T 1.11 The effects of catastrophes in the environment

Problems in the vicinity of a public body or company can lead to a spectrum of problems ranging from operational difficulties through to non-productive time. These can run from technical accidents and collision damage through to political unrest, demonstrations or riots (see also T 1.12 Problems caused by big public events).

An organisation's property can be exposed to various dangers from the environment through traffic (roads, rail, air, water), business operations in the neighbourhood or residential areas. These could be caused, for example, by fire, explosions, dust, gases, blocking of access, radiation, emissions (chemical industry).

Preventive or rescue measures could directly affect the property. Due to the complexity of building technical services and IT facilities, however, there can also be indirect problems.

Example

During a fire in a chemical operation in the immediate vicinity of a computer centre (approx. 1000 m away as the crow flies) a huge cloud of smoke developed. The computer centre had an air conditioning and ventilation system which did not have any external air monitoring sensors. It was only due to the thoughtfulness of a member of staff (the accident occurred during working hours) who followed the development and spread of the smoke that the outside air intake was manually switched off before it was too late.