Overview of Issues and Discussions in Regulatory Science and Engineering over the Past Four Years in Global Arena

摘要

Regulatory science and engineering (RS and RE) became increasingly needed by extensive people of our society to maintain safety, security, and sustainability of the environment, economy, energy, mineral and other resources of our planet, as science and engineering became increasingly globalized to meet the needs and wants of a variety of people and society in the world. [1]-[4] The current paper firstly discusses the concept of globalization in general, and evolution and globalization of science, engineering, technology and others (SETO) and their impact on our society to better understand globalizing roles of RS and RE. [5], [6] To this end, the author’s view of progressively changing SETO, and a systematic description of updated Pillars, Classes, Sub-classes, and Categories for Best Available Science, Metrics for Evaluation of Scientific Claims, and Metrics for Engineering and Technological Claims (BAS, MESC, and MEETC), proposed by Moghissi, are presented to discuss their roles, and steps required in RE and RS practice. [5], [6] Twenty three topics planned for the ASME/VUPRE Conference on Vulnerability, Uncertainty and Probability Quantification in Regulatory Engineering [1]-[4] is also presented to discuss magnitude of the scope of impact RS and RE may give on our society. Presentations and discussion at IMECE2012 Session 5-7-2 Globalization of Regulatory Engineering, [2] and discussion of the author’s paper on fatigue and fracture issues of offshore, mechanical, building, and civil engineering structures, and role of regulatory engineering, [3] prepared for the 9th International Conference on Fracture and Strength of Solids (FEOFS2013) in Jeju, South Korea [3] are included in the current paper to illustrate practical issues and applications of RS and RE. The current paper also includes discussion at Organized Session (OS) 7, entitled “Issues and Proposals in Rationalizing Regulations –Toward Quantification of Vulnerability, Uncertainty and Probability in Regulatory Science (RS) and Regulatory Engineering (RE)-” at Safety Engineering Symposium 2015, held by Science Council of Japan (SCJ) on July 2-3 in Tokyo, JSME Annual Meeting held on September 13-16, 2015 at Hokkaido University, and Japanese-French Symposium on Smart Cities held on September 15-16 at SCJ Building in Tokyo, in addition to those included in the IMECE 2013 paper of the author. [4] Prospective impacts of the outcome of the aforementioned discussions on the regulatory agencies, regulated communities, scientists and engineers, and general public in the United States, Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Japan are also discussed.