Wildfires Wildfires have been in news this year, perhaps most notably in Hawaii, where hurricane winds, parched grass, and electrical sparks combined to create a fire that consumed a town. Closer to home, fire services were stretched to the limit when wildfires struck across the UK last year. This Hazards Forum event demonstrates how this

AI workshop In July, the Hazards Forum had the pleasure of visiting the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) site in Buxton, UK. The HSE kindly hosted our hybrid Artificial Intelligence (AI) workshop which brought together presenters from Thales, Office for Nuclear Regulation and University of York, along with other experts in the hazards fields, both in-person and online.  Workshop objectives The Emerging Technology Interest Group

Climate change adaptation and resilience: standards and their application The world is already experiencing climate change impacts; the summer heat wave in the UK and flooding in Pakistan being recent examples.  While there is rightly a focus on mitigation and reaching net zero, there is also a need to focus on adaptation.  Adaptation is the

Nuclear Fusion: Technology Risk The Hazards Forum hosted Nuclear Fusion: Technology Risk as a hybrid event, at the home of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), at One Great George Street, London and online. The event was chaired by Dr Lavinia Raganelli, a risk and safety consultant at Corporate Risk Associates. Our first speaker, Valerie

Nested Dependencies and Unconscious Connectivity The modern world survives and thrives on complex interconnected systems which normally interface seamlessly and give efficiency and productivity.  These systems are complex to develop and engineer but may be entirely un-noticed by the end user.  The COVID pandemic has highlighted the interdependencies of both societal and engineered systems, whilst

Regulation of chemicals (Part 2) Risk management within the new UK REACH framework Part two of our mini-series on the regulation of chemicals, regulators and policy makers focused on UK REACH – a new framework of chemical regulation in the UK post-Brexit. We discovered how it will go about tackling the UK’s first ‘substances of

Covid-19: Science and evidence on environmental transmission and modelling Our three speakers gave a fascinating insight into how Covid-19 challenges the science and evidence around environmental transmission and modelling. All three are active participants in Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) and co-chairs of the Sage Environmental Modelling Group. The seminar was held on March

The underpinning risks, challenges and opportunities of Open Data To celebrate Open Data Day on 6 March 2021, we hosted a panel discussion to explore the potential of open data in land development. Our panellists talked about what’s blocking its use, and how these challenges could be met. James Madison, from the Open Data Institute

Regulation of chemicals In the first part of our joint event with the Institution of Civil Engineers, we hosted an hour long webinar on the 1st of December 2020 to discuss the ever-present issues with regulating manufactured chemical products.  Attracting a wide online audience, we learned from key regulators that from time to time, chemicals

Managing the risks and consequences of a large polluting accident Published 7th October, 2020 by Nick Shaw, Chair of Hazards Forum’s Board of Trustees J for judgement: a new value to manage risks and consequences of large polluting accidents? Summary One hundred people watched this hour-long online event, held on 15 September 2020. They were

Maintaining nuclear safety during a pandemic Published 7th October, 2020 by Nick Shaw, Chair of Hazards Forum’s Board of Trustees Back in March 2020 as the world was changing rapidly in-line with the exponential curve of what we now know as Covid-19, all organisations were wrestling with the notion of how to respond.  In July

Safety in space Published 7th October, 2020 A New Frontier, a report on an event at the Institution of Civil Engineers on 19 March 2019 Our March 2019 event saw us partner with the Safety and Reliability Society (SaRS) to present ‘Safety in Space – a new frontier’ – a topic area not previously considered