Microsoft Word - Editor's Introduction


 
Editor's Introduction 
 
 
The present issue of Journal of Risk analysis and Crisis Response (JRACR), Volume 2, 
Issue 1 (2012) contains 8 papers. The former 5 contributions are written in English and 
others in Chinese with English abstracts. The papers can be divided into five categories: 
natural disaster, environmental risk, crisis management, industry safety and investment 
risk.   
 
There are three papers in the first category, the paper “Volcanic Risk Perception, Locus 
of Control, Stress and Coping Responses of People Living Near the PopocatÉPetl 
Volcano in Mexico” by Esperanza López-Váquez and Maria Luisa Marván, presents the 
difference between coping strategies of people living near the Popocatépetl volcano in 
Mexico. The residents with a limited educational background were more likely than those 
with higher education to use passive coping strategies. The paper “A Study on Residents’ 
Risk Perception in Abrupt Geological Hazard” by Anping Pan, carried out a 
questionnaire survey in Qingyuan County of China to understand residents disaster 
perception and actual evacuation behaviors. The results show that most of the population 
considers that their possessions and services would be affected. 54.9% residents in 
geological hazard risk believe their lives will be threatened. The paper “Research on Risk 
Assessment and Regionalization of Forest and Grassland Fires” by Li, Wu, Lv and Zhang, 
suggests a risk regionalization of grassland fire in Inner Mongolia. The authors consider 
rule of fires, distribution of high temperature points, characteristic of distribution of 
vegetation types, and the extent of road coverage.  
 
The second category, the “Environmental Pollution and Human Health Risks near a 
Hazardous Waste Landfill. Temporal Trends” by Rovira, Mari, Schuhmacher,  Nadal 
and Domingo, presents the human health risk assessment associated to the human 
exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and metals for the 
population living near a hazardous waste landfill in Catalonia, Spain. The current health 
risks in the area were within acceptable ranges, but it is recommended to continue the 
monitoring. 
 
The paper in the crisis management category is “How Crises Model the Modern World” 
by Lagadec and Topper. The authors believe that “black swans” are increasingly 
becoming the norm and proposed a new theoretical vision of crisis and crisis 
management. Their recommendations include leadership, rapid reflection force, facing 
the real world and the center for transatlantic relations advanced seminars.   
 
There are two papers in the industry safety category. The first paper “Perception of Risks 
in Nanotechnology: Determining Key Aspects in Chile” by POZO, Schmessane and et al., 
provides preliminary base-line data on public perceptions about the risks associated with 
nanotechnology and analyzes the current development of nanotechnology in Chile and 
the risks associated with the incorporation of this new technology. In the country, the 
main risks associated with nanotechnology relate to the lack of legislation and/or 

Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response, Vol. 2, No. 1 (March 2012), 1-2

Published by Atlantis Press 
      Copyright: the authors 
                      1



regulations in Chile in the area of science and technology. The second paper “A Method 
for Assessing Risk Rating of Natural Gas Pipeline Based on Accident Statistics” by Xu, 
Liu, Guo and Ji, analyzed 199 natural gas pipeline leakage accidents occurred in China 
and proposed a method to assess the natural gas pipeline risk rating. 
 
The last category includes one paper “Evaluating of Loan Guarantees Between Parent 
and Subsidiary Based on Vulnerable Option” by Li, Zhou and Lei, gives the valuation 
model under two different security methods, theoretically analyzes the influence of such 
critical factors as companies asset value and equity ratio to loan guarantees’ value and 
provides theoretical basis for the decision-making of loan guarantees. 
 
In 2012, more people are wondering any threats to the Earth. Yes, the Mayan calendar 
ends on December, 2012, but very few people believe that we are in the risk of the end of 
the world. Meanwhile “black swans” are increasingly becoming the norm, human risk 
analysis technology and crisis response capacity are  growing rapidly. 
 
I am grateful to the referees for their kind support and help. Thanks also go to the authors 
for all their submissions. 
 

Editor-in-Chief 
Chongfu Huang 

 
 
 

Published by Atlantis Press 
      Copyright: the authors 
                      2