1. ^aAntwerp Research Group on Safety and Security (ARGoSS), University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, Antwerp 2000, Belgium. E-mail: ARGoSS@ua.ac.be
2. ^bInstitute of Transport and Maritime Management Antwerp, University of Antwerp, Keizerstraat 64, Antwerp 2000, Belgium

Abstract

Two aspects are important when it comes to guaranteeing an effective and efficient security policy in a chemical industrial cluster. The first issue involves obtaining an acceptable level of collaboration between the different enterprises forming the cluster. The second topic is to ensure that an adequate level of security personnel – quantitative as well as qualitative – is present on the cluster premises. At present, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no approaches are available for enhancing cross-company collaboration concerning security topics, or for evaluating security staffing levels. This paper elaborates a novel bi-leveled approach to deal with both these important security management aspects in chemical industrial areas. A framework is elaborated for helping company indoor security management to jointly carry out security vulnerability assessments. An additional framework is suggested to guide outdoor security management collaboration. Furthermore, an evaluation instrument is proposed to set adequate security manning levels.