Читать книгу Bow-Tie Industrial Risk Management Across Sectors - Luca Marmo, Luca Fiorentini - Страница 15

Bernardino Chiaia

Head of SISCON (Safety of Infrastructures and Constructions), Politecnico di Torino

The number and the magnitude of accidents worldwide in the industrial sector and in the realm of civil and transportation infrastructures has risen since the 1970s and continues to grow both in frequency and socioeconomic impact. Several major accidents in the industrial sector (see, e.g., the Seveso chemical plant disaster in 1976, the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the explosion in Warehouse 12 at the Port of Beirut in 2020) have been under the lens of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), which puts great effort in developing safety guidelines within the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.

At the same time, the number of infrastructure failures in developed countries rose dramatically since the beginning of the new millennium. This is partly due to ageing and poor maintenance of bridges, viaducts, tunnels, and dams, which were constructed mainly in the first 35 years after World War II. Moreover, traffic loads and required performances have increased 20 times the original design conditions. On the other hand, in underdeveloped countries there is clear evidence that industrial regulations are less strict and that a general lack of a culture of safety generally results in looser applications of the rules, thus producing a physiological higher percentage of accidents.

In this evolving context, the barrier‐based approach named Bow‐Tie represents a successful methodology to approach risk analysis in a consistent and robust manner. The method allows a synthetic and powerful control of multiple hazard scenarios, clearly differentiating between proactive and reactive risk management.

In this book Dr Fiorentini clearly shows the applicability and the advantages of the methodology to various situations. He shows that, once all the hazard scenarios have been correctly identified and well defined, the definition of the most appropriate barriers represents the core of the methodology to ensure risk reduction. In the non‐standard case of civil engineering, for example, the Bow‐Tie method shows how inspections and maintenance operations represent preventive control barriers against the risk of structural collapse, whereas retrofitting, traffic limitations, and active monitoring represent mitigating or recovery barriers.

The wide experience of Dr Fiorentini, along with his clarity and scientific rigour, make the book a unique and comprehensive essay on the Bow‐Tie methodology of risk assessment.