A University of Arizona researcher has created a method and map that shows the relative level of threat of bioterrorism in 132 major cities in the United States. The map was created by Walter Piegorsch an expert on environmental risk and director of a new UA graduate program on interdisciplinary statistics. The map displays the level of risk based critical industries, ports, railroads, population, natural environment and other factors.
The map marks high-risk areas as red (for example, Houston and, surprisingly, Boise, ID), midrange risk as yellow (San Francisco) and lower risk as green (Tucson). The map shows a wide swath of highest-risk urban areas running from New York down through the Southeast and into Texas. Boise is the only high-risk urban area that lies outside the swath.
The model employs what risk experts call a benchmark vulnerability metric, which shows risk managers each city’s level of risk for urban terrorism.
The research, funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was published in a recent issue of Risk Analysis, a journal published by the Society for Risk Analysis.
{ 1 trackback }