Emergency preparedness coordination: Network approach in dynamic disaster environments

Abstract

This study seeks to discover how a network structure prior to catastrophic disasters affects disaster response in terms of property damage in community. In order to do this, coordination theory and network concepts are drawn to explore the problem of effective emergency preparedness coordination (EPC). Although previous coordination models bring useful perspectives in their own domains, they focus on managing coordination based on conditions which are stable and being aware of goals and other actors. Through presenting a new EPC network model suitable for dynamic disaster environments, it is hoped to better understand the value of coordination from the perspective of network concepts. This study empirically investigates the relationship between the network and the potential for coordination: facilitating network performance correlates to increasing the capacity for preparedness. The findings suggest that training and education among responders correlate to preparedness and the effectiveness of a response network. © 2010 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.