Risk aversion in life safety risk guidelines for dams

The concept of risk neutrality as opposed to risk aversion is discussed in the paper. The author also analyses current risk guidelines, with examples of risk-neutral and risk-averse guidelines. The differences in how the criteria have been set by different organizations and different regulatory regimes are highlighted in the paper. The paper provides a brief discussion on both individual and societal risk and proposes some corrections to the way the societal risk criteria are being developed.