Engineering Decisions for Life Quality: How Safe is Safe Enough?

Engineering Decisions for Life Quality: How Safe is Safe Enough? provides a foundation and a theoretical basis for managing risk to an acceptable level under the real-world constraint of limited resources. The focus is not on risks as such, but on what can be done to maximize the positive outcomes of risk in terms of improvements to the quality of life.


The principal focus of Engineering Decisions for Life Quality: How Safe is Safe Enough? is on the development of guidance for establishing rational standards of practice. Standards should meet the requirement of utilizing resources to achieve the maximum net overall benefit to society within society’s capacity to commit such resources. The book introduces an innovative and unique approach, balancing life safety with economy, that challenges evolving techniques and methods for managing risk, and that aims to maximize life expectancy while retaining good health.


The ideas discussed within this book will be of interest to engineers; advanced undergraduate and graduate students; public health officials; and risk specialists. For decision-makers there is also an emphasis on basic principles and requirements to serve the broader public interest, making this book a powerful tool to help define a reasonable trade-off between safety and economy.