Regional Risk Analysis: A Coordinated Effort

by Liz Jackson of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of National Capital Region Coordination (NCRC), William McGill of The Pennsylvania State University, and Chris Geldart of the URS Corporation and former Director of NCRC

Risk assessments are being conducted more frequently as localities seek to enhance their preparedness and mitigate and manage risk with regard to all-hazard events.  In the National Capital Region (NCR), a risk analysis was recently conducted that built on previous assessments and further contributes to a regional risk picture.  This paper describes the development of the 2008 NCR Strategic Hazards Identification Evaluation for Leadership Decisions (NCR SHIELD) regional risk analysis, which includes both a risk assessment and strategic approach to risk management.  It begins with a discussion of the difficulties that must be overcome to ensure executive decision makers align their thinking and pursue a common goal of assessing regional risk to inform their decision-making processes and, in turn, how they mitigate and manage risk at the strategic level.  The paper concludes with information on the conduct of NCR SHIELD and outlines a stakeholder-engaged process for further developing a multi-jurisdictional approach to risk management.

The full paper is available on the CIP website at http://cip.gmu.edu/archive/RegionalRiskAnalysis_FINAL.pdf.