Risk assessment of critical infrastructures - New parameters for commercial ports

This paper presents a methodology for improving the scoring of the risks to commercial ports and understanding their real scope. This is accomplished by examining the key methodologies related to infrastructures in general and commercial ports in particular. After comparing the characteristics of the selected methodologies, the paper discusses the results of a survey of experts at Spanish ports and an analysis of almost two years of security statistics, the goal being to obtain realistic information about the importance of the various risks in order to specify suitable countermeasures and evaluate their costs. The results have enabled the identification of several new parameters that must be considered when assessing the risks to commercial ports, as well as enhancements to the definitions and use of some of the existing parameters. The new parameters include the intrinsic risk to a port, intrinsic risk to the type of terminal, accessibility, terminal layout and operational relevance of key elements to port operations (e.g., structures, railroad facilities and warehouses). The results presented in this paper have been validated by an expert panel.