DEFRA Flood and Coastal Management Conference,

29 June – 1 July 2004 at the University of York

Title: Reliability Risk Analysis to aid Decision-Making

SYNOPSIS

There is a recognised need to develop practical guidance and tools which genuinely support a wide range of decision-makers, and information needs, within a coherent framework for risk, uncertainty and performance.

Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is a technique for reliability risk analysis that is widely used in aerospace, automotive and electronics industries. However, it has certain features that make it valuable in the field of flood risk management.

It is a systematic way of collecting and analysing all the different failure modes, their causes, effects, consequences. Consequences may be characterised in different terms: nvironmental impact, social impact, financial impact, and safety hazard to people. It produces results that provide a sound basis for establishing corrective actions and prioritizing them.

Moreover, its flexibility allows it to be adapted to provide further benefits –

• · quantitative results by combining economics with the engineering analysis;

• · consolidation of a large failure-mode data set into concise results, usable in the decision-making process;