Papers by Sunniva F Meyer
TØI Report, Dec 1, 2016
Norway is one of the countries that constructs the most road tunnels, and there are well over 1,1... more Norway is one of the countries that constructs the most road tunnels, and there are well over 1,100 in the country. Road tunnels are usually at least as safe as, or safer than similar roads in the open air, but they have a disaster potential related to vehicle fires. The report maps and describes the characteristics of fires and smoke without fire (SWF) in Norwegian road tunnels in the period 2008-2015. The average number of fires in Norwegian road tunnels is 0.02 fires per year per tunnel kilometres (24 fires per year per 1,134 tunnel kilometres). The average number of SWFs is 0.01 per year per tunnel km (14 SWFs per year per 1,134 tunnel kilometres). The study provides four main results. The first is that the fires and SWFs generally did not involve harm to people or tunnels. Of the 303 fires and instances of SWF, we know that 15 involved minor injury to people, 13 involved serious personal injury and eight involved death. All deaths and 10 of 13 serious personal injuries are related to fires and SWFs caused by traffic accidents. Seven large-scale tunnel fires in the period 2008-2015 caused smoke contamination for a total of 76 people. 92 of the 303 fires involved damage to vehicles and 33 involved damage to tunnels. The second main finding is that heavy vehicles are overrepresented in fires in Norwegian road tunnels. The third main finding is that the causes of road tunnel fires involving heavy (>3.5t) and light vehicles are different. Technical problems was a more than twice as frequent cause of fires and instances of SWF in heavy vehicles, than in light vehicles. The fourth key finding is that subsea road tunnels are overrepresented in the statistics of fires in Norwegian road tunnels. There are 33 subsea road tunnels in Norway. These have a high gradient, defined as over 5 %. In addition, there are 24 tunnels that are not subsea, but still have a high gradient. These 57 road tunnels, which together constitute 5 % of road tunnels in Norway, had 42 % of the fires and the instances of SWF in the period 2008-2015. Heavy vehicles were overrepresented in these fires, and technical problems were the most frequent cause. We discuss seven potential causes of the high number of fires in subsea road tunnels, and discuss the development in the four subsea road tunnels that have had the highest number of fires in the period.
Etatsprogrammet Moderne vegtunneler 2008-2011 : kartlegging av kjøretøybranner i norske vegtunneler 2008-2011
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on socially marginalised women: Material and mental health outcomes
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Socio-economic outcomes of COVID-19 on the marginalised: Who have taken the hardest hit?
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Safety and Reliability – Safe Societies in a Changing World
The aims of the present study are to 1) develop and test a scale measuring organizational informa... more The aims of the present study are to 1) develop and test a scale measuring organizational information security culture, and 2) examine its relationships to other aspects of information security. The study focuses on an organization providing critical infrastructure. We developed the scale by conducting qualitative interviews (N = 22) and three focus groups (N = 15) in an organization providing critical infrastructure, and by reviewing previous research on culture in organisations. Based on our literature review and the interviews, we chose to measure organizational information security culture by reformulating one of the few existing general organizational safety culture questionnaires. We first tested the questionnaire in a small pilot survey, and then conducted a questionnaire survey (N = 323) including all departments in the organization. Our examination of the factor structure of the scale indicated two factors. Regression analyses indicate that our adapted GAIN-scale, measuring organizational information security culture is the most important variable influencing information security behavior in the model. The study organization is a provider of critical infrastructure in Norway. As a provider of critical infrastructure, the study organization is obliged to follow the requirements of the Security Act ("Sikkerhetsloven") when it comes to preventive safety work, which includes safety analyses, securing objects, information security and safety drill. Based on these requirements, the study organization decided to map and analyse their own organizational security culture. Critical infrastructure means the facilities and systems that are completely necessary to maintain society's critical functions, which in turn meet society's basic needs and respond to the population's need for a perception of safety . The aims of the present study are to 1) develop and test a scale measuring organizational information security culture and 2) examine its relationships to other aspects of information security. Although note that the organisational security culture concept has gained recognition, they also underline that there is
The Engagement of Informal Volunteers in Disaster Management in Europe
SSRN Electronic Journal
Strategiske beslutninger foran publikum : en spillteoretisk analyse av betingelser for utbrudd av borgerkrig
Effekten av støttenettverk
2008/01910, 2008
Safety and Reliability – Safe Societies in a Changing World, 2018
The aims of the present study are to 1) develop and test a scale measuring organizational informa... more The aims of the present study are to 1) develop and test a scale measuring organizational information security culture, and 2) examine its relationships to other aspects of information security. The study focuses on an organization providing critical infrastructure. We developed the scale by conducting qualitative interviews (N = 22) and three focus groups (N = 15) in an organization providing critical infrastructure, and by reviewing previous research on culture in organisations. Based on our literature review and the interviews, we chose to measure organizational information security culture by reformulating one of the few existing general organizational safety culture questionnaires. We first tested the questionnaire in a small pilot survey, and then conducted a questionnaire survey (N = 323) including all departments in the organization. Our examination of the factor structure of the scale indicated two factors. Regression analyses indicate that our adapted GAIN-scale, measuring organizational information security culture is the most important variable influencing information security behavior in the model. The study organization is a provider of critical infrastructure in Norway. As a provider of critical infrastructure, the study organization is obliged to follow the requirements of the Security Act ("Sikkerhetsloven") when it comes to preventive safety work, which includes safety analyses, securing objects, information security and safety drill. Based on these requirements, the study organization decided to map and analyse their own organizational security culture. Critical infrastructure means the facilities and systems that are completely necessary to maintain society's critical functions, which in turn meet society's basic needs and respond to the population's need for a perception of safety . The aims of the present study are to 1) develop and test a scale measuring organizational information security culture and 2) examine its relationships to other aspects of information security. Although note that the organisational security culture concept has gained recognition, they also underline that there is
Understanding Fear and Unease in Open Domains: Toward a Typology for Deviant Behaviour in Public Space
The aim of the study described in this paper is to construct a typology for deviant behaviour tha... more The aim of the study described in this paper is to construct a typology for deviant behaviour that causes unpleasant incidents in public space. To investigate what sort of unpleasant incidents people might encounter, the study used a qualitative survey methodology whereby Norwegian respondents were asked to describe unpleasant incidents. Other studies often use data on criminal incidents that have been extracted from official records and thus ignore incidents that may cause fear without being serious enough to be reported. This study has demonstrated that to understand what makes people uncomfortable in public space we must study incidents that are deviant without breaking the law, as well as criminal behaviour. All types of deviance make people change their behaviour, but deviance motivated by sexual gratification seemingly makes people change their behaviour more frequently. Hence, policymakers should focus not only on preventing crime, but also on preventing deviant acts that cre...
European cities with car-free city centres
Vehicle Fires in Norweigan Road Tunnels 2008-2011
There are more than 1000 road tunnels in Norway. The report maps and describes characteristics of... more There are more than 1000 road tunnels in Norway. The report maps and describes characteristics of fires in Norwegian road tunnels 2008-2011. The study uses the following sources: 1) the electronic records of the Norwegian road traffic centrals, 2) road traffic central operators, 3) employees of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration working with road tunnel safety, 4) fire services, and 5) news archives. The average number of fires in Norwegian road tunnels per year is 21.25 per 1000 tunnels. The average number of smoke without fire is 12.5 per year per 1000 tunnels. Subsea tunnels are overrepresented among vehicle fires in Norwegian tunnels, and heavy vehicles (>3,5 t) seem, in turn, overrepresented in subsea tunnel fires. Technical problems seem to be the most frequent cause of these fires.
Practitioners with limited security resources lack appropriate guidelines when protecting targets... more Practitioners with limited security resources lack appropriate guidelines when protecting targets against mass-casualty attacks. Existing guidelines about prioritization between targets and protective security measures are either very abstract or consist of roughly collected advice. Combining game theory with practically oriented literature, such as situational crime prevention, crime scripts and crime prevention through environmental design, this dissertation establishes a systematic framework for prioritizing between targets and measures and provides concrete policy recommendations (given certain assumptions about motivation). I argue that: 1. If terrorists cannot be deterred from attacking, strategic authorities will ensure that the terrorists attack well-protected targets. Protection is desirable not only when it deters the terrorists from attacking, but also when it causes the terrorists to target sites that are less rather than more damaging for the authorities. When protecting against mass-casualty attacks, the authorities should give priority to potential targets with a high expected number of casualties, many foreigners, low employee density, many hiding places, many access points, high anonymity, high share of earlier attacks, and high system fragility. When protecting against explosive attacks on railway networks, the best protective security measures focus on limiting the damage caused by an explosive attack, rather than on reducing the probability of an attack's being successful. By thinking counter-terrorism when designing railway carriages, we may significantly reduce the expected damage caused by explosive attacks on railway. Many of this dissertation's models generate interesting empirically testable implications. Unfortunately, lack of appropriate data prevents proper testing of these empirical implications as well as testing of assumptions underlying the models; available datasets do not distinguish between attacks where the terrorists seek mass-killings and attacks where they do not. My policy recommendations are, furthermore, less concrete because of the very generic depiction of the terrorists in my models. To refine these recommendations, more
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2021
During emergencies, exposure to false information can increase individual vulnerability. More res... more During emergencies, exposure to false information can increase individual vulnerability. More research is needed on how emergency management institutions understand the effects of false information and what are the various approaches to handling it. Our document analysis and 95 expert interviews in eight European countries -Germany, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Norway, Finland, and Estoniashow that approaches vary considerably: some have instituted central management of identifying and tackling false information while others prioritise the spreading of accurate information. A review of national practices and an analysis of recent crisis cases show that both approaches may be necessary. The diffusion of false information is strongly affected by the lack of timely and verifiable information from governments. We also find that in several countries, the emergence of false information is often associated with malicious foreign influence activities. Our study contributes to a better understanding of how the effects of false information are mitigated by the emergency management systems in Europe.
Journal of Transportation Security, 2021
A security risk analysis was conducted to identify possible cyberattacks against a future transpo... more A security risk analysis was conducted to identify possible cyberattacks against a future transport system consisting of autonomous and connected vehicles. Six scenarios were developed: joyriding, kidnapping, domestic abuse, autopilot manipulation, a large transport accident, and paralysis of the transport system. Even if it were possible to increase the difficulty of conducting such cyberattacks, it might be impossible to eliminate such attacks entirely. Measures that limit the consequences will therefore be necessary. Such measures include safety measures in vehicles to protect their occupants in traffic accidents and measures that make vehicles easier to remove in case they do not function.
Disasters, 2021
While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, r... more While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. This study charts the practitioners’ approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Belgium; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Norway; and Sweden. It draws on a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a heuristic model to facilitate different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors. This could guide risk analysis of and planning for ...
Journal of Risk Research, 2021
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2015
Recent research has proposed fitting responses from discrete choice experiments to asymmetric val... more Recent research has proposed fitting responses from discrete choice experiments to asymmetric value functions consistent with prospect theory, taking into account respondents' reference points in their valuation of choice attributes. Previous studies have mainly concentrated on travel time and cost attributes, while evidence regarding road safety attributes is very limited. This paper investigates the implicit utility of a road safety attribute, defined as the number of casualties per year in alternative car trip choices, when safety improves or deteriorates. Using appropriate statistical tests we are able to reject symmetric preferences for losses and gains in the level of safety and estimate a sigmoid value function that exhibits loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity. This adds an interesting psychological dimension to the preference of road safety. Possible implications of this finding for policy making are discussed.
City, Territory and Architecture, 2015
Background: Homeland security measures increasingly affect urban life and activities. Standoff di... more Background: Homeland security measures increasingly affect urban life and activities. Standoff distance, which prevents unscreened vehicles from approaching within a certain distance of a building, is a widely applied measure when protecting buildings against attacks with vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. This measure both is rather inexpensive and has few negative externalities when implemented in rural areas. Unfortunately, sites with protection needs often are situated in city centres. Methods: We apply the so-called Security Function Framework to illuminate the externalities or the 'troublesome trade-offs' between protecting a high-value site against vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and protecting other urban values. Results: This paper demonstrates that standoff creates challenges for other important values, such as functional office spaces for all employees, deliveries and emergency vehicle access. Simultaneously, standoff creates opportunities for reinforcing social-responsibility requirements, such as accessibility for pedestrians and environmental considerations. Conclusions: Security measures can have both negative and positive externalities and planning might alleviate some of the negative ones.
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Papers by Sunniva F Meyer