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

How can the usefulness of capability assessments be improved?

“…As far as we know, there is limited previous research focusing on using capability assessments as a basis for decisions. Since the purpose of both capability assessments and risk assessments is to facilitate decision making and the fact that capability and risk are closely related (Lindbom et al 2015), one could use research on risk assessments as decision support as a point of departure and draw parallels to capability assessment. However, research on how to communicate risk assessments to decision makers is also limited (Bier 2001a) and below, we will summarize what we have found on how risk assessments in general should be structured in order to facilitate decision making.…”

“…Whereas the communication of uncertainties, and consequences to some extent, have previously been studied, what seems to be lacking in the scientific literature on communication of risk (and capability) to decision makers is how the communication format of task and resources (the two components suggested by Lindbom et al 2015) affects the perceived usefulness of the decision basis and in turn the decisions made based on it. The experiment described in the next section is an initial attempt to rectify this lack of knowledge.…”

“…The purpose of the assessments, similar to the purpose of risk assessments, is often to facilitate decision making in order to increase capability (Abt et al 2010, Bier 2001a, Johansen & Rausand 2014, Palmqvist et al 2014. Capability is often defined as resources (Lindbom et al 2015) and existing capability assessment methods often specify indicators for capability, e.g. if plans exist and if drills have been performed.…”

“…However, recent studies suggest that the conceptual as well as the methodological basis for capability assessments are unclear (Lindbom et al 2015, Palmqvist et al 2014. Lindbom et al (2015) also report on a study of the Swedish disaster risk management system which indicates that two important factors that might determine the usefulness of a capability assessment are (1) the extent to which the capability assessments include descriptions of the resources available for dealing with a disruptive event, and (2) the extent to which they include descriptions of how well the actor in question (e.g.…”

“…Lindbom et al (2015) also report on a study of the Swedish disaster risk management system which indicates that two important factors that might determine the usefulness of a capability assessment are (1) the extent to which the capability assessments include descriptions of the resources available for dealing with a disruptive event, and (2) the extent to which they include descriptions of how well the actor in question (e.g. a specific fire and rescue service) is judged to be able to accomplish a specific task in the case of a disruptive event.…”