Disasters Out of the Box: A New Ballgame?

Abstract

Findings of recent disaster research make mention of a changing disaster landscape.According to the disaster literature, there has been a general increase of the quantity of disasters per time frame during the last decades. On the other hand, several academics refer to a more important qualitative shift in the disaster landscape. Although this qualitative shift is very credible, there exists no academic study approving this evolution. If suchlike evolution is concrete, we will have to strengthen our emergency management in a substantial way in order to be better prepared for managing future disasters. After discussing the changing nature of disasters, we concentrate on a study of randomly selected disasters, using the Disaster and Complexity Diagram, a tool permitting to study qualitative trends in disaster evolution.

The role of citizens in emergency management systems in the Czech Republic

“…It is important to have knowledge about hazards, but also to accept and to foster knowledge about the human behaviour of citizens in times of emergency. Emergency systems that do not reflect those principles are predestined to fail and have to be considered ineffective [1]. Future hazards for human society resulting from complex interactions between economical, technical and social factors represent a new challenge for redefined emergency management systems.…”

“…The number of disasters and emergencies has been increasing, but more importantly, so has their severity [1].…”

“…Smet et al [1] inspected randomly chosen disasters and emergencies in which their complexity over time increases, as well as the increased likelihood that there will be events for which emergency management systems are not designed or prepared.…”

On the reflexivity of crises

“…Natural disasters, like earthquakes or tsunamis, affect technical systems of energy, transport, and communication, and disturb social relations differently at multiple levels in the short, mid, and long-term -indeed, sometimes even permanently (De Smet, Lagadec and Leysen, 2012). The reasons why a 'typical' financial crisis remains locally bounded or expands to regional or even global levels (Aalbers, 2008), and why both analysts and regulating agents are usually taken by surprise by the escalating paths of 'financial accidents', depend on systems learning how to grow beyond the limits they have set for themselves in previous crises.…”

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident: Entering into Resilience Faced with an Extreme Situation

“…This strategy can increase "resilience capital" [70] and as a result facilitate entry into resilience. To extend and improve resilience, organizations must also encourage heretical questions at operational levels [71].…”