Addressing challenges for future strategic‐level emergency management: reframing,networking, and capacity‐building

The mounting frequency and intensity of natural hazards, alongside growing interdependencies between social‐technical and ecological systems, are placing increased pressure on emergency management. This is particularly true at the strategic level of emergency management, which involves planning for and managing non‐routine, high‐consequence events. Drawing on the literature, a survey, and interviews and workshops with Australia's senior emergency managers, this paper presents an analysis of five core challenges that these pressures are creating for strategic‐level emergency management. It argues that emphasising ‘emergency management’ as a primary adaptation strategy is a retrograde step that ignores the importance of addressing socio‐political drivers of vulnerabilities. Three key suggestions are presented that could assist the country's strategic‐level emergency management in tackling these challenges: (i) reframe emergency management as a component of disaster risk reduction rather than them being one and the same; (ii) adopt a network governance approach; and (iii) further develop the capacities of strategic‐level emergency managers.     

Collaborative emergency management: better community organising, better public preparedness and response

Community coordination requires communication and planning of precautions to take when faced with a severe threat of disaster. The unique case of the four Florida hurricanes of 2004--Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne--is used here to assess community responses to repeated threats of hurricanes. The paper examines how effectiveness in coordinating community disaster response efforts affects future public preparedness. The findings suggest that pre-season planning, open communication between emergency managers and elected officials, and the use of technology all had a significant impact on community responses. The repeated threat scenario indicates that emergency managers must work vigilantly to keep residents informed of the seriousness of a situation. The study describes how emergency managers in Florida countered public complacency during four hurricanes in six weeks. The strategies identified as useful by public managers in the context of hurricanes are applicable to other natural and man-made disasters.     

New tools for emergency managers: an assessment of obstacles to use and implementation

This paper focuses on the role of the formal response community's use of social media and crowdsourcing for emergency managers (EMs) in disaster planning, response and recovery in the United States. In‐depth qualitative interviews with EMs on the Eastern seaboard at the local, state and federal level demonstrate that emergency management tools are in a state of transition—from formal, internally regulated tools for crisis response to an incorporation of new social media and crowdsourcing tools. The first set of findings provides insight into why many EMs are not using social media, and describes their concerns that result in fear, uncertainty and doubt. Second, this research demonstrates how internal functioning and staffing issues within these agencies present challenges. This research seeks to examine the dynamics of this transition and offer lessons for how to improve its outcomes—critical to millions of people across the United States.     

Emergency preparedness consultants at the local government level: the Israeli experience

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Municipal Emergency Consultation project in eight Israeli local authorities. The initiative centres on the appointment of independent emergency preparedness consultants entrusted with tailoring an emergency preparedness package to suit the specific needs of each locality. Regarding emergency preparedness improvements, in all of the municipalities examined, a concept of municipal emergency operation was consolidated and the derived emergency plan tested. Emergency work processes were structured and service‐level agreements reached between municipality departments. Where necessary, a‐linear patterns of municipal functioning in an emergency were established. Concerning a ‘spillover’ of emergency preparedness improvements into routine operations, and a ‘spillover’ of routine management improvements into local emergency preparedness, two municipalities near Gaza, which typically function in an emergency routine, saw a significant ‘spillover’ of emergency preparedness into routine functioning. In other localities, local managers chose to improve a number of municipal structures and procedures in times of routine functioning, which are also related to the functioning of the municipality during an emergency.     

How emergency managers (mis?)interpret forecasts

Emergency managers who work on floods and other weather‐related hazards constitute critical frontline responders to disasters. Yet, while these professionals operate in a realm rife with uncertainty related to forecasts and other unknowns, the influence of uncertainty on their decision‐making is poorly understood. Consequently, a national‐level survey of county emergency managers in the United States was administered to examine how they interpret forecast information, using hypothetical climate, flood, and weather scenarios to simulate their responses to uncertain information. The study revealed that even emergency managers with substantial experience take decision shortcuts and make biased choices, just as do members of the general population. Their choices vary depending on such features as the format in which probabilistic forecasts are presented and whether outcomes are represented as gains or losses. In sum, forecast producers who consider these decision processes when developing and communicating forecasts could help to improve flood preparation and potentially reduce disaster losses.     

Realising a resilient and sustainable built environment: towards a strategic agenda for the United Kingdom

Recent natural and human-induced emergencies have highlighted the vulnerability of the built environment. Although most emergency events are not entirely unexpected, and the effects can be mitigated, emergency managers in the United Kingdom have not played a sufficiently proactive role in the mitigation of such events. If a resilient and sustainable built environment is to be achieved, emergency management should be more proactive and receive greater input from the stakeholders responsible for the planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment. This paper highlights the need for emergency management to take a more systematic approach to hazard mitigation by integrating more with professions from the construction sector. In particular, design changes may have to be considered, critical infrastructures must be protected, planning policies should be reviewed, and resilient and sustainable agendas adopted by all stakeholders.     

首都大学生的自然灾害认知调查与减灾教育建议

2006年国际减灾日的主题是"减灾始于学校",了解学生的灾害认知水平有助于减灾教育工作的有效开展。以北京5所高校的大学生为调查对象,通过问卷方式调查大学生对自然灾害的关注程度、防灾意识、灾害理论知识、应急行为知识以及对减灾教育的看法。问卷统计结果表明:大学生总体的灾害认知水平较低,现行减灾教育方式和内容与学生的期望有较大偏差。在此基础上,提出了减灾教育内容要将学生"该知道的"与"想知道的"相结合,通过演练演习等方式提高学生的防灾应急实际技能等减灾教育建议。     

Emergency Safe Spaces in Haiti and the Solomon Islands

This paper provides background information on emergency Safe Spaces for children and specific information for responses in Haiti and the Solomon Islands. In 2007, both countries experienced natural disasters that resulted in internal displacement of thousands of people. The Save the Children Alliance created Safe Spaces for children living in camps for internally displaced persons. The project sought to accomplish ‘B‐SAFE’ strategies through emergency education, psychosocial, and protection interventions. The B‐SAFE strategies are to (B)uild relationships, cooperation, and respect among peers; to (S)creen for high‐risk children and youth; (A)ctive, structured learning and life saving information; to (F)acilitate children's natural resilience and a return to normalcy; and to (E)stablish a sense of security and self‐esteem. The project made use of child and parent surveys and observation tools that measured B‐SAFE indicators. Analysed data demonstrated an improvement in children's behavior participating in the programme.     

Quality design: a planning methodology for the integration of refugee and local health services,West Nile,Uganda

In an emergency, the international community responds to the immediate health needs of refugees through the establishment of action-oriented, life-saving services. Healthcare delivery is often managed with limited, if any, coordination with local health management structures. In situations where refugees remain in the host country for many years, sustainability issues inevitably arise. Refugee-hosting governments may ultimately be called upon to assume the management and funding of refugee services. Planning for service integration, while protecting against declines in service quality, is a challenge in the typically resource-poor host environments. This paper discusses these issues by presenting the experience of the West Nile districts in northern Uganda, and describes quality design as a relevant planning methodology. Quality design is a systematic planning approach that documents and directly incorporates the service users' self-defined expectations and needs.     

Earthquake drills and simulations in community-based training and preparedness programmes

The San Francisco, California, bay area is subject to continuous seismic risk. One particular response has been the development of community-based training programmes designed to teach residents basic emergency response skills. Citizens are taught emergency medical techniques, search and rescue, fire suppression and other fundamental response skills. Current estimates in the Bay Area place the number of programmes at more than 100. Many programmes now include an annual community drill to reinforce the training and to evaluate the programme. The study described here is based on an evaluation of an effort initiated by BayNET (Bay Area Neighborhood Emergency Training), a voluntary association of communities with community-based disaster preparedness programmes. In April 1996, BayNET asked all of its members to hold a community earthquake drill. After the drill, a mail survey was conducted of all programme managers. The survey examined the structure and administration of the programmes, training efforts and other related components. This paper describes the typology of drill formats that communities used, the role of the simulation in the city's preparedness efforts, the qualitative costs and benefits, as well as an assessment of the drill based on survey respondents.     

基于GIS的灾害应急管理系统业务数据和空间数据的集成

常用的关系数据库缺乏直接管理空间数据的成熟的通用方案。借助于空间数据库引擎(SDE)技术,扩展了关系数据库功能,使关系数据库成为业务数据和空间数据的统一存储管理平台,并在此基础上建立了基于Geodatabase模型的灾害应急管理系统数据库,对系统数据整体结构进行研究设计,解决了空间数据和业务数据的关联问题,实现了灾害应急管理系统空间数据和业务数据的无缝集成和一体化存储。该方法已在省级应急管理信息示范平台上成功应用。     

Valtellina landslide and flood emergency, northern Italy, 1987

This report describes the progress of the landslide and flood emergency that occurred in Valtellina, in the northern Italian Alps, during July and August 1987. For the authorities, the critical problem was one of controlling the rise of a large lake impounded on the River Adda by landslide debris that threatened to breach catastrophically, releasing a major floodwave. Several lessons can be learned from the way in which the emergency was managed. First, helicopters played a critical role in evacuating survivors and moving supplies around the disaster area, but there was scope for better co-ordination of operations. Secondly, high levels of private car ownership allowed greater flexibility in designing mass evacutation plans for threatened communites, but such high personal mobility proved difficult to control in order to ensure public safety. In future, education programmes could be used to help people appreciate the dangers of driving during periods of great natural hazard risk. Thirdly, the Valtellina disaster coincided with a change of national government, including substitution of the Minister of Civil Protection. This led to a policy vacuum, sub-optimal decision making and erosion of public confidence in political leaders. Landslide-dammed lakes represent a widespread but rather unpredictable hazard: they therefore require flexible emergency repsonse, but not without decisive leadership.     

城市重大环境风险事故应急救援系统的设计--以大连市为例

根据联合国"阿佩尔计划"(APELL),环境风险事故管理的一个重要方法是建立面向地区的应急0援系统.以大连市环境污染事故风险预警的实际工作为例,在研究环境事故应急管理现状的基础上,分析了救援系统支持平台GIS的优势,论述了该系统的需求、功能、数据库及救援网络等设计内容,完善了环境事故管理的方法研究,为环境风险事故应急管理提供了较理想的实用型管理手段.     

Assessing climate change and health vulnerability at the local level: Travis County,Texas

We created a measure to help comprehend population vulnerability to potential flooding and excessive heat events using health, built environment and social factors. Through principal component analysis (PCA), we created non‐weighted sum index scores of literature‐reviewed social and built environment characteristics. We created baseline poor health measures using 1999–2005 age‐adjusted cardiovascular and combined diabetes and hypertension mortality rates to correspond with social–built environment indices. We mapped US Census block groups by linked age‐adjusted mortality and a PCA‐created social–built environment index. The goal was to measure flooding and excessive heat event vulnerability as proxies for population vulnerability to climate change for Travis County, Texas. This assessment identified communities where baseline poor health, social marginalisation and built environmental impediments intersected. Such assessments may assist targeted interventions and improve emergency preparedness in identified vulnerable communities, while fostering resilience through the focus of climate change adaptation policies at the local level.     

Risk communication in emergency response to a simulated extreme flood

Risk communication in flood incident management can be improved through developing hydrometeorological and engineering models used as tools for communicating risk between scientists and emergency management professionals. A range of such models and tools was evaluated by participating flood emergency managers during a 4-day, real-time simulation of an extreme event in the Thamesmead area in the Thames estuary close to London, England. Emergency managers have different communication needs and value new tools differently, but the indications are that a range of new tools could be beneficial in flood incident management. Provided they are communicated large model uncertainties are not necessarily unwelcome among flood emergency managers. Even so they are cautious about sharing the ownership of weather and flood modelling uncertainties.     

Lateral knowledge: shifting expertise for disaster management in Chile

Deemed as technocratic and exclusionary, disaster management has failed in its promise of knowing, let alone controlling, catastrophic events. Consequently, disaster managers are searching outside of science for sense‐making analytics. This paper analyses the emergent narratives articulated by disaster managers in Chile to cope with the uncertain nature of their object of intervention. It explores how knowledge of disasters is modified and enriched by disaster managers in what is termed here as ‘lateral knowledge’: the epistemic adjustment by which practitioners revalidate their expert status by expanding key assumptions about disaster risk reduction. The study, which draws on in‐depth interviews with disaster managers in Chile, suggests that lateral knowledge is established both through the increasing validation of community knowledge and the recognition of politics as a critical mediator in the practice of disaster management. The paper concludes by making the larger point that public understanding of science scholars should pay more attention to the adapting capacities of expertise.     

Risk communication in emergency response to a simulated extreme flood

Risk communication in flood incident management can be improved through developing hydrometeorological and engineering models used as tools for communicating risk between scientists and emergency management professionals. A range of such models and tools was evaluated by participating flood emergency managers during a 4-day, real-time simulation of an extreme event in the Thamesmead area in the Thames estuary close to London, England. Emergency managers have different communication needs and value new tools differently, but the indications are that a range of new tools could be beneficial in flood incident management. Provided they are communicated large model uncertainties are not necessarily unwelcome among flood emergency managers. Even so they are cautious about sharing the ownership of weather and flood modelling uncertainties.     

加强综合灾害风险研究,提高迎对灾害风险能力——从第6届国际综合灾害风险管理论坛看我国的综合减灾

综述了第6届国际IIASA-DPRI综合灾害风险管理论坛的主要内容，并就中国综合灾害风险管理对策提出了具体的建议。本届论坛的主题是：风险与商业和产经界面临的挑战。论坛除主题报告外，共设置了16个分会场，就综合灾害风险信息共享平台（DRH）的建设、产经界如何迎对灾害风险、地震与洪水灾害风险的综合管理、灾害风险教育与减灾意识的养成、综合灾害风险管理的理论与方法论探讨，以及土耳其国家综合灾害风险管理的经验与教训等进行了深人的研讨。针对上述进展，从我国减灾工作现状，提出从三个方面加强我国综合减灾与灾害风险管理工作，即：各级政府在加强应急管理工作的同时，要高度重视从综合的角度完善减灾战略、规划和能力建设；全面改进产经界迎对灾害风险的能力，特别是非国有中小企业防御灾害风险的能力，以及大型国有企业灾害自保或参保机制的完善；加强综合灾害风险管理研究。     

Organisational socialisation in a crisis context

The objective of this paper is to highlight the dimensions characterising the socialisation process in a crisis context. Based on the definition of organisational socialisation advanced by Van Maanen and Schein (1979) and employed later by Jones (1986), a crisis is presented as a passage from a ‘normal’ situation to an ‘exceptional’ situation. A crisis represents a socialisation context in the sense that it is a novel state in which actors must develop a different way of mobilising their knowledge, utilising their skills, and practicing their trade or profession. The paper discusses certain findings that have emerged from the literature on organisational socialisation, as well as from the testimony of actors who participated in efforts to manage the Quebec ice‐storm crisis of early 1998. It is hoped that this exploratory study's data will give rise to fruitful interaction between the field of organisational socialisation and that of crisis management.     

Enhancing community-based disaster preparedness with information technology

A critical component of community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP) is a local resource database of suppliers providing physical, information and human resources for use in disaster response. Maintenance of such a database can become a collaborative responsibility among community-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public and private community organisations. In addition to mobilising resources, this process raises awareness within the community and aids in assessing local knowledge and resources. This paper presents the results of a pilot study on implementing a community-based resource database through collaboration with local American Red Cross chapters and public and private community organisations. The design of the resource database is described. The resource database is accessible via the internet and offline using laptops and handheld Personal Digital Assistants. The study concludes that CBDP is strengthened through a combination of appropriate information technology and collaborative relationships between NGOs and community-based organisations.