Foreword
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Small is beautiful…
The world's population growth and its increasing needs, technological progress, the evolution of the economy, the “shortening” of space and time, etc. - i.e. the “globalization” of life and activities - have led to the development of large cities, to advanced optimizations of manufacturing processes implemented in increasingly large factories and to the daily use of equipment (public transport, nuclear power plants, thermal power plants, etc.) to its full extent. This can lead to the increased risks of large-scale accidents caused by a design issue, through the use of a facility outside its operating range, through human error, or through an act of sabotage.
Our society is currently very “fragile” and we have to do everything in our power, from the facility design-stage onwards to detect a slight drift from the operating parameters, to analyze its causes and the potential danger, thus enabling solutions to be implemented at the earliest possible time. Similar operational strategies must be carried out. The supervision of systems and the processing of collected information are not always straightforward. Finally, for all of the main problems that might occur, we must create an operational plan to be put in place in case of a major accident. French and European authorities, in particular, are working towards that goal.
Several university laboratories are leading research projects in the area of supervision and several aspects linked to safety and security. They also consider the role of human error in these projects. “GIS Surveillance, Sureté et Sécurité”, founded in 2007, gathers together several university laboratories and other research and industrial organizations to analyze and study approaches to the supervision, safety and security of complex systems by using complementary approaches. This book gathers together most of the studies they have led in the first four years of GIS.
There is no such thing without risk…