Measuring community resilience in Swedish municipalities
(2021) VRSM01 20202Risk Management and Safety Engineering (M.Sc.Eng.)
- Abstract
- All Swedish municipalities have planning tools such as a municipal action plan and a risk- and vulnerability assessment, which are governing documents on how to prepare, prevent and respond to accidents and crisis. However, there are no established methods for measuring community resilience in Sweden. Therefore, it could potentially be beneficial for Swedish municipalities to use a method for measuring community resilience. This paper analysed whether the concept resilience adds new perspectives to the work done with managing accidents and crisis, but also investigates whether the quantitative index method Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) can be used for measuring community resilience in Swedish municipalities. The... (More)
- All Swedish municipalities have planning tools such as a municipal action plan and a risk- and vulnerability assessment, which are governing documents on how to prepare, prevent and respond to accidents and crisis. However, there are no established methods for measuring community resilience in Sweden. Therefore, it could potentially be beneficial for Swedish municipalities to use a method for measuring community resilience. This paper analysed whether the concept resilience adds new perspectives to the work done with managing accidents and crisis, but also investigates whether the quantitative index method Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) can be used for measuring community resilience in Swedish municipalities. The research questions were investigated with the help of a selection of literature. Moreover, a questionnaire and interviews were conducted to understand if the concept resilience adds new perspectives for managing accidents and crises, and also if the BRIC method could provide relevant information for professionals working with accidents and crisis.
The results in this thesis indicate that the BRIC method, and more specifically the included indicators could potentially complement the work done for managing accidents and crisis. However, the thesis could not determine with certainty whether the BRIC method would facilitate the work done with managing occurred events. Finally, the results in this thesis also indicate that the concept resilience does add new perspectives for managing accidents and crises in Sweden. However, there were some ambiguity in how the concepts adds new perspectives. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- Swedish municipalities are generally at the forefront for managing occurred accidents or crises. There are furthermore tools that municipalities use to analyse what the risks are within their geographical area. However, there are no established tool to measure the municipalities capabilities to manage accidents or crises.
The results from this thesis indicate that Swedish municipalities could benefit from using a tool to measure their capabilities to prepare, prevent, and respond to accidents and crises. This report analysed a specific quantitative method to measure municipalities capabilities to manage various harmful events. The analysed method is called Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) and is developed and in USA... (More) - Swedish municipalities are generally at the forefront for managing occurred accidents or crises. There are furthermore tools that municipalities use to analyse what the risks are within their geographical area. However, there are no established tool to measure the municipalities capabilities to manage accidents or crises.
The results from this thesis indicate that Swedish municipalities could benefit from using a tool to measure their capabilities to prepare, prevent, and respond to accidents and crises. This report analysed a specific quantitative method to measure municipalities capabilities to manage various harmful events. The analysed method is called Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) and is developed and in USA by Cutter and colleagues (Cutter, et al., 2014).
This thesis analyses the quantitative method BRIC and if this method could be used in Sweden, and more specifically if the method can be used in Swedish municipalities. A quantitative method is a method that uses statistically measurable variables. The results from this thesis indicate that the method could be used as a complement to the work that municipalities do for managing accidents and crisis. As mentioned, the method is developed in USA and adapted to the context in America and one part of this thesis was to adapt the method to fit the Swedish context.
One could ask, how can a method developed in another country benefit the work done in Sweden? And why is the work that municipalities do not sufficient? Swedish municipalities use existing tools to measure to overall risks that exists within the municipality. However, there are no tools to identify districts within the municipality that could potentially suffer greater harm from occurred accidents and events. Therefore, it could be beneficial to adapt and use a quantitative method developed in USA for the Swedish context. The method could potentially facilitate the work with allocating the municipalities limited resources to where these resources are needed the most, e.g., to districts in the municipality with the least capabilities to manage accidents and crises.
This thesis analysed the BRIC method with the help of a selection of literature, a questionnaire aimed to professionals working with accidents and crises as well as two complementary interviews. The literature was used to analyse the method and enabled the adaptation of the method to fit the Swedish context. Furthermore, the questionnaire and complementary interviews were used to get an idea whether the method could complement the work in Swedish municipalities.
It is however important to emphasize that this thesis does not result in an adaptation of the BRIC method that could be applied in Swedish municipalities. For a method to be applicable and used in Swedish municipalities, there has to be further research on the method and the variables in the method which are used to statistically measure the capabilities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9036689
- author
- Khairallah, Dalia LU
- supervisor
-
- Henrik Hassel LU
- Peter Månsson LU
- organization
- course
- VRSM01 20202
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Community resilience, BRIC, indicators, LSO, LEH, accident, crisis, preparedness planning, prevention planning, response planning.
- language
- English
- id
- 9036689
- date added to LUP
- 2021-01-22 09:59:40
- date last changed
- 2021-01-28 13:27:46
@misc{9036689,
abstract = {{All Swedish municipalities have planning tools such as a municipal action plan and a risk- and vulnerability assessment, which are governing documents on how to prepare, prevent and respond to accidents and crisis. However, there are no established methods for measuring community resilience in Sweden. Therefore, it could potentially be beneficial for Swedish municipalities to use a method for measuring community resilience. This paper analysed whether the concept resilience adds new perspectives to the work done with managing accidents and crisis, but also investigates whether the quantitative index method Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) can be used for measuring community resilience in Swedish municipalities. The research questions were investigated with the help of a selection of literature. Moreover, a questionnaire and interviews were conducted to understand if the concept resilience adds new perspectives for managing accidents and crises, and also if the BRIC method could provide relevant information for professionals working with accidents and crisis.
The results in this thesis indicate that the BRIC method, and more specifically the included indicators could potentially complement the work done for managing accidents and crisis. However, the thesis could not determine with certainty whether the BRIC method would facilitate the work done with managing occurred events. Finally, the results in this thesis also indicate that the concept resilience does add new perspectives for managing accidents and crises in Sweden. However, there were some ambiguity in how the concepts adds new perspectives.}},
author = {{Khairallah, Dalia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Measuring community resilience in Swedish municipalities}},
year = {{2021}},
}