2006 L Aquila Earthquake Case Study

192 Words1 Pages
2006 L’Aquila earthquake hit Italy, for example, judges have had to determine whether scientists and authorities were criminally responsible for failing to adequately assess L’Aquila’s risks and for providing false assurances. Beyond the basic tenuousness of putative objective assessments, systematizing frameworks often conceal subjective value judgments and preferences. Because “numerical estimates of risks, costs, and benefits are [rarely] impartial reflections of factual reality,” at numerous junctures of decision-making, simply employing “alternative assumptions, valuation techniques, discount rates, and other seemingly technical trappings” can dramatically alter normative assessments. The same considerations apply to evaluations of