Risk Analysis: Celebrating the Accomplishments and Embracing Ongoing Challenges

Abstract

As part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Society for Risk Analysis and Risk Analysis: An International Journal, this essay reviews the 10 most important accomplishments of risk analysis from 1980 to 2010, outlines major accomplishments in three major categories from 2011 to 2019, discusses how editors circulate authors' accomplishments, and proposes 10 major risk-related challenges for 2020-2030. Authors conclude that the next decade will severely test the field of risk analysis.

The Evolving Field of Risk Communication

“…Since its inception in August 1980, the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) has played an influential role in the evolution of risk communication research (Aven, 2018;Thompson, Deisler, & Schwing, 2005). SRA's flagship journal, Risk Analysis, has published a raft of risk communication scholarship (Greenberg et al, 2012(Greenberg et al, , 2020Thompson et al, 2005), including oft-cited seminal articles on the social amplification of risk framework (Kasperson et al, 1988), trust Slovic, 1993), the devel-opment of risk communication (Fischhoff, 1995), and the importance of affect in risk perception (Slovic, Finucane, Peters, & MacGregor, 2004), to name a few. Between January 2010 and December 2019 an estimated 329 risk communication articles were published in the journal.…”

Chemophobia and passion: why chemists should desire Marcel Proust

“…It is noted that chemophobia continues to limit the willingness to use highly effective countermeasures against mosquitoes, such as indoor residual spraying. This is despite the fact that this insect “has already contributed to billions of human deaths and chronic misery” [ 27 ].…”

Bayesian networks for risk analysis and decision support

“…For over 40 years, there have been significant advancements in the theory, methods, and application of risk analysis (Greenberg et al., 2020). The focus of the field has been on answering questions ranging from the identification of what can go wrong to how key stakeholders can be informed of the outcomes of risk analysis for purposes of decision making (Greenberg et al., 2012).…”

“…The field has benefited from technological developments that have made significant amounts of cross‐sectional and longitudinal data available for risk analysis. Increased data availability has also made increasingly sophisticated risk assessments possible (Choi & Lambert, 2017; Greenberg et al., 2020).…”