Midway evaluation in Civil Engineering - Böðvar Tómasson

Title: Using risk engineering methodologies and business continuity management models to ensure vital societal functions – Developing National Risk Assessments

Doctoral candidate: Böðvar Tómasson

Doctoral committee:
Dr. Björn Karlsson, (supervisor) Associate Professor, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland
Dr. Guðmundur Freyr Úlfarsson, Professor and the Head of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland.
Dr. Henrik Tehler, Professor, Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety, Lund University, Sweden.

Abstract
National risk assessments (NRAs), refer to the process and documentation of assessing risks at a national level. NRAs in three Nordic countries where societal safety is the basis for national disaster risk management (DRM) is analyzed, and in two other countries, which have worked extensively with NRAs. The analysis is in two parts. Firstly, the roles of households are analyzed with respect to their influence in crisis and how they are portrayed in respective NRAs. Secondly, it is investigated how the methodology of business continuity management (BCM) can be used at a national level to increase resilience and societal safety. It is shown that a societal safety approach, where critical societal functions are based on societal values and basic individual needs, can be a fundamental platform for proposed national continuity management (NCM).