Kerstin Eriksson

Knowledge transfer between preparedness and emergency response: a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the transfer of knowledge between preparedness activities and emergency response at the municipal level to improve emergency response.Design/methodology/approach – A case study was carried out in the municipality of Ljungby using prewritten questions to analyse the collected empirical material. This material consisted of both municipality documents and interviews. The investigation involved municipal units that participate in emergency preparedness activities and those involved in the emergency response to a violent storm Gudrun that took place in 2005.Findings – The findings show that the people in charge of the immediate response to the storm did not effectively use the analytic preparations created by those responsible for planning and preparations. Indeed to a great extent they used general response patterns and functions discovered from their own earlier experiences. These findings led to the development of a preliminary draft of requirements for a well...

Improving emergency response capability : an approach for strengthening learning from emergency response evaluations

The objectives of this study are to develop and demonstrate an approach to improve emergency response capability by strengthening individual and organisational learning from the evaluations of specific emergency responses. An approach was developed based on theories of individual and organisational learning. It was applied to evaluations of three instances of emergency response in the city of Malmo. The findings indicate that the approach can improve experience-based learning in organisations and, thus, improve emergency response capability.

The capability concept – On how to define and describe capability in relation to risk, vulnerability and resilience

Capabilities-based planning and capability assessment are high on the agendas of several countries and organisations as part of their risk management and emergency preparedness. Despite this, few definitions of capability exist, and they are not easily related to concepts such as risk, vulnerability and resilience. The aim of the present study was thus to broaden the scientific basis of the risk field to also include the concept of capability. The proposed definition is based on a recently developed risk framework, and we define capability as the uncertainty about and the severity of the consequences of an activity given the occurrence of the initiating event and the performed task. We provide examples of how the response capability for a fictive scenario can be described using this definition, and illustrate how our definition can be used to analyse capability assessments prepared according to the Swedish crisis management system. We have analysed the content of 25 capability assessments produced in 2011 by stakeholders on local, regional and national level. It was concluded that none addressed uncertainty to any appreciable extent, and only a third described capability in terms of consequences and task, making it difficult to relate these capability assessments to risk assessments.

Critical reflections on municipal risk and vulnerability analyses as decision support tools : the role of regulation regimes

Abstract Risk and vulnerability analyses are a required decision support tool in processes to improve societal safety and crisis preparedness at national, regional and local levels in several European states. Analyses result in risk images, which are the stakeholders’ views of events that must be addressed in planning processes related to topics such as land use and crisis management. Hence, risk and vulnerability analyses are used to support decisions regarding which issue areas to prioritize, as well as to choose between alternatives. In Norway and Sweden, municipal risk and vulnerability analyses are mandated and described in regulations, laws and guidelines. This article examines how the two countries’ regulation regimes address, characterize and facilitate risk-based decision-making. We found that the Swedish regulation regime emphasizes use of risk and vulnerability analyses in decision-making regarding emergency preparedness. In Norway, this is also an important issue, but decision-making with regard to long-term and strategic planning is also emphasized. In both regulation regimes, decision-makers must determine on their own how they should use the analyses as a foundation for decision-making regarding emergency preparedness and societal safety. While the regulation regimes contain method and content prescriptions, they do not specify how criteria regarding desirable levels of preparedness and societal safety should be determined, nor who should be involved in such processes. These are challenges that should be addressed in regulation guidelines and in audits carried out by regional authorities.

A plan for (certain) failure : possibilities for and challenges of more realistic emergency plans

A Plan for (Certain) Failure : Possibilities for and Challenges of More Realistic Emergency Plans