Identification and assessment of technical hazards in the context of national security

Apart from contemporary natural and socio-economic hazards, which are sources of crises, risks associated with human activity, and therefore technical threats, also play an important role in the context of the overall level of national security. These include fires, construction disasters, transportation disasters, failures and contamination. For the article purposes the results of statistical surveys of national and international sources of information on threats and results of surveys conducted in selected local administration units (n = 101) were used. The study period covered the years 1999-2014. Due to the occurrence of technical hazards, the losses they generated were indicated as well. In addition, the ways of classifying technical threats and thus their taxonomy were specified. The cause-and-effect analysis was applied for the proper identification of technical hazards. Moreover, the main reasons for the emergence of technical hazards, their course and characteristics, as well as the effects by category of property, the environment and human life were identified.