Microsoft Word - Introduction for Volume 4, Issue 1


Editor’s Introduction 
 

Modern Society is a competitive society. Reducing existent costs is the ultimate goal of risk analysis and crisis response, 
which is an important means to enhance the competitiveness. In the present issue of Journal of Risk analysis and Crisis 
Response (JRACR), Volume 4, Issue 1 (2014), such efforts have been embodied in these papers.  

This issue contains 6 papers, which can be divided into four categories: risk management, human health risk, and risk 
analysis and risk assessment. 

The risk management includes three papers. The first paper “Risk Mitigation in Managing a Mega Project - A Case Study 
of Gomal Zam Dam Construction” by George Wang, Wei Hu and Colin Duffield, provides the background information 
of the Dam, the specifics of the project and challenges encountered.  It also presents the countermeasures and 
management techniques used under the multitude of uncertainties in this mega infrastructure project, the management 
lessons learned during the six years construction. The second paper “Average Life Expectancy as a Criterion for 
Regional Risk Management” by Prof. Timashev, describes principles and methodology of average life expectancy as a 
criterion for regional risk management. The third paper “On Risk and Disability – Investigating the Influence of 
Disability and Social Capital on the Perception and Digital Communication of risk” by Jörgen Sparf and Susanna Öhman, 
aims to examine how disabled people’s risk perception and preference for digital risk communication channels are 
influenced by disability in itself and by social capital. In this paper, A quantitative survey (N=6 500) was carried out in 
Sweden showing that while disability is not influential, social capital is. This differs from the results of previous studies 
on other population groups, which show that group specific factors do influence risk perception. This study suggests that 
due to the importance of social capital, institutions communicating risk information should build strong relationships 
with (local) disability associations and networks in order to communicate more effectively. 

There is one paper on human health risk, "New England Compounding Center Meningitis Outbreak: A Compounding 
Public Health Crisis" by Bolanle A. Olaniran and Juliann C. Scholl, that focuses on assessment of the NECC Meningitis 
Outbreak using the Anticipatory Model of Crisis Management (AMCM). Using the AMCM principles, it was found that 
NECC did not engage in an adequate vigilant decision making process.  

There is one paper on the risk analysis. The paper “A Cooperative Game Theoretical Approach to Risk Analysis, Using 
Network Structure” by Jun-ichi Takeshita and Hiroaki Mohri, introduces the framework for a cooperative game 
theoretical approach to risk analysis using network structure. 
 
The risk assessment includes one paper “Review of the strengths and weaknesses of risk matrices” by Mustafa Elmontsri. 
Risk matrices are commonly encountered devises used for rating hazards in different areas of risk management and 
almost in all industries. The apparent simplicity and transparency of risk matrices have made it very popular but recent 
research has identified a number of mathematical defects with risk matrices. This review article looks at the development 
of risk matrices and provides some of the advantages and disadvantages about the three types of risk matrices. Risk 
matrices are helpful tools for risk assessment as they use quantitative measures to ensure consistent method of 
determining risk but organizations should adjust the design and size of risk matrices to suit their needs. 
 
We sincerely thank to the referees for their strong support and kind help. And also thank the authors very much for all 
their contributions.  
 

Editor-in-Chief 
Chongfu Huang 

Professor, Beijing Normal University 
Email:hchongfu@gmail.com 

 
Director of Editorial Department 

Junxiang Zhang  
Associate Professor, Huangshan University 

 Email: peonyzjx@126.com 

Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response, Vol. 4, No. 1 (March 2014), 1

Published by Atlantis Press 
Copyright: the authors 

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