A Short Overview of Risk Analysis Background and Recent Developments

The objective of this review is to analyze the advances in risk analysis during the past 30 years and to offer an overview on its recent progress and applications for chemical and process industries. Although the general approach of quantitative risk assessment (QRA) remains unchanged since its origin, QRA has continuously evolved in different forms. Its fields of application have enlarged significantly beyond process safety, becoming a fundamental tool for the development, continued operation, and expansion of process installations. On the other hand, QRA limitations, such as its inability to update the risk picture, led to the development of recent dynamic risk assessment approaches, for which methodological contributions are introduced in this chapter. This demonstrates that risk analysis is in continuous development, but a way forward leading to real-time support to decision-making is suggested.