Reliability, risk or reality

At the very core of the welfare of society lies the creation of a secure and effective environment for living, working and cultural interaction. Yet both the built and natural components of this environment contain risk. Although decisions regarding acceptable risk levels belong to society at-large, analysis of risks related to human-made infrastructure have typically been in the domain of the civil engineer. The existence of a disconnect between the technical analysis of the issues and the factors that drive societal decisions must be addressed. Thus it is necessary for multidisciplinary research to establish technological/social risk methods and models to effectively address risk issues in the built environment.