ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we explored several methods for risk assessment. We showed that risk can be assessed either in relative terms or in absolute terms. Whenever risk-based processes in civil infrastructures are followed, the assessment usually consumes the greater part of the total effort, and leaves other equally important components of the risk management process with relatively unstudied. Perhaps, the least attention is given to the acceptance threshold, that is, is the justquantied risk level acceptable when compared to the yet-to-be-assigned risk acceptance threshold? In general, risk acceptance thresholds are not well dened in the early stages and are usually ignored until the later stages of management practice. Thus, if it is assigned an arbitrary value without rigorous studies, the acceptance threshold might render the whole risk management effort less accurate and, in some cases, unnecessarily expensive.
