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Objective: To quantify differences in preparedness for and adaptations to COVID-19 in a cohort sample of New York City residents. Methods: A proportional quota sample (n = 1020) of individuals residing in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic participated in a Qualtrics web survey. Quotas were set for age, sex, race, and income to mirror the population of New York City based on the 2018 American Community Survey. Results: Low self-efficacy, low social support, and low sense of community increased the odds of securing provisions to prepare for COVID-19. Being an essential worker, poor mental health, and having children in the household reduced the likelihood of engaging in preparedness practices. Essential workers and individuals with probable serious mental illness were less likely to report preparedness planning for the pandemic. Conclusions: The findings contribute to evolving theories of preparedness. There are differences across the sample in preparedness types, and different kinds of preparedness are associated with different household characteristics. Findings suggest that public officials and others concerned with population wellbeing might productively turn attention to education and outreach activities indexed to these characteristics.

Disasters are among the crises that can test the decision making skill of elected and appointed public officials from planning through response and recovery. The COVID-19 crisis, a public health emergency rather than one with immediate damage to the built environment, has affected many aspects of community life. Experiences in responding to the pandemic will likely stimulate fresh planning initiatives for public health emergencies. How then should emergency planners approach planning and response tasks? The All-Hazards approach has been a mainstay of both research and policymaking for over 40 years, but it has come under recent criticism. In this paper, we consider if the All-Hazards approach to disaster management is still viable. Comparing the management needs that emerged in the pandemic with those of disasters from more familiar hazard agents, we conclude that the All-Hazards approach is valid and can continue to guide policymakers in their hazard and disaster management activities.Los desastres se encuentran entre las crisis que pueden poner a prueba la capacidad de toma de decisiones de los funcionarios públicos electos y designados desde la planificación hasta la respuesta y la recuperación. La crisis de COVID‐19, una emergencia de salud pública en lugar de una con daños inmediatos al entorno construido, ha afectado muchos aspectos de la vida comunitaria. Las experiencias en la respuesta a la pandemia probablemente estimularán nuevas iniciativas de planificación para emergencias de salud pública. Entonces, ¿cómo deben abordar los planificadores de emergencias las tareas de planificación y respuesta? El enfoque todos los peligros ha sido un pilar de la investigación y la formulación de políticas durante más de 40 años, pero ha sido objeto de críticas recientes. En este documento, consideramos si el enfoque de todos los peligros para la gestión de desastres sigue siendo viable. Al comparar las necesidades de gestión que surgieron en la pandemia con las de los desastres de agentes de peligro más familiares, llegamos a la conclusión de que el enfoque de todos los peligros es válido y puede seguir guiando a los responsables de la formulación de políticas en sus actividades de gestión de peligros y desastres.在各类危机中，灾害能检验经过选举和任命的公共官员在规划、响应和恢复过程中的决策技能。新冠肺炎（COVID‐19）危机是一场公共卫生紧急事件，不是一次对建成环境造成直接损害的灾害，它已影响了社区生活的多个方面。大流行的响应经验将有可能激励全新的规划倡议，以应对公共卫生紧急事件。应急规划者则应如何处理规划和响应任务？全灾害管理模式（All‐Hazards approach）在过去40年里一直是研究和决策的支柱，但最近却遭到了批判。本文中，我们考量了全灾害管理模式是否仍然有效。通过将大流行的管理需求和“由更熟悉的灾害因素造成的灾害”的管理需求进行比较，我们的结论认为，全灾害管理模式仍然成立，并且能继续指导决策者进行灾害管理活动。.

Objective: The emergency operations center (EOC) is an essential component of modern emergency management. Traditionally understood as a place where officials communicate with the public, support coordination, manage operations, craft policy, gather information, and host visitors; there has been little recent research on their structure, operations, or work procedures. EOCs may in fact be, as we argue here, places where emergency managers come to find workarounds, delegate tasks, and find new sources of expertise in order to make sense, make meaning, and make decisions. However, despite their status as a symbol of emergency management and recipients of large amounts of funding, there has been relatively little scientific research into the EOC. With this paper, we synthesize the existing research and propose a variety of research questions to accelerate the process of inquiry into the EOC.Design: Informed by an extensive literature review, this article presents a comprehensive look at the existing state of knowledge surrounding EOCs.Interventions: Research questions to support investigation of the EOC are suggested.Conclusions: The EOC is an underexplored setting ripe for development and discovery by researchers and emergency managers seeking to influence the field of emergency management.

Community resilience is a community’s ability to maintain functioning (ie, delivery of services) during and after a disaster event. The Composite of Post-Event Well-Being (COPEWELL) is a system dynamics model of community resilience that predicts a community’s disaster-specific functioning over time. We explored COPEWELL’s usefulness as a practice-based tool for understanding community resilience and to engage partners in identifying resilience-strengthening strategies. In 2014, along with academic partners, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene organized an interdisciplinary work group that used COPEWELL to advance cross-sector engagement, design approaches to understand and strengthen community resilience, and identify local data to explore COPEWELL implementation at neighborhood levels. The authors conducted participant interviews and collected shared experiences to capture information on lessons learned. The COPEWELL model led to an improved understanding of community resilience among agency members and community partners. Integration and enhanced alignment of efforts among preparedness, disaster resilience, and community development emerged. The work group identified strategies to strengthen resilience. Searches of neighborhood-level data sets and mapping helped prioritize communities that are vulnerable to disasters (eg, medically vulnerable, socially isolated, low income). These actions increased understanding of available data, identified data gaps, and generated ideas for future data collection. The COPEWELL model can be used to drive an understanding of resilience, identify key geographic areas at risk during and after a disaster, spur efforts to build on local metrics, and result in innovative interventions that integrate and align efforts among emergency preparedness, community development, and broader public health initiatives.

The science of resilience presents the opportunity to explain how natural, social, and physical systems interact to impact community functioning and well-being postdisaster. This paper desc...

Critical infrastructure systems derive their importance from the societal needs they help meet. Yet the relationship between infrastructure system functioning and societal functioning is not well-understood, nor are the impacts of infrastructure system disruptions on consumers. We develop two empirical measures of societal impacts—willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid service interruptions and a constructed scale of unhappiness, compare them to each other and others from the literature, and use them to examine household impacts of service interruptions. Focusing on household-level societal impacts of electric power and water service interruptions, we use survey-based data from Los Angeles County, USA to fit a random effects within-between model of WTP and an ordinal logit with mixed effects to predict unhappiness, both as a function of infrastructure type, outage duration, and household attributes. Results suggest household impact increases nonlinearly with outage duration, and the impact of electric power disruptions are greater than water supply disruptions. Unhappiness is better able to distinguish the effects of shorter-duration outages than WTP is. Some people experience at least some duration of outage without negative impact. Increased household impact was also associated with using electricity for medical devices or water for work or business, perceived likelihood of an emergency, worry about an emergency, past negative experiences with emergencies, lower level of preparation, less connection to the neighborhood, higher income, being married, being younger, having pets, and having someone with a medical condition in the house. Financial, time/effort, health, and stress concerns all substantially influence the stated level of unhappiness.

This article focuses on the analysis of the levels of household preparedness in New York City (NYC) during an imminent threat scenario, that is, the landfall of Superstorm Sandy on October 25, 2012. Additionally, it reveals how social and socio-psychological factors influenced the preparedness behavior of NYC households. This study uses data from the New York City Random Digit Dialing survey, conducted by the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, with a sample of 1449 adult residents in NYC at the time of the storm. The data was analyzed using frequencies, cross-tabs, and factor analysis in order to build four path analysis models of household preparedness. Results indicate that the levels of household preparedness in NYC at the time of the storm were modest. Each household engaged, on average, in 7 preparedness activities out of a possible 14 on the date of the storm. Households engaged more in the acquisition of preparedness supplies than in developing planning or mitigation capabilities. Moreover, social capital was an enabler of preparedness. Households that were politically active or that were integrated into community networks were more likely to engage in all types of preparedness efforts. Risk perception also had a positive impact on the preparedness efforts developed by NYC households. Also, single mother households, low-income households, and households with seniors were less likely to be proactive regarding preparedness efforts, while households with one or more members with functional and access needs and households located within the Sandy inundation areas were more likely to prepare for a disaster or an emergency.

The emergency operations center (EOC) is an essential component of modern emergency management. Traditionally understood as a place where officials communicate with the public, support coordination, manage operations, craft policy, gather information, and host visitors; there has been little recent research on their structure, operations, or work procedures. EOCs may in fact be, as we argue here, places where emergency managers come to find workarounds, delegate tasks, and find new sources of expertise in order to make sense, make meaning, and make decisions. However, despite their status as a symbol of emergency management and recipients of large amounts of funding, there has been relatively little scientific research into the EOC. With this paper, we synthesize the existing research and propose a variety of research questions to accelerate the process of inquiry into the EOC.Informed by an extensive literature review, this article presents a comprehensive look at the existing state of knowledge surrounding EOCs.Research questions to support investigation of the EOC are suggested.The EOC is an underexplored setting ripe for development and discovery by researchers and emergency managers seeking to influence the field of emergency management.

Film as a pedagogical technique has been increasingly utilized by instructors in the classroom setting. As previous research highlights the benefits of this method, the question remains as to how this strategy can be effectively applied in the study of hazards, disasters, and emergency management. This paper describes an undergraduate course that uses cinematic portrayals of disaster to present and highlight a number of significant themes from the disaster science literature. We have found the examination of disaster films to be a valuable strategy for teaching topics which can range from disaster myths or erroneous science or, by contrast, relatively accurate portrayals of human behavior in disaster. This article surveys some of the existing literature on film in teaching; highlights how we have used films in courses; and offers suggestions on how some noteworthy films can be used to demonstrate and rein force challenging theories from the literature.

Despite technological improvements, the number of maritime accidents is still high. The human element still plays an important role in maritime operations and leadership and communication issues are two key elements that can threaten safety, as happened in the Costa Concordia and El Faro disasters. In this paper we investigate the possibility of introducing shared leadership principles in the current vertical model, interviewing 11 seafarers belonging to two international maritime associations. We conducted Skype interviews and we qualitatively analyzed them using the software Atlas.ti. We describe six elements – organizational culture and ship's climate, error isolation, leadership, mentoring, multiculturalism and teamwork – that, combined together, can foster or inhibit safety. Results highlight the dual role of the captain as mentor and leader, suggesting the need to share responsibilities among crewmembers. Additionally, results emphasize the pivotal role that organizations have in defining the safety environment for preventing errors. Therefore, this study advances the proposition that the maritime system could implement the shared leadership model into the vertical hierarchy.

Objective: This study examined social institutions as a contextual factor that may influence perceptions of neighborhood physical and social disorder during disaster recovery. Design: The study used descriptive statistics and fit logistic regression models. Setting and Participants: Participants in this study (n = 772) were recruited from temporary housing in Louisiana and Mississippi as part of the Gulf Coast Child and Family Health Study, a longitudinal study of households heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Community data were obtained from the Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Database and the American Community Survey. Outcome measure(s): Social disorder was assessed by asking respondents how concerned they are about issues such as being robbed or walking alone at night. Physical disorder was assessed by asking about problems experienced in the last month such as broken or missing windows and presence of mice or rats. Results: Greater income ( β = −0.17, SE = 0.07), housing stability ( β = −0.16, SE = 0.07), social support ( β = −0.09, SE = 0.04), and home ownership ( β = −0.10, SE = 0.05) were associated with lower social disorder and a larger male population at the community level was associated with greater social disorder ( β = 0.00, SE = 0.00). Greater social support ( β = −0.11, SE = 0.04), housing stability ( β = −0.15, SE = 0.06), and higher income ( β = −0.10, SE = 0.07) were associated with lower physical disorder. Conclusions: Longitudinal research is needed to understand the direction of influence between neighborhood factors and to household ability to provide for basic needs postdisaster. The findings also highlight the need for further research on postdisaster male behavior.

While the All-Hazards approach has been a fixture in disaster management in the United States for approximately three decades, discussion continues regarding the appropriateness of including public health emergencies under the All-Hazards umbrella. Drawing on the disaster and public health literatures, we examine previous research in three areas of relevance to these events: convergence, risk and crisis communication, and providing medical services. Although events often include characteristics unique to each particular hazard, the literature demonstrates that there are sufficient similarities in these areas to advocate for the continued utility of the All-Hazards approach. Convergence of people, material, and information often follow both disasters and public health emergencies, and present similar challenges and opportunities as a result. Crisis risk communication for these events rests on similar underlying theories, and presents similar challenges for practitioners, imposing similar demands on the medical system, both increasing needs for medical services and compromising the system's ability to provide services to meet those needs. Research is needed to explore further parallels between hazards, particularly in mitigation and recovery and in other national contexts. Future work should include direct, empirical comparisons across event types, and include other kinds of environmental or public health hazards.

The genesis of this book was the 50th Anniversary Workshop and Celebration of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware in 2014. In marking that milestone in the history of the center, we wanted a workshop in which participants would reflect on what is known about disaster science—much of which is owed to DRC, to its long lineage of intellectual descendants, and to their scholarly cousins in a variety of fields. We wanted to assess where that knowledge is uncertain, where new or reinforced knowledge is needed, and also to think about the state of practice. For this collection, authors were explicitly encouraged to be provocative; to be iconoclastic; to be speculative; to try as best possible to bring in new ideas or different approaches to familiar themes. In this first chapter, we consider some of today’s pressing environmental challenges and the associated research needs, moving from there to introduce the chapters and their overall contributions to this volume.

The opening chapter in this volume portrayed the growing urgency of disaster research, as the nature and scope of hazards shift. People already familiar with their local environment may find that a changing climate changes their risk for certain kinds of hazards (Relf, G., Kendra, J. M., Schwartz, R. M., Leathers, D. J., & Levia, D. F. (2015). Slushflows: Science and planning considerations for an expanding hazard. Natural Hazards, 78(1), 333–354). People moving from place to place in search of better jobs or housing may move into a hazard milieu that is new to them. Political transformations with an authoritarian bent will probably increase vulnerability amongst populations already at greater risk for experiencing a disaster and for recovering more slowly, such as those in poor housing, those with chronic illnesses, and those with Functional and Access Needs. Robust research is needed, but some critics have emerged to challenge the practice and propriety of disaster research, especially quick-response research. This chapter argues for an affirmative right to conduct research.

Today, university educators are confronting unparalleled challenges regarding declining state education budgets. Meanwhile, an ethos of corporate social responsibility has taken hold in some sectors, where companies define themselves as members and participants in a community, able to offer something besides financial transactions. Engagement and support of educational programs and institutions is an example of one such kind of involvement. This chapter details such collaborations between Grainger corporation, NC4, ESi Acquisition Inc. and the University of North Texas's Emergency Administration and Planning program. The generosity of these private companies helped the program open an Emergency Operations Center training lab on campus to facilitate hands-on decision support systems training, and enhance creativity and problem solving skills in a simulated environment for emergency management students. Such public-private partnerships and outreach efforts to enhance disaster management training and educational experiences of students have the potential to make a real and lasting difference to all players involved.

This study focuses on household disaster preparedness in New York City (NYC) prior to Superstorm Sandy occurrence on October 25, 2012. The purpose of our analysis is to explain the level and patterns of disaster preparedness before a relatively rare natural disaster event occurred and to investigate the factors that influenced the capacity of NYC households to prepare for emergencies and disasters. A random telephone (RDD) survey comprised of 2001 NYC residents across all five boroughs was conducted by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and completed before Sandy struck the City. These data were explored using frequencies, cross-tabs, and factor analysis to build a path model of household disaster preparedness. Findings indicate that household disaster preparedness levels in NYC are high, especially regarding the acquisition of emergency supplies and communication resources. A trust in local government and assistance from one’s social network are the strongest predictors of general household preparedness. Exogenous variables in our model – low income households and those with functional and access needs residents – will be more vulnerable during an actual disaster since they are less able to access communication technologies to search for self-protective disaster information and to communicate their needs during an emergency.

Slushflows are natural hazards that pose considerable danger to communities across the globe. These events are characterized by the rapid mass movement of water-inundated snow downslope, and they cause economic damage as well as fatalities in many different climates and regions. As the global climate changes and human populations and industries potentially expand to higher latitudes, it will be important to fully understand the slushflow hazard since an anticipated increase in the frequency of rain-on-snow events and an earlier spring thaw would likely increase the probability of slushflows. This article: (1) summarizes the factors that favor the development of slushflows; (2) discusses the hazard management implications of slushflows; (3) examines the policies employed to prevent and mitigate slushflow damage; and (4) sets out the need for modifications in hazard management systems. Conclusions drawn hope to address future research needs in an effort to create policies that better suit the needs of at-risk communities.

Beginning slowly in the late 1970s, but accelerating in the 1990s, scholars in the engineering and social sciences tried to work across theoretical and cultural-disciplinary gaps to understand disasters holistically and to provide the science needed for policies that reduce risk. Alliances of social scientists and engineers specializing in structural, ocean, and environmental engineering have tackled problems relating, for example, to earthquakes and tsunamis, while at the same time advancing studies of crosscutting ideas such as community resilience. Much of that alliance began not in the basic research or laboratory world, but with partnerships of scholars working at the focal point of hazard-oriented policy systems and public education. This paper considers how scholars, research centers, and funding agencies have worked to advance an integrated research agenda.

The paper assesses whether different types of housing assistance–owner-driven in situ or donor-assisted resettlement housing programs—influence perceptions of household recovery by tsunami-affected households. Utilizing data gathered in India 3½ years after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, we compared the perceptions of households provided with either in situ housing assistance or resettlement/relocation housing assistance. The extent to which households have recovered from the disaster was also examined to gauge the importance of housing arrangements in household recovery. We found that the beneficiaries of the resettlement programs generally experienced improvements in basic household amenities, while households provided with financial and material assistance for in situ housing repairs and rebuilding reported better access to essential services. When assessed in terms of perceptions of overall household recovery, the beneficiaries of in situ housing assistance programs fared better than beneficiaries of the resettlement programs despite the former receiving lower monetary assistance. These findings offer new insights to architects, designers, and public officials on what types of housing assistance arrangements expedite the overall recovery process and can help to evaluate and refocus funding towards specific housing recovery programs. The analysis thereby makes it easier to gauge the successes and failures of post disaster housing recovery programs.

This article describes a case in which local emergency planning was thwarted by indifference and concern about security. It argues that excessive security concerns can impede the kind of cooperation and information sharing that is widely accepted as essential to good planning and suggests that concerns about less-likely terrorist attacks undercut preparation for more-likely emergencies arising from natural or technological sources.

Although the influence of law in shaping human use of land and water has long been recognized, the role of geographic factors in the resolution of legal disputes involving such resources is less appreciated. When the outcome of litigation or administrative procedures depends upon accurate understanding of geographic context and uncertainties, and such understanding is flawed, the legal process may become a faltering, costly exercise in futility. Such has been the case with the 20-year battle over the fate of Sears Island, a sizable tract of undeveloped coastal Maine at the head of Penobscot Bay. This controversy has reflected competition between economic and environmental goals in coastal zone management, the issue of local versus nonlocal control of resources, and the uneasy interaction of geography and law in the process of environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act.

This paper examines the relationship of risk and power through a critical analysis of Crew Endurance Management, an initiative directed at enhancing maritime safety and efficiency. The paper argues that the initiative applies rhetorics of choice and self‐discipline to unite morality with risk, thus casting merchant mariners as risk objects in the shipping industry. This objectification relies on differentials in power rooted in differentially‐valued discourses that delegitimize some kinds of expertise. At the same time, deploying alternative rhetorics keyed to the anxieties of other levels of society allows risk objects to resist their objectification by shifting the relevant social scale for considering risk. The paper concludes by suggesting that imperatives for both productivity and safety will expand the workspace by expanding, through emphasis on personal choices, the environment in which workers must be concerned about risk reduction.

It is crucial to understand how postdisaster shelter choices affect disaster survivors’ stress. However, no study has investigated the association of different types of temporary shelters on psychological stress symptoms and the possible consequences for long-term recovery. This research aims to fill this gap by using panel data (2005 and 2008) collected from 531 households residing in seven coastal settlements in the Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu, which was affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. This study investigates how elements of temporary sheltering (e.g., what type, where, for how long) influence disaster survivors’ experiences of psychological stress symptoms. The authors approached postdisaster shelter not simply as a basic material human need, but as an integral part of social identity, mental well-being, and the reconstitution of economic livelihood. They found a statistically significant decrease in the psychological stress symptoms in disaster survivors three and half years...

Today, university educators are confronting unparalleled challenges regarding declining state education budgets. Meanwhile, an ethos of corporate social responsibility has taken hold in some sectors, where companies define themselves as members and participants in a community, able to offer something besides financial transactions. Engagement and support of educational programs and institutions is an example of one such kind of involvement. This chapter details such collaborations between Grainger corporation, NC4, ESi Acquisition Inc. and the University of North Texas's Emergency Administration and Planning program. The generosity of these private companies helped the program open an Emergency Operations Center training lab on campus to facilitate hands-on decision support systems training, and enhance creativity and problem solving skills in a simulated environment for emergency management students. Such public-private partnerships and outreach efforts to enhance disaster management training and educational experiences of students have the potential to make a real and lasting difference to all players involved.

The 26 December 2004 tsunami is one of the most severe disasters of the last several decades. Less than one month after the disaster, a group of social science researchers from the University of Delaware and University of North Texas participated in an Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) reconnaissance team. This team traveled to some of the most heavily impacted areas in India and Sri Lanka. Focusing on the social impacts and consequences of the disaster, the team identified a number of emerging issues, including loss of life and destruction of property and infrastructure, impact on livelihoods, a persistent sense of uncertainty, variation in community-based response and recovery efforts, inequities in disaster relief distribution, gender and age vulnerability and capacities, temporary shelter and housing, and long-term relocation planning.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the societal impacts and consequences of the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.Design/methodology/approachOne month after the tsunami, a group of social science researchers from the Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, and the Emergency Administration and Planning Program, University of North Texas, participated in an Earthquake Engineering Research Institute reconnaissance team, which traveled to some of the most affected areas in India and Sri Lanka. Data were obtained through informal interviews, participant observation, and systematic document gathering.FindingsThis research yielded important data and information on disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. A number of issues are identified that emerged from the field observations, including: tsunami education and awareness; the devastation and the loss; economic impact; mental health issues; irregularities and inequities in community based response and recovery efforts and in the distribution of disaster relief aid; gender and inequality; and relocation and housing issues.Practical implicationsThe paper highlights the role and importance of generating integrated early warning systems and strategies aimed at fostering sustainable recovery and building disaster resilient communities.Originality/valueAn extensive amount of perishable data were collected thus providing a better understanding of the societal impacts of disasters on impoverished communities. A number of emerging issues are identified that should be of primary concern in efforts to protect populations residing in coastal regions throughout the world from similar catastrophes.

In this paper we examine the reconstitution of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) after its destruction in the World Trade Center attack, using that event to highlight several features of resilience. The paper summarises basic EOC functions, and then presents conceptions of resilience as understood from several disciplinary perspectives, noting that work in these fields has sought to understand how a natural or social system that experiences disturbance sustains its functional processes. We observe that, although the physical EOC facility was destroyed, the organisation that had been established to manage crises in New York City continued, enabling a response that drew on the resources of New York City and neighbouring communities, states and the federal government. Availability of resources — which substituted for redundancy of personnel, equipment and space — pre-existing relationships that eased communication challenges as the emergency developed and the continuation of organisational patterns of response integration and role assignments were among the factors that contributed to resilience following the attack.

The expansion or construction of a seaport is often proposed as a means of spurring economic growth in an area, in addition to providing quality facilities for importers and exporters. When there are underlying environmental considerations, the speculative nature of anticipated benefits may invite determined opposition from preservationist groups, or reinforce their objections. This paper examines such a conflict, over the proposed development of a dry cargo and container terminal at Sears Island, in upper Penobscot Bay, Maine, USA.

This paper explores the provision of disaster-related behavioural and mental health (DBH) services as a problem of institutional collective action in the United States. This study reviews the challenges that providers have in surmounting multi-organizational disconnects, unstable professional legitimacy, ambiguous information, and shifting disaster needs in developing a system for delivering DBH services. Based on the adaptive governance framework, it argues that existing protocols such as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) may be helpful in advancing collective action, but that real progress will depend on a recognition of norms, expectations, and credentials across many spheres-in other words, on the ability of responders to continuously adjust their procedures and administrative boundaries for behavioural health institutions.

Local emergency management offices are shouldering an increasingly large share of the responsibility for implementing homeland security policies, in addition to traditional emergency preparedness and response functions. One of the concerns about this devolution of responsibilities is the supposed lack of available funding at the local level. City and county budgets are constrained by anti-property tax revolts and the paradoxical rising expectations of citizens for more and better services. Emergency management offices compete in this milieu for attention from policy makers and adequate funding. Despite the importance of local funding, there is little understanding of how funding decisions are made. Utilizing a nationwide survey of county emergency management officers, this study helps provide some insights by evaluating the impact of subject threat assessments, past disaster experience, emergency management activity, community resources and location factors affecting the variance of emergency management local funding.

In this chapter, we examine community innovation. We begin first by conceptualizing community and innovation as they relate to hazard and disaster. We identify the difficulties inherent in the terms community, innovation, and community innovation, presenting some working concepts that seem to align best with overall disaster research experience. We examine the characteristics of communities that make innovation both necessary and difficult, using examples of innovations drawn from the United States and internationally. This discussion will point toward some directions for future research, including an understanding of community that might be suitable for newer, complex, and diffuse hazards – such as bioterrorism, cyberterrorism, and slow onset hazards related to climate change. The discussion will also point to some needed reorientations in policy that might proceed from either subsequent or existing research.

The World Trade Center disaster generated many of the features seen in other disasters in the U.S., including post-disaster convergence. We conceptualize emergency management activities as taking place within a multilocational “response milieu,” and we suggest that the study of convergence should focus on the negotiated legitimacy of people in and wishing to enter it. We discuss the five types of personal convergers and how the access of each of these groups to the response milieu was related to their legitimation status. We then identify two additional forms of convergence: supporters or fans, and those who came to mourn or to memorialize. We conclude by discussing implications for policy.

The objective of this paper is to present an institutional view of disasters derived in part from the results of a recent study of hospitals in the United States. It is offered in the hope that a focus on institution will help resolve the present lack of fit between, on the one hand, the increasing complexity of the new hazards and on the other, existing conceptualizations in the social sciences of disasters and emergency management that privilege the community. The paper uses information from 76 participants in 13 focus groups in acute-care hospital organizations in California, Tennessee, and New York to illustrate the argument for institutions. The implications of these findings for an institutional conceptualization of disasters are discussed.

Taking aim at Smokey the Bear requires knowledge of his terrain as well as knowledge of Smokey’s symbolism. Making Smokey an endangered species requires an unconventional view, which the author provides when he discusses disturbance ecology. Disturbance ecology as the force creating biodiversity is set against the more conventional ecological paradigm of equilibrium: environmental constancy. Disturbance ecology takes into account the changes that ‘‘disasters’’ bring about in the natural world. As such, these disturbances create new opportunities for species to survive and thrive, enlarging biodiversity. The subtitle pushes the claims made. There is much here about fire, wind, and water but other natural ‘‘hazards’’ such as earthquakes are evidently not that beneficial. The author, a professor of biology and ecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, deals with the complexity of his topic with an informal style, converting technical details into lively prose. This is not to stigmatize him as a ‘‘popularizer’’ but only confirms that it is possible to take research and explain it to others who are not as familiar with the facts and ideas. His recommendations to others—to get out of nature’s way—leads to several familiar solutions: changing federal flood insurance, changing national forest management policies, decommissioning dams, developing ecologically based zoning for beaches and flood plains, as well as protecting ecosystems—not just endangered species. All of these ‘‘solutions’’ make abstract sense, and he seems to suggest that proper ecological attitudes will lead to good social policy. Social life is not that simple, but Reice has provided an interesting text for thinking, as he terms it, ‘‘eco-logically.’’

Based on an action learning programme involving clinical directors and their business managers, explores the options open to analysing the effectiveness of a directorate including its place in an organizational structure.