SECURITY BASED RISK MANAGEMENT (SBRM)

Security Based Risk Management (SBRM)

Security Based Risk Management (SBRM)

Transportation Security Environment

The Transportation & Transportation Security Law Section is concerned with the operation and improvement of the nation's transportation system, and comprises six committees addressing various transportation modes and issues. Included in the section's scope of interest are legislative, judicial and administrative law developments that affect air, rail, motor and water transportation both within the United States and on movements between the United States and other countries.

The section addresses issues related to safety and security in transportation, ranging from the movement of hazardous materials to the threat posed by international terrorism. Other issues of interest include the role of public transit systems in American cities, (Sara Bodenheimer, 2005, 52) the development of multi-modal forms of transportation, and the developing role of e-commerce in transportation.

Security Based Risk Management

Over the past decade, risk management has been evolving into a core business practice in government and industry. In the transportation sector, the overarching risk management objective has been to reduce accident likelihood and severity. Where hazardous materials shipments are involved, this mission extends to spill prevention and mitigating the consequences when a release occurs. Until recently, the approach to transportation risk management assumed that when man-made disasters occurred, they were accidental in nature and not due to malicious intent. Terrorist activities, culminating with the tragic events of September 11, 2001, (Sara Bodenheimer, 2005, 52) have dramatically changed this landscape.

In particular, we have learned that assessment of transportation risk must be performed with a more expanded scope to accommodate terrorism scenarios that heretofore would have been considered so unlikely that they did not warrant risk management attention. (Mitchell, 2004, 65)

Similarly, emergency responders must be able to handle impacts far beyond what was previously imaginable in terms of number of victims, deployment of response resources and agency coordination. Given these circumstances, it is apparent that decision-makers need to employ a new paradigm for transportation risk management. In particular, this paradigm must: 1) more explicitly consider security threat and vulnerability, and 2) integrate security considerations into the overall framework for addressing natural and man-made disasters, be they accidental or planned.

Traditionally, risk management has focused on two primary causes of concern, natural and manmade disasters. Natural disasters include a wide range of events, such as floods, earthquakes, forest fires, tornados, hurricanes, and avalanches. The prevailing attitude has been that these events are “acts of God” and there are limitations on what one can do to prevent incident occurrence. Consequently, (Mitchell, 2004, 65) the majority of risk management attention in these circumstances has been focused on mitigating the consequences of these incidents when they do occur. Man-made disasters pose a different problem, both in terms of risk tolerance and the focus of risk management attention. Whether due to human error, poor design or faulty technology, man-made disasters are associated with the failure on the part of an individual or organization to make the appropriate decisions that adequately protect human health, property and the ...