Risk Analysis 2014 Post Conference Report

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The ninth International Conference on Risk Analysis and Hazard
Mitigation (Risk Analysis 2014) was held in the New Forest, UK, home of
the Wessex Institute. The meeting was chaired by Prof Carlos Brebbia,
Director of WIT, and sponsored by the International Journal of Safety
and Security Engineering.



The series of conferences started in 1998 when the first meeting was
held in Valencia, to be continued in Bologna (2000), Sintra (2002),
Rhodes (2004), Malta (2006), Cephalonia (2008), The Algarve (2010) and
the island of Brac in 2012.



Risk Analysis 2014, like the previous conferences, covered many
aspects of risk management and hazard mitigation, associated with both
natural and anthropogenic hazards.



Current events help to emphasise the importance of the analysed
management of risks to planners and researchers around the world.
Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, fires and
others have always affected human societies. The more recent emergence
of the importance of man-made hazards is a consequence of the rapid
technological advances made in the last few centuries, as well as
demographic changes. The interaction of nature and man-made risks adds
to the complexity of the problems.



Prof Carlos Brebbia opened the conference by welcoming the delegates
in the name of his Institute and explaining the importance of the
conference series amongst the activities of WIT. The objective of the
Institute – Carlos said – is to act as a mechanism for knowledge
transfer across different disciplines at an international level. This
work is carried out through industrial research and development
including the continuous evolution of the original boundary element
codes developed by WIT. This has resulted in a close collaboration
between the Institute and major industrial companies around the world,
focusing on developing software tools serving the energy and aerospace
industry, as well as engineering in general.



Another way in which the Institute disseminates knowledge is through
its publishing programme. This is the responsibility of WIT Press, the
publishers of the conference book. WIT Press has expanded significantly
in the last few years, producing a significant number of books other
than conference proceedings, as well as a growing number of
international journals.



Carlos ended by explaining that the conference programme included a
visit to the Wessex Institute campus where the delegates were invited to
a lamb BBQ. Participants would have the opportunity of knowing more
about the work of WIT as well as seeing the research and residential
facilities available.



The papers presented at the Conference covered a wide variety of
topics related to risk analysis and hazard mitigation. They were
published in Volume 47 of the WIT Transactions on Information and
Communication Technologies. All papers were also archived in the WIT
eLibrary (http://library.witpress.com/), where they are permanently available to the international scientific and engineering community.

 

 Conference Topics

The Conference included a series of excellent presentations in a
variety of topics. They were grouped under the following headings:

• Risk analysis and assessment
• Risk management
• Hazard prevention, management and control
• Vulnerability assessment
• Disaster management
• Emergency management
• Flood hazards
• Safety and security

 

 Invited Presentations

There were four invited lectures delivered by well known specialists, they included:

• “On spatial uncertainty in hazard and risk assessment”, by Andrea Fabbri, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.
• “Catastrophic oil spill and analysis”, by Zhen-Gang Ji, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, USA.
• “The acceptability of risks from natural disasters”, by Donald J
  Higson, Consultant Engineer, Fellow of the Institute of Engineers,
  Australia.
• “The safety of marine navigation based on a game theory”, by Jozef Lisowski, Gdynia Maritime University, Poland.

 

 Social Occasions

The Conference offered numerous occasions for the delegates to
interact during and outside the formal sessions. In addition to coffee
breaks and complimentary lunches, they were invited to a lunch time BBQ
at the Campus of the Wessex Institute where they had the opportunity of
seeing the work carried out at the Institute and visit some of the
premises. The BBQ provided an occasion of getting to know each other in a
relaxed setting. The weather – up to then unstable - was sunny and warm
for the occasion.



The Conference banquet took place in the unique setting of the
Rhinefield Lodge, an impressive Manor House in the New Forest, now
converted into a luxury hotel.



The guests were able to see some of the main rooms in the building,
including the entrance hall with its hammerbeam roof and its ancient
fireplace - the only remainder of the old hunting lodge; the panelled
dining-room with its wood carving of the battle of Trafalgar, and the
Moorish room, built in a style reminiscent of the Alhambra.



The house, built in 1890 by the Munro-Walker family, resembles a
ScottishCastle from the outside but its rooms combine a wide variety of
styles. It is surrounded by a most beautiful English garden with its
ponds, maze, grass amphitheatre and many interesting shrubs and trees.



Carlos explained to the delegates the history of Rhinefield House and
the Munro-Walker family and thanked them for supporting the meeting.
The menu consisted of lamb, for which Hampshire is renowned, accompanied
by excellent wines. The evening was most enjoyable and the delegates
appreciated the occasion to see different parts of the venue.

 Closing of the Conference

Carlos closed the conference thanking all the delegates for their
presence and hoping that they will be joining other WIT Conferences in
the future. He reminded them that WIT Press is happy to consider books
or articles that they may wish to publish in one of the WIT Journals. He
also hoped that they will be visiting the Ashurst Lodge Campus when
they are in the region.

 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings Risk Analysis 2014 – Risk Analysis IX, 552pp (Print
ISBN: 978-1-84564-792-6; eISBN: 978-1-84564-793-3) are available from
WIT Press. Orders can be placed on the WIT Press web site at
www.witpress.com or by email:
marketing@witpress.com, telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223 or fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853.



Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT
eLibrary as Volume 47 of WIT Transactions on Information and
Communication Technologies (ISSN: 1746-4463, Digital ISSN 1743-3517).
For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at http://library.witpress.com