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2 Eur. J. Sec. Rsch. 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/eupnjfos2 and id is 1 raw text is: Eur J Secur Res (2017) 2:1-3 CrossMark DOI 10.1007/s41125-017-0014-8 I )Q >RA LAi Editorial Stefan Hiermaierl Published online: 7 March 2017 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 Terrorist attacks, natural disasters, catastrophic technical failures and human errors: these are a variety of so-called disruptive events that are harmful to vital components of societies and can be lethal to more or less randomly affected individuals. For society to avoid the effects of disruptive events, to reduce their impact if and when they occur and to recover as quickly as possible, a holistic approach seems inevitable. Protective technologies, data acquisition and processing for precise situation awareness, governance and control in the immediate reaction phase as well as legal conformity and societal acceptance are all part of a requisite integrated solution. The articles published in this issue of the European Journal for Security Research present ideas and possible solutions in response to this complex multi- disciplinary challenge. The broad spectrum of several recent incidents illustrates the respective dimensions involved: A catastrophic accident involving two commuter trains in Bad Aibling, Germany in February 2016. The small town of Simbach, Germany witnessed a deadly flooding in June. In July a terrorist killed more than 80 people in Nice, France and another one injured 15 people in a suicide bombing in Ansbach, Germany. Hurricane Matthew hit the Caribbean in September. In October, a fatal explosion at a BASF chemical facility killed several people. A Tsunami hit New Zealand in November. And in December, yet another terrorist abused a truck to commit a fatal attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Some of these events were known, yet could not be prevented, some were unexpected. Some can also be seen ex post as examples of positive security measures: successful preparation, protection and recovery. Finally, some probably caused more damage than necessary. ® Stefan Hiermaier stefan.hiermaier@inatech.uni-freiburg.de Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH), Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Emmy-Noether-StraBe 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany Springer