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Lessons learned in twenty years of hazard, risk and resilience analyses

Writing lessons learned in twenty years of hazard, risk and resilience analyses has been a difficult exercise for various reasons. We compiled  and explain lessons learned in our practice of risk assessment and resilience advice to industries, municipalities and regional governments around the world in our latest book, Convergent Leadership – Divergent Exposures: Climate Change, Resilience, Vulnerabilities, and Ethics. However, the fact that we systematically apply our quantitative convergent approach (ORE, Optimum Risk Estimates) to all sorts of industries and…

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Tailings dam mitigation risk informed decision making

Tailings dam mitigation risk informed decision making closes the discussion we presented in prior blogposts. We now focus on one dam and show how ORE2_Tailings™ supports rational and sensible risk mitigation decision-making as requested by GISTM. The dam case The dam we selected for this example is inactive and is parallel to a valley bottom. An unprotected creek runs at its toe and the bed is considered to be sufficient for the 1/500 return. Beyond that flood, there will be…

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Tactical and strategic planning for dam portfolio using ORE2_Tailings

Tactical and strategic planning for dam portfolio using ORE2_Tailings is the third of a series of blogposts explaining how to use ORE2_Tailings™ results. Indeed it follows: Dam portfolio ORE2_Tailings support for decision makers and ORE2_Tailings supports ICMM global industry standard on tailings management conformance. We use the same figures we have developed in those prior discussions. Summary of the portfolio ORE2_Tailings™ results With respect to probability of failure The portfolio of ten dams is made of two “bad apple” dams…

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Convergent Leadership Divergent Exposures

The title of our new book is Convergent Leadership Divergent Exposures. The manuscript was delivered to our publisher on March 1st 2021 and should be published by July 29th 2021. How will Convergent Leadership Divergent Exposures benefit you? Today’s corporate, industrial and government decision makers must address risks and hazards on a scale never before encountered. As a matter of fact, policy makers and managers face complex business-as-usual hazards, black swans and Acts of God that can lead to devastating…

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Risk Management glossary update

We recently carried out a Risk Management glossary update. The reason for this update is the new book we will publish. Indeed, the book deals with a number of ongoing issues such as climate change, cyber attacks, ethics, and sustainability. These require us to define a series of new key terms. Where you can find the Risk Management glossary update You can browse through the Risk Management glossary update in its dedicated glossary page. There you can also download it…

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Ship blocked the Suez canal causing a six days business interruption

Recently the Ever Given Ship blocked the Suez canal causing a six days business interruption (BI). In the aftermath of the incident world media reported that never before a ship blocked in such a way the canal. They added “this is a black swan”, a usual preposterous statement. Many enterprises rely on third party companies for shipping goods. Approximately 10% of the global shipping volume goes through Suez Canal as the canal represent a shorter and safer route from Asia to…

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Neo-mythological risk animals

Various neo-mythological risk animals have caught the imagination of businesses and have had world-wide mediatic success. Unfortunately, sometimes even against their creators will, they generate a slanted image. Many use that image as it allows “iffy” constructs. Furthermore it offers an excuse for a classic human behavior. That is doing nothing and procrastinating. Let’s explain the point: black swans are defined by Taleb as “an unpredictable or unforeseen event, typically ones with extreme consequences” however they have been used and…

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Risk Management Guideline for Engineers

The Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board (CEQB) recently published a Risk Management Guideline for engineers. This post discusses some of the concepts and draws parallels with another upcoming publication. Our general comments on Risk Management Guideline for Engineers We saw a number of good points in the Guideline, for instance: a glossary, the clear call for hazard identification, some examples, and finally and perhaps more than anything, the fact it fosters engineers’ awareness for risks. We fully empathize with the desire to generate…

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