Designing preparedness – Emergency preparedness in a community context
Author
Summary, in English
There has been an increased focus in society on preparedness for emergency
response in recent years. Today there is legislation that requires all Swedish
authorities at the local, regional and national levels to prepare for emergency
management and response. Since the task is rather new, most authorities are
just beginning to address it. How the preparedness process should be designed
and integrated into daily work has often not yet been decided.
This licentiate thesis presents research on how Swedish authorities, at a local
and regional level, are working to design their preparedness processes. The
research questions are as follows:
How does the preparedness process function?
What are the challenges and obstacles faced by the organisations
during the preparedness process?
Studies examining the preparedness processes were carried out in five Swedish
authorities at the local and regional level. Five challenges and obstacles were
identified:
- People not directly involved in the preparedness work do not read the plans
created.
- People not directly involved in the preparedness work are not familiar with
the planning.
- There is often no planned process (e.g. exercises and reflections) for
transferring the results of the preparedness work.
- Opportunities to gain a broader view of potential emergencies by the use of
one scenario with its possible variations in the course of events are
commonly overlooked.
- Emergency managers have difficulties getting others in the organisation
interested and committed to preparedness issues, including management.
Every organisation has to develop its own process for working with
preparedness for emergency response to further improve preparedness planning
and avoid the five identified obstacles. To facilitate this effort, every
organisation should consider who needs to be involved (both inside and
outside the organisation) and what knowledge and competences these persons
need to deal with future emergencies.
response in recent years. Today there is legislation that requires all Swedish
authorities at the local, regional and national levels to prepare for emergency
management and response. Since the task is rather new, most authorities are
just beginning to address it. How the preparedness process should be designed
and integrated into daily work has often not yet been decided.
This licentiate thesis presents research on how Swedish authorities, at a local
and regional level, are working to design their preparedness processes. The
research questions are as follows:
How does the preparedness process function?
What are the challenges and obstacles faced by the organisations
during the preparedness process?
Studies examining the preparedness processes were carried out in five Swedish
authorities at the local and regional level. Five challenges and obstacles were
identified:
- People not directly involved in the preparedness work do not read the plans
created.
- People not directly involved in the preparedness work are not familiar with
the planning.
- There is often no planned process (e.g. exercises and reflections) for
transferring the results of the preparedness work.
- Opportunities to gain a broader view of potential emergencies by the use of
one scenario with its possible variations in the course of events are
commonly overlooked.
- Emergency managers have difficulties getting others in the organisation
interested and committed to preparedness issues, including management.
Every organisation has to develop its own process for working with
preparedness for emergency response to further improve preparedness planning
and avoid the five identified obstacles. To facilitate this effort, every
organisation should consider who needs to be involved (both inside and
outside the organisation) and what knowledge and competences these persons
need to deal with future emergencies.
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Full text
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Document type
Licentiate thesis
Publisher
Fire Safety Engineering and Systems Safety, Lund University
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
- Other Civil Engineering
- Building Technologies
Status
Published
Project
- FRIVA
Research group
- LUCRAM (Lund University Center for Risk Analysis and Management
Supervisor
- Kurt Petersen
- Lars Fredholm
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-633-3030-8