A model of cost-effectiveness.

Building owners and managers can always make their facilities safer, but at what cost? Three years after the United States learned how vulnerable its landmark facilities were, a new software tool is being released that can help building owners and managers calculate and compare life-cycle costs of various methods used to reduce terrorist risk at buildings. Due out in beta version in September, with version 1.0 promised for March 2005 and a final version a year after that, the software "will allow building owners and managers to make comparisons among several alternative risk mitigation measures under different user-defined disaster scenarios," according to a recent report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The software is designed to assist with the last step of a three-step protocol (the three steps are, risk assessment, identification of mitigation strategies, and economic evaluation) devised by NIST for developing a cost-effective risk mitigation plan for constructed facilities. Software tools already exist to aid the first two stages, according to the report. For risk assessment, Sandia National Laboratories' RAMPART (Risk Assessment Method--Property Analysis and Ranking Tool) combines building-specific information with seismic, weather, and crime data, using a set of rules to predict the vulnerability of a building. Another tool, Hazards U.S. from the National Institute of Building Sciences, estimates damage from natural hazards using geographic data systems.

For mitigation identification, various software tools from NIST and other agencies enable engineering analysis, according to the report. NIST's CONTAMW, for example, simulates airborne contamination in a building over time. It was used to model the transport of anthrax spores in the Hart Senate Office Building in the October 2001 incident.

The bulk of the NIST report is devoted to comparing models for cost-effectively protecting buildings, specifically life-cycle cost, present value of net savings, savings-to-investment ratio, and adjusted internal rate of return. A case study depicts how a suburban data center evaluated these models when it was preparing to upgrade security and other systems.

@ "Cost-Effective Responses to Terrorist Risks in Constructed Facilities" is on SM Online. SM Online will also provide a link to the beta version of the cost-comparison software when it becomes available.