RISK PERCEPTION AND RISK MANAGEMENT - ON KNOWLEDGE, RESOURCE-ALLOCATION AND EQUITY

This article is an outgrowth of the opening article given at a pair of invited sessions on ''Risk Perception versus Risk Analysis'' at the P SAM 3 Conference held on Crete in June 1996. The first introductory se ction provides some review of the relevant issues and raises some gene ral questions about possible changes in the emphasis and directions of research on risk perception and related social science studies. The s econd section looks in a little more detail at issues related to publi c participation in the deliberations and decision-making concerning si gnificant societal ventures involving risk. Section 3 examines the rol e and importance of knowledge in risk perception. The relatively brief fourth section raises questions about the public's perception of geol ogic disposal of high-level radioactive wastes as something catastroph ic, to be ''dreaded''. Section 5 looks at the bases for allocation of resources for improving the public health and safety. And the sixth se ction examines intragenerational equity and the conflict which can ari se between it and intergenerational equity. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited.