What Dangers Do We Face? A Preliminary Multihazard Risk Profile for New York State

Keywords: Multihazard risk assessments.  New York State (NYS).  Natural hazards.  Technological hazards.  Weather.  Geophysical hazards.  Epidemiological hazards.  Man-made hazards.  Hazard mitigation.  Uncertainty.  Regional planning.

Abstract: Initiated in Fall 2006 and led by a 9-person planning studio from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, this report seeks to answer these questions: Which hazards are most likely to occur in New York State (NYS)?  Which hazards would be most dangerous?  How do we plan for disastrous events that are rare and full of uncertainty?  The report exclusively considers hazard mitigation, despite the implications of vulnerability reduction as a contributing factor to disaster alleviation.  The publication identifies five hazard categories: technological, weather, geophysical (i.e. natural hazards), epidemiological, and malicious/man-made.  It also offers an illustration of a risk scoring effort for NYS, though not a complete risk assessment of NYS.