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Dam Safety and dam incidents are treated here looked at from the "Human Factors" perspective. An attempt is made to explore these factors as an important drive in impairing dams' safety and increases their risks. Distinction is drawn between the "Normal Human Caused Incidents" and the "Extraordinary Human Caused Incidents" together with the description of their root origins and subsequent consequences. The first type includes unintentional mistakes, errors and flaws committed by the operators of dams inadvertently, in addition to negligence, lack of experience or overconfidence. Such failings can happen in manual operation of dams, or through the use of their Supervision, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems as in industrial control system (ICS). They can occur also due to flaws in software or even in the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in remote control operations. As for the second group; the extraordinary human factors, they are defined here as those committed by man with the full understanding of their possible damage. They are done purposely for destabilizing dams after thoughtful and carefully meditated decision making process and they are manifested in acts of war, sabotage and terrorists actions. In this modern age, these acts are characteristics of hackers' attacks on dam(s) operating systems. This is done through the use of cyberspace by the widespread interconnected digital technology with the accompanying advances in the communication technologies. As such, these technologies have made remote control of such systems possible. Not limited to this, dams remain now, as they were always in the past, the obvious targets in wars and conflicts to inflict losses on the enemy and to use them as weapons, and for terrorism actions for challenging governments. Examples of the aforementioned threats are described with examples given from real cases to elucidate the dangers involved. Lessons to be learned from these incidents are derived and recommendations are presented to be followed to avoid risky situations. ; Validerad;2020;Nivå 1;2020-09-29 (johcin)

When a dam is built, its safety becomes a constant concern for the owner, the public and for governments. Therefore, continuous observation through routine inspections and safety reviews become necessary. Acting as protectors of public safety, governments and professional organizations save no effort in the promulgation of legislations and laying out guidelines for such inspections and reviews. These issues are discussed here starting with the basic first step of visual inspections by the operators and the follow up of detailed safety reviews by specialists. Careful visual inspections assisted by instrumentation measurements may reveal an early negative issue such as, but not limited to, increased seepage, increased uplift pressure, signs of weakness like cracking in the body of the dam, or dams' slope sloughing, and even damaged hydraulic control equipment. Documenting and reporting these observation helps in taking remedial measures in good time and may lead to more intensive safety reviews. Suggested check lists for the inspection engineers are given here, but these may be tailored for each dam according to its needs. These lists cover issues common to both embankment and concrete dams, and include other specific issues related to each type of them. Metal equipment take their share by listing such areas as corrosion, fatigue and cracking, tear, and wear and so on. Instrumentation measurements are also given their due consideration by giving brief mention of types of measurements needed and points to be observed in instrumentation control work. Finally, guidelines, rules, and legislations for Dam Safety Reviews are generally discussed giving examples from four countries in the world. ; Validerad;2020;Nivå 1;2020-09-29 (johcin)

This book volume crafts an exciting, original account on the changes and requirements on managing human resources within the context of the new normal. Chapters in this book report on current research on the key constructs and processes underlying the management of human resources, both on an organisational strategic level as well as an individual employee level. Chapters compare current research trends in terms of future potential directions for the management of human resources within the context of the new normal. The book also critically evaluates the relevance, applicability and utility of the research findings and theoretical premises in various classical, current and potential emerging issues for research and practice in the smart digital technological world of work for human resource management. This volume approaches the concept of managing human resources with the new normal working context from a number of different angles. The authors have categorized them as conceptualizing human resource management in the context of the new normal (Part I), the critical issues in understanding the dynamics of strategic human resources management (Part II), critical issues in understanding the impact of the new normal on the psychology of employees (Part III), and the impact of the new normal on individuals with special needs (Part IV). The book ends in Part V of the volume, with an integrated reflection and conclusion on emerging issues for research and practice. The primary audience for this book volume is advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in human resource management, as well as scholars in both academic and new normal working contexts. Human resource management practitioners will also have an interest in this book volume.

Objective This study tests the reliability of a system (FINANS) to collect and analyze incident reports in the financial trading domain and is guided by a human factors taxonomy used to describe error in the trading domain. Background Research indicates the utility of applying human factors theory to understand error in finance, yet empirical research is lacking. We report on the development of the first system for capturing and analyzing human factors–related issues in operational trading incidents. Method In the first study, 20 incidents are analyzed by an expert user group against a referent standard to establish the reliability of FINANS. In the second study, 750 incidents are analyzed using distribution, mean, pathway, and associative analysis to describe the data. Results Kappa scores indicate that categories within FINANS can be reliably used to identify and extract data on human factors–related problems underlying trading incidents. Approximately 1% of trades ( n = 750) lead to an incident. Slip/lapse (61%), situation awareness (51%), and teamwork (40%) were found to be the most common problems underlying incidents. For the most serious incidents, problems in situation awareness and teamwork were most common. Conclusion We show that (a) experts in the trading domain can reliably and accurately code human factors in incidents, (b) 1% of trades incur error, and (c) poor teamwork skills and situation awareness underpin the most critical incidents. Application This research provides data crucial for ameliorating risk within financial trading organizations, with implications for regulation and policy.

The release of chemicals or chemical incidents can have dramatic consequences on human health and the environment. Health care professionals can provide invaluable help to respond to these events but appropriate training is limited in human health degrees in the European Union. Academics from De Montfort University (DMU, UK) and the University of Alcalá (UAH, Spain) are developing training to provide basic skills to future professionals to respond to chemical incidents. We comprehensively modified a successful previous training programme tested with pharmacists at UAH and created two research-led workshops with different levels of difficulty for the 2016/17 course at DMU: basic for Medical Science bachelor degree students; the other more specialised for Advanced Biomedical Science Master's students. The basic training consisted of selecting public health interventions to control urban environmental contamination. Master's students developed a complete plan to respond to a chemical incident including remediation of the environment using the novel recovery tools developed by Public Health England (UK). All undergraduate students highlighted that they learnt how to identify public health interventions to protect the public and 84% of the Master's students reported that they learnt how to tailor an appropriate recovery programme. The research-led workshops, methods and tools used facilitated the acquisition of skills to respond to future minor scale chemical incidents.

The framing strategies used by political actors to redirect blame for critical incidents that become highly politicized are examined. Military actions involving the failure of the Swedish Navy's submarine detection system in 1994 & the Dutch military's inability to prevent the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims near the Srebrenica region in 1995 are analyzed to determine which strategies European political actors used to deflect accountability for these incidents. Informed by crisis management theory, the extent to which these events were portrayed as violations of core values, products of endemic problems, or results of poor decision making by networks or certain powerful individuals is determined. A framework using multiple decision trees is subsequently presented to illustrate the various paths available to political actors who attempt to redirect blame for politicized incidents. Future research is urged to perform additional studies to demonstrate the strength of connection between political framing & accountability processes. 1 Figure. J. W. Parker

AbstractThis article aims to enhance understanding of selective politicization processes in policy failures and examine the attempts of policy-makers to use framing strategies to allocate blame. The policy response to alleged submarine intrusions in Sweden and Dutch military involvement in the fall of Srebrenica are the two case-studies used in this article. These cases will be analysed using three perspectives derived from the literature on framing: depicting events as violations of core public values; depicting events as operational incidents or as symptoms of endemic problems; allocating accountability and blame for the occurrence and/or 'mismanagement' of crisis. Finally, we present a conceptual framework of the different shapes that political blaming can take when certain framing strategies are adopted.