A new tool from VTT for the economic evaluation of security solutions for urban areas

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd has developed an economic evaluation procedure, RESEC, to enable authorities, urban security planners, and risk management professionals to evaluate the costs and benefits of security solutions for urban environments.

Urbanisation provides benefits through the centralisation of people, activities and capital. Meanwhile, as cities grow, natural disasters and intentional criminal acts can have more severe short-term impacts on and larger-scale consequences for economic growth and welfare as well as urban security.

RESEC – a procedure and planning tool to support decision-making

Crisis preparedness and urban security can be improved by means of various security solutions and protective measures. In decision-making, it is important to assess what kind of protection and benefits are provided by different types of investments and how much they cost. In addition to investment costs, decision-makers should consider, as widely as possible, the monetary and non-monetary benefits of security solutions and measures, including security and the sense of security, together with other factors affecting the decision.

A workbook published by VTT describes the economic evaluation procedure and software tool, which can be used to evaluate the costs and benefits of security solutions and protective measures for urban environments over the long term.

RESEC supports investment planning and decision-making particularly in situations in which a need exists to increase urban security and reduce risks. Use of the evaluation procedure helps to ensure that factors related to new security solutions and measures, as well as various implementation options, are carefully considered before any investment decisions are taken. RESEC highlights matters that are of significant importance to decision-making and integrates them into the discussion on decisions related to urban security.

RESEC is intended for authorities and urban security and risk management professionals.

The RESEC evaluation procedure and related software tool have been developed as part of the HARMONISE project (A Holistic Approach to Resilience and Systematic Actions to Make Large-Scale Built Infrastructure Secure), funded by the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme. The objective of the project is to create an extensive concept for enhancing the security, resilience and sustainability of cities.