Biggest CH risks - Failure Mobile Communications is a new addition
Three hazards have been identified as the greatest risks facing Switzerland: power shortages, pandemics and mobile communications failures. This is the finding of the federal government's Risk Report 2020, which has just been published. It serves as a basis for the further development of civil protection and is thus part of the comprehensive security policy in Switzerland.
In the national risk analysis "Disasters and Emergencies Switzerland 2020" (KNS), a total of 44 hazards relevant to population protection were systematically analyzed in terms of their possible extent of damage and their probability of occurrence or plausibility in order to determine the respective risk.
The biggest risks
The new national risk analysis identifies a prolonged power shortage in winter, an influenza pandemic and a failure of mobile communications as the three greatest risks, according to the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP). All three hazards would have a high damage potential with a relatively high probability of occurrence. The influenza pandemic scenario remained unchanged from the 2015 risk analysis, with roughly the same frequency and extent of damage. According to the FOCP, the number of expected personal injuries could be reduced in the power shortage scenario due to the measures taken since 2015, but the economic impact was estimated to be higher due to new findings. The failure of mobile communications, the third greatest risk, has been added to the catalog of hazards.
In addition, a number of other possible catastrophes and emergencies were examined, which also represent a relatively large risk. The ten greatest risks are:
- Power shortage
- Flu pandemic
- Mobile radio failure
- Heatwave
- Earthquake
- Power outage
- Storm
- Data center failure
- Rush of protection seekers
- Drought
Working tool for politics, federal government and cantons
The national risk analysis "Disasters and Emergencies Switzerland" is an important basis for the systematic planning of measures to prepare for disasters and emergencies, according to the FOCP. Political decision-makers could use the risk diagrams to make an assessment of which risks they wanted to accept and which needed to be reduced. Federal agencies, the cantons and numerous municipalities would also use the findings and KNS products for their own disaster preparedness. The KNS products would also be used for precautionary measures in the protection of critical infrastructures.
The risk report allows a transparent comparison of the risk potential of different events from the areas of nature, technology and society. The risk assessment of deliberately caused events such as attacks or cyber attacks was carried out in coordination with the Federal Intelligence Service, according to the report.
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