Prometheus Unbound

At the end of the nineties the field of risk assessment and management needs some new impulses for handling risks of nature, technologies, and human avtivities. This report introduces a new proposal with respect to the three main elements of risk analysis: risk assessment, risk evaluation, and risk management. First, the report demonstrates the need for new approaches in risk evaluation and management. Second, it analyzes the problems that need to be addressed when handling natural and technical disasters. Third, it presents a new classification scheme for characterizing risks. Based on this new classification, risk management requirements and desired political actions are described at the end.