSs is an important task for the preservation of cultural and natural heritage, and it is important for UNESCO to achieve some of its goals. Through this research, European WHSs have been ranked according to their degree of hazard.

Risk assessment is a very important step toward managing risks in various organizations and industries. One of the most extensively applied risk assessment techniques is failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). In this paper, a novel fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM)-based FMEA model is proposed for assessing the risks of different failure modes more accurately.

In this model, the weight of each failure mode is considered instead of risk priority number (RPN). Additionally, three criteria of time, cost and profit are added to the three previous risk factors of occurrence (O), severity (S) and detection (D). Furthermore, the weights of the mentioned criteria and the priority weights of the decision-makers calculated by modified fuzzy AHP and fuzzy weighted MULTIMOORA methods, respectively, are considered in the proposed model. A new ranking method of fuzzy numbers is also utilized in both proposed fuzzy MCDM methods.

To show the capability and usefulness of the suggested fuzzy MCDM-based FMEA model, Kerman Steel Industries Factory is considered as a case study. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is conducted for validating the achieved results. Findings indicate that the proposed model is a beneficial and applicable tool for risk assessment.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, no research has considered the weights of failure modes, the weights of risk factors and the priority weights of decision-makers simultaneously in the FMEA method.

The purpose of this paper is to set forth a rigorous methodology for building owners and managers to conduct a vulnerability assessment of their facilities. Such a process would facilitate the use of remediation measures to limit the loss of life and property during a disaster, whether natural or man‐made.

The author sets forth nine criteria to conduct a vulnerability assessment, along with a six‐point rating system. The criteria selected are: the level of visibility, the criticality of the site to the jurisdiction in which it is located, the impact of the site outside of the jurisdiction in which it is located, access to the site, size hazards, building height, type of construction, site population capacity, and the potential for collateral mass casualties. This evaluative process leads to five site vulnerability ratings, ranked as follows: negligible, low, medium, high, and critical.

Property owners and building managers can use this process to assess the vulnerability of their facilities and, based on this process and the resulting vulnerability rating, initiate common‐sense remediation measures to limit the loss of life and property, should a disaster occur.

The field of vulnerability assessment is a new discipline within the evolving subject of homeland security. Other methodologies will be needed in the future to determine the vulnerability of other public and private facilities, such as ports, airports, transportation centers, hospitals, colleges and universities, and other vital public and private facilities.

This research provides a framework for future research on the topic of vulnerability assessments. Refinements and modifications can be made to the proposed methodology (both to the vulnerability assessment criteria and to the vulnerability ratings).

This paper provides original research and sets forth a new methodology for conducting vulnerability assessments of public and private buildings.

This paper aims to develop a crisis readiness framework for road traffic crisis response for law enforcement agencies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A Delphi method was used that combined questionnaire-based survey and the analytical hierarchy process to collect quantitative and qualitative data from an expert panel of crisis readiness professionals on how they prioritise and weigh the different strategic criteria, sub-criteria and performance indicators in the context of law enforcement agencies’ traffic response.

The findings of this paper resulted in the identification, ranking and validation of ten key dimensions of crisis readiness clustered into three distinct sets of priority rankings: response planning, resources, training and coordination; information management and communication and risk and hazard assessment; and early warning, legal and institutional frameworks, recovery initiation and property protection. The results additionally established the relative priority of sub-criteria for each criterion and validated a broad set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the top six ranked criteria.

The findings are based on a single case study focused on a specific area of operation within crisis response and one group of organisations of the UAE police sector. This potentially places a constraint on the wider generalisation of the findings to different operational areas and agencies, as they may have different priorities or organisational conditions that have implications for the framework application and the relative importance of certain criteria and sub-criteria.

This paper provides strategic guidance in the form of a prioritised list of criteria, sub-criteria and KPIs that can direct efforts to optimise different dimensions of crisis readiness at a strategic and operational level.

This paper makes an original contribution in identifying the key criteria and performance indicators of crisis readiness for road traffic situations. The findings contribute a comprehensive strategic readiness framework that supports planning and decision-making for the development of organisational capacities that can enhance response times of police to road traffic crises. This framework ranks dimensions of crisis readiness and key sub-criteria in order of priority and validates the key components of crisis readiness that can support practitioners to structure, standardise and benchmark key processes and elements of crisis response.