Risk Maps

In class we discussed creating risk maps for different companies and industries. Professor Grace said his graduate students must create risk maps. We asked what is an example of a risk map, but Professor Grace does not give examples because he would receive a carbon copy of exactly what he provided. He said there are many ways to create a risk map, whether it be a chart with different sized dots on it representing the risks of the company or something like a graph with the risks represented by the bars. I do not know very much about risk mapping and was confused when the question arose about how to create a risk map. I decided to research more about types of risk maps and how they help companies.

I found this pdf file explaining how to use maps to show risk and how to calculate the risk.

http://www.agenarisk.com/resources/Using_Risk_Maps.pdf

These are 4 steps to define a risk map.
1. Consider set of events from given
perspective
2. For each event identify triggers and
controls
3. For each event identify consequences and
mitigates
4. Define probabilities for risk nodes

Companies use risk heat maps and calculate the risk by multiplying the likelihood by the impact. There are also causal models which show all the possible causes of the risk and link them together based on which have a stronger correlation. The only problem I see with this approach is some things that may be classified as causes may not be actual causes. The season and car fatalities could be seen as correlated or could also not be correlated. The only correlation I see is with weather not the season. For instance, snow and ice are characteristics of winter and they can cause plenty of accidents, but I would say the aspect with more correlation is weather. Looking at other seasons, I don't see how they could cause accidents or fatalities:just the weather, snow, sleet, rain, storms, etc.

Risk maps have many applications for assessing risks. Here is a website I found to build your own risk map.

www.agenarisk.com