Risk assessment in the context of emergency response systems

Increased risk and the possibility of terrorist attacks within the United States have heightened our need to develop emergency response systems to mitigate emergencies in a more thorough, and comprehensive way. Efforts to improve existing emergency response systems are critical because an efficient system lowers the damage caused to victims as well as infrastructure. Currently there are several legacy systems in use today that are used to cope with daily occurring emergencies. Unfortunately, these current emergency response systems do not regard risk as a crucial part of the decision-making scenario. Tools and applications of risk assessment and risk management systems provide an approach that can be used in the enhancement of emergency response systems. To effectively assess me risks that the systems are facing, risk items should be reviewed in the context of various perspectives. This paper attempts to investigate risk assessment issues in the context of emergency response systems. The literature on the current emergency response systems and risk analyses is reviewed. Further, the risk assessment tools that are often used, such as the ASSET and CORAS, are investigated.