vThe present book is meant to provide a basic understanding and insight to the issues of risk
analysis in civil engineering and has been written on the basis of a set of my lecture notes for
undergraduate students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, having no
or only little prior knowledge in the area. The material for the book has generally been
collected from what I find the best parts of already existing literature, including textbook
material, scientific publications and research reports. Based on my own experience from
consulting engineering and participation in industry development and research projects I have
attempted to present the material in a context and a form compatible with the “approach of the
engineer”. Aiming at highlighting the decision problems and their possible solutions. The cost
being that some mathematical precision is lost, the benefit – hopefully – being that the
potential practical significance of the presented material is more obvious.
It is important that the book is seen as an ongoing draft, evolving and hopefully improving
from semester to semester. In pursuing this I gratefully acknowledge the help of my
enthusiastic colleagues, Ph. D. students and assistants in my group.
Zürich, September, 2007
Prof. Dr. Michael Havbro Faber