Assignment task:
Please respond to the passage below with insight
According to FEMA (2011) risk is commonly described as the likelihood of an unwanted occurrence or event. Risk can be mitigated by determining vulnerabilities and working to either get rid of or lessen them. Mitigating these vulnerabilities can take a lot of time and money. This means that soft targets, such as malls, may not have the resources to mitigate their vulnerabilities as areas such as the Pentagon or a military base. Due to this, attacks on soft targets have increased while attacks on hard targets have either decreased or been prevented. The GTD, Global Terrorism Database, shows an increase of 70% between 2011 and 2012 that could be attributed to improved efficiency in reporting terrorist attacks (Miller, 2016). However, the increase also reflects patterns of terrorism in those areas. Terrorist attacks against critical infrastructure, such as dams and levees, may not have as many individuals hurt during the actual attack but may affect more individuals than attacks against buildings (FEMA, 2011). Terrorist attacks against critical infrastructure account for 75% of the terrorist attacks in the United States from 1970 to 2015 (Miller, 2016).
Exposure to a risk would be categorized as those who are immediately harmed by an unwanted occurrence or event. If a dam or levee were to be targeted, the target would have less exposure than if someone were to attack a mall. However, the side effects of the attack on the dam or levee could make it more serious. The attack on the dam or levee could cause flooding that causes drowning, an inability for emergency services to reach those that need help, and illnesses such as cholera. In comparison, an attack on a high exposure area, such as a mall, may have a lower number of victims causing an attack on a dam or levee, which could possibly have the effect of taking out an entire city or town, to possibly be considered more serious.
Reference
FEMA (2011). Buildings and Infrastructure Protection Series Reference Manual to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks Against Buildings. Department of Homeland Security.
Miller, Erin. Terrorist Attacks Targeting Critical Infrastructure in the United States, 1970-2015. College Park, MD: START, 2016