The goal to improve the resilience of social systems – communities and their economies – is increasingly adopted by decision makers. This unique and comprehensive Handbook focuses on the interdependencies of these social systems and the technologies that support them. Special attention is given to the ways in which resilience is conceptualized by different disciplines, how resilience may be assessed, and how resilience strategies are implemented. Case illustrations are presented throughout to aid understanding.

This book provides basics and selected advanced insights on how to generate reliability, safety and resilience within (socio) technical system developments. The focus is on working definitions, fundamental development processes, safety development processes and analytical methods on how to support such schemes. The method families of Hazard Analyses, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis are explained in detail. Further main topics include semiformal graphical system modelling, requirements types, hazard log, reliability prediction standards, techniques and measures for reliable hardware and software with respect to systematic and statistical errors, and combination options of methods. The book is based on methods as applied during numerous applied research and development projects and the support and auditing of such projects, including highly safety-critical automated and autonomous systems. Numerous questions and answers challenge students and practitioners.

Presenting critical insights on how economic activity is constrained by the environment’s ability to provide material and energy resources, this timely Research Agenda explores how humanity shapes, and is shaped by, environmental change and sustainability challenges. Chapters highlight how, under these constraints, people may seek to improve their lives and standards of living without undermining the abilities of others to do so now or in the future.

For Resilience Engineering, 'failure' is the result of the adaptations necessary to cope with the complexity of the real world, rather than a breakdown or malfunction. The performance of individuals and organizations must continually adjust to current conditions and, because resources and time are finite, such adjustments are always approximate. This definitive new book explores this groundbreaking new development in safety and risk management, where 'success' is based on the ability of organizations, groups and individuals to anticipate the changing shape of risk before failures and harm occur. Featuring contributions from many of the worlds leading figures in the fields of human factors and safety, Resilience Engineering provides thought-provoking insights into system safety as an aggregate of its various components, subsystems, software, organizations, human behaviours, and the way in which they interact. The book provides an introduction to Resilience Engineering of systems, covering both the theoretical and practical aspects. It is written for those responsible for system safety on managerial or operational levels alike, including safety managers and engineers (line and maintenance), security experts, risk and safety consultants, human factors professionals and accident investigators.

There has not yet been a comprehensive method that goes behind 'human error' and beyond the failure concept, and various complicated accidents have accentuated the need for it. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) fulfils that need. This book presents a detailed and tested method that can be used to model how complex and dynamic socio-technical systems work, and understand both why things sometimes go wrong but also why they normally succeed.

This handbook aims at modernizing the current state of civil engineering and firefighting, especially in this era where infrastructures are reaching new heights, serving diverse populations, and being challenged by unique threats. Its aim is to set the stage toward realizing contemporary, smart, and resilient infrastructure. The Handbook of Cognitive and Autonomous Systems for Fire Resilient Infrastructures draws convergence between civil engineering and firefighting to the modern realm of interdisciplinary sciences (i.e., artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics, sensing, and human psychology). As such, this work aims to revolutionize the current philosophy of design for one of the most notorious extreme events: fire. Unlike other publications, which are narrowed to one specific research area, this handbook cultivates a paradigm in which critical aspects of structural design, technology, and human behavior are studied and examined through chapters written by leaders in their fields. This handbook can also serve as a textbook for graduate and senior undergraduate students in Civil, Mechanical, and Fire Protection engineering programs as well as for students in Architectural and social science disciplines. Students, engineers, academics, professionals, scientists, firefighters, and government officials involved in national and international societies such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), among others, will benefit from this handbook.

This book considers the concept of resilience in a global society where coping with the consequence and long term impact of crisis and disaster challenges the capacity of communities to bounce back in the event of severe disruption. Catastrophic events such as the 9.11 terrorist attack, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the volcano eruption in Central Java entailed massive devastation on physical infrastructures, and caused significant social and economic damage. This book considers how the modern sociotechnological system facilitating human activity defines how societies survive and whether a crisis will be short-lived or prolonged. Drawing on the concept of sociotechnical resilience, this book closely examines a range of events North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. By presenting the successes and failures of sociotechnical resilience, it offers important insights and practical lessons to build better and comprehensive understandings of resilience in a real-world setting, significantly contributing to the study of disaster resilience.