The concentration of people and commerce in densely packed megacities has created interconnections between engineered and human-service systems that are susceptible to a single potentially hazardous event triggering others. We identify the interdependencies between engineered and human-service systems as well as the progression of hazardous cascading effects in the US context. The three purposes of this paper are (1) to determine how much attention is paid to cascading events in state and local hazard mitigation plans in the United States; (2) evaluate findings in the context of other environmental health programs in these places, noting that the paper is based on reviews of recent state and selected local hazard mitigation plans; and (3) offer suggestions for jump-starting focus on cascading events in hazard mitigation plans. Cascading events have not been a focus of US hazard mitigation plans, but we find a trend toward more attention, especially in states and cities that have a history of innovative environmental health and protection programs. Given a new administration in Washington, DC, we urge legislators and risk managers to be more aggressive about the challenge of cascading events.

中文翻译：

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级联危害和减灾计划：在美国预防级联事件

人口和商业在人口密集的特大城市中的集中在工程和人类服务系统之间建立了相互联系，这些系统很容易受到触发其他事件的单一潜在危险事件的影响。我们确定了工程和人工服务系统之间的相互依赖关系，以及在美国背景下危险级联效应的进展。本文的三个目的是 (1) 确定美国州和地方减灾计划中对级联事件的关注程度；(2) 在这些地方的其他环境健康计划的背景下评估调查结果，并指出该文件是基于对最近州和选定的当地减灾计划的审查；(3) 为在减灾计划中启动级联事件提供建议。级联事件并不是美国减灾计划的重点，但我们发现一种趋势更加关注，特别是在具有创新环境健康和保护计划历史的州和城市。鉴于华盛顿特区的新政府，我们敦促立法者和风险管理人员更加积极地应对级联事件的挑战。