Suchergebnisse

Earthquakes are a huge global threat. In thirty-six countries, severe seismic risks threaten populations and their increasingly interdependent systems of transportation, communication, energy, and finance. In this important book, Louise Comfort provides an unprecedented examination of how twelve communities in nine countries responded to destructive earthquakes between 1999 and 2015. And many of the book's lessons can also be applied to other large-scale risks.The Dynamics of Risk sets the global problem of seismic risk in the framework of complex adaptive systems to explore how the consequences of such events ripple across jurisdictions, communities, and organizations in complex societies, triggering unexpected alliances but also exposing social, economic, and legal gaps. The book assesses how the networks of organizations involved in response and recovery adapted and acted collectively after the twelve earthquakes it examines. It describes how advances in information technology enabled some communities to anticipate seismic risk better and to manage response and recovery operations more effectively, decreasing losses. Finally, the book shows why investing substantively in global information infrastructure would create shared awareness of seismic risk and make postdisaster relief more effective and less expensive.The result is a landmark study of how to improve the way we prepare for and respond to earthquakes and other disasters in our ever-more-complex world

This article argues that cognition is central to performance in emergency management. Cognition is defined as the capacity to recognize the degree of emerging risk to which a community is exposed and to act on that information. Using the case of Hurricane Katrina to illustrate the collapse of the standard model of emergency management without a clear focus on the role of cognition, the author reframes the concept of intergovernmental crisis management as a complex, adaptive system. That is, the system needs to adjust and adapt its performance to fit the demands of an ever‐changing physical, engineered, and social environment. The terms of cognition, communication, coordination, and control are redefined in ways that fit the reality of practice in extreme events. A reframed intergovernmental crisis management system may be conceived as a dynamic interorganizational system that is characterized by four primary decision points: (1) detection of risk, (2) recognition and interpretation of risk for the immediate context, (3) communication of risk to multiple organizations in a wider region, and (4) self‐organization and mobilization of a collective, community response system to reduce risk and respond to danger.

The impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans revealed vulnerabilities caused by the interaction of the city's fragile physical environment, aging infrastructure, and declining economic and social structure. The hurricane constituted a triggering event, but the severe destruction and heavy losses documented the extraordinary costs of inadequate plans and practice, given the city's high exposure to risk. This condition and its sobering consequences are not limited to New Orleans, but constitute a silent threat for other cities in the United States and the world. The challenge for cities is to create a new vision of vital, resilient communities that are able to assess and manage their own risk in order to limit escalating damage from extreme events.

Hurricane Katrina represented a major test of the policies and practice developed to protect the nation following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The collapse of the emergency response system at all four levels of jurisdiction – city, parish, state, and federal – revealed serious flaws in governmental capacity to act in response to threat. This article examines the initial conditions and dynamic exchange among governmental agencies that led to the catastrophe in New Orleans. It concludes with a set of recommendations for improving the capacity of governmental jurisdictions to manage risk through coordinated action and to increase community resilience to disaster.

Hurricane Katrina represented a major test of the policies & practices developed to protect the nation following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The collapse of the emergency response system at all four levels of jurisdiction -- city, parish, state, & federal -- revealed serious flaws in governmental capacity to act in response to threat. This article examines the initial conditions & dynamic exchange among governmental agencies that led to the catastrophe in New Orleans. It concludes with a set of recommendations for improving the capacity of governmental jurisdictions to manage risk through coordinated action & to increase community resilience to disaster. Adapted from the source document.