The Essence of Integral Safety Engineering for Society

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of Integral Safety Engineering for Society. Safety is a fundamental concern for any society, and in the Netherlands, the responsibility for managing safety and risk protection is distributed across various national government authorities. Safety-related legislation and regulations are organized into specific domains; however, these regulations are typically not intersectoral, are not based on geographic considerations, and are only minimally integrated into the life cycle of structures or the construction process. Furthermore, they are seldom aligned with national spatial planning strategies or urban development plans. While the introduction of new environmental laws has fostered increased interaction between safety domains, a unified, comprehensive approach to safety remains lacking. From a societal perspective, it is essential to adopt both a holistic view of all safety domains and ensure their integration to manage safety risks in a socially responsible, acceptable, and tolerable manner.