Resilience Assessment in Crisis Response Phase – Tentative Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to indicate a possible measure of resilience of a local society. The concepts of resilience versus vulnerability are discussed. Two dimensions of resilience are considered: the first one, related to a security system organized by local authority and defined in the paper as systemic barriers and the second one, connected with a subjective possible reaction of population to a hazardous event defined as supplementary barriers. In the research of features of supplementary barriers their effectiveness was estimated in a questionnaire fulfilled by the crisis management staff in thirty regions in Poland. Employing the probability of success or failure, calculations of effectiveness of systemic and supplementary barriers were summarized giving the measure of strengthened or weakened entire safety system at the local level. A matrix of resilience was constructed.