Catastrophic Impact and Loss The Capstone of Impact Assessment

The author’s previous work, Managing Emerging Risk: The Capstone of Preparedness considered the notion of risk and what constitutes risk assessment. It presented scenarios to introduce readers to areas of critical thinking around probability and possibility. Six months after the book’s publication, many of the scenarios came true, and other, more menacing risks emerged. Catastrophic Impact and Loss: The Capstone of Impact Assessment is the second stone to be laid in a path toward a more mindful practice of emergency management, focusing on the impacts caused by risk and offering a complete approach to measure and manage them. Providing a true understanding of what it is to be "in harm’s way," this essential book details the devastation and effects that both public and private enterprise must be prepared for in the event of a catastrophe. The book examines: Impact assessment as an essential piece of information and the fundamental flaws that hinder the process The development of the digital age and postmodernism and the five guiding principles of postmodern impact assessments How to establish an impact horizon and effect a clear scope statement that includes all in-scope and out-of-scope assets and locations Problems that occur when we fail to create impact assessments that align with internal organizational values, federal and state laws, or industry regulations—and how to use the guiding principles to address these problems Methods for developing solid analytical models for impact assessment—exacting logical, relevant, and clear language and taxonomies How to address overrides and deviations based on expert opinion, cultural needs, and the application of common sense Key challenges in postmodern business impact assessment and how we can best meet those challenges by understanding the concept of the uncanny valley Readers who master the principles in this book will better understand the link between the potential damage of an event and how information informs every decision to prepare for, respond to, mitigate, and recover.

The Postmodern Impact Assessment and Problems of the Mind Overview: Risk and Impacts Why Risk Assessments and Impact Assessments Are Different Approaching the Impact Assessment The Evolution of Impacts Susie’s Lemonade Stand A Fundamental Flaw A Larger Problem Reconsidering the Impact Analysis and Problems of the Mind Objects and Critical Thinking: Apple, Cabinets of Curiosity, and a Dark Nostalgia Objects in the Digital Age Objects in Japan Today: A Different Worldview Objects in the Age of Enlightenment Applying Seba’s Curiosities to Impact Assessments A Dark Nostalgia Five Guiding Principles for Postmodern Impact Assessments Overview: A Fundamental Flaw and the Five Guiding Principles Looking Deeper at the Evolution of Impacts The BP Oil Spill of 2010: A Postmodern Failure Stakeholders in an Impact Assessment Five Guiding Principles for Postmodern Impact Assessments Understanding the Second Phase in an Emergency Management Program: Conducting a Potential Impact Assessment The Second Phase—Five Guiding Principles for Postmodern Impact Assessments Summary of the Five Principles of Potential Impacts Analysis Revisiting: Postmodernism, Revolution, and the Public Sector The First Principle: Establish the Impact Horizon Overview: A Fundamental Flaw and the Impact Horizon Taking a Wide-Angle View of Potential ImpactsImpacts and Criticality The Impact Horizon and Public Perception The Amazon Cloud Computing Outage of 2011 The Importance of Stakeholders and Establishing the Impact Horizon The Business Continuity Perspective The Emergency Management Perspective The Counterterrorism Perspective The Public/Private Impact Horizon—Mixed Impacts from the 2008 Financial Crisis Delivering the Impact Horizon The Second Principle: Align Impact Measures to Core ValuesOverview: An Underlying Problem and the Alignment to Core Values Postmodern Culture and the Importance of Messaging from the Core during a Crisis Hurricane Katrina, August 2005: Off Message and Off Mission The Joplin, Missouri, Tornado of 2011: Off Message and Off Mission The Oslo Terror Attacks: On Message and On Mission In the Private Sector—Core Values and Measurable Impacts Delivering Alignment to Core Values Why the Second Principle Matters The Third Principle: Consider and Align National and State Laws and Industry Regulations Overview: Addressing Underlying Problems with Federal and State Laws and Industry Regulation The Third Principle and the Private Sector Standards and Regulations In the Business Arena In Healthcare New Orleans, August 23, 2005—Katrina Know the Terrain HIPAA 5010 NCPDP The Dodd-Frank ActDeliverables in Compliance with the Third Principle Postmodern Culture: Legal Challenges and the Regulatory ClimateAbout Posse Comitatus Why the Third Principle Matters Taking a Second Look at the Third Principle Overview Hurricane Irene, 2011: A Case Study in Legal Action and Regulatory Response Hurricane Irene—On Message The Tale of Two Hurricanes—A Critical Comparison The Backdrop—A Nation in Conflict over Freedom and Safety Applying Resources to Irene Based on Potential Impacts While Following the Third PrincipleA Thorny Problem A Low-Profile, Highly Tactical Response Negative Public Perception Changes in the Military Structure In Summary: Irene and Other Impacts The Fourth Principle: Apply Rigorous Data Overview: Applying the Second and Third Principles and Creating a Range of Criticality Values Based on a Logical Order and a Common TaxonomyThe Impact Assessment as a Business Case Establishing Ranges of Criticality Values Using Logic and the Weighted Scores Getting Started with Data Normalization in the Weighted Criticality Score Values The Range of Criticality Score Values and the Placement of Objects in the RangeCreate a Range of Criticality Apply the Weighted Score to Individual Objects Applying Common Logic Core Objects and Metadata Applying a Common Taxonomy A Proposed Taxonomy Framework Using Big Data to Create Ranges of Criticality—A Better Approach Generating the Weighted Score and Ranges of Criticality with Big Data The Set of Objects as Big Data What Is an Object, and How to Determine Criticality Based on the Conjunction of Expert Interviews and Big Data Back to the Weighted Score and the Rigorous Application of Data Creating a Range of Criticality Based on Big Data The Fifth Principle: Document Deviations and Overrides Overview: Documented Deviations and Overrides Why Deviations and Overrides Occur Personal Biases Expert Opinion Cultural Issues International Law Cultural Perspectives: India Cultural Perspectives: Japan Cultural Perspectives: Israel International Finance Into the Uncanny Valley Overview: Potential Impact Assessments and Realism A Larger Problem Realism The Clear Choice during Turbulent Times The Choice The Uncanny Valley Studies in the Uncanny Valley The Otaku’s Curation of the Uncanny The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake The Unexpected Impact—A Sea of Debris Insurrections and Earthquakes The Ethical Choices We Must Make Shepherding the Organization through the Uncanny ValleyIndex

Kevin D. Burton has been an active practitioner of the business continuity and disaster recovery disciplines since 1994. As a senior consultant at one of the "big two" disaster recovery consultancies, he had the responsibility of servicing the unique needs of e-businesses and highly mature n-tiered application architecture frameworks in the late 1990s. During this period, his clients included May Company Stores, Cattelus Corporation, Sun America Financial, Homestore.com, Dole Foods, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and PeopleSoft.