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An Operational Definition of Emergency Response Capabilities

Hassel, Henrik LU ; Abrahamsson, Marcus LU and Tehler, Henrik LU (2007) 14th TIEMS Annual Conference, 2007
Abstract
Well developed emergency response capabilities are crucial in order to keep the risk in a community at low levels. Analysing these capabilities before an emergency occurs is important since it can identify weaknesses and possibilities for improvements. To start off from an operational definition is a possible point of departure in such an analysis. In this paper, therefore, we develop an operational definition of emergency response capabilities, which builds on systems theory and an operational definition of risk. The definition includes three essential elements; the task to which the capability is related, measures of how well that task can be performed and a description of the context affecting the performance of that particular task.... (More)
Well developed emergency response capabilities are crucial in order to keep the risk in a community at low levels. Analysing these capabilities before an emergency occurs is important since it can identify weaknesses and possibilities for improvements. To start off from an operational definition is a possible point of departure in such an analysis. In this paper, therefore, we develop an operational definition of emergency response capabilities, which builds on systems theory and an operational definition of risk. The definition includes three essential elements; the task to which the capability is related, measures of how well that task can be performed and a description of the context affecting the performance of that particular task. The definition makes clear that the context might have large effects on how well a task can be performed and that there are uncertainties both regarding the context and how well a task can be performed given a context. Furthermore, we argue that it should be possible to make judgements about any statements that are made in the analysis regarding their validity and therefore the tasks and performance measures must be defined accordingly. The conclusion is that the operational definition provides an analytic structure which can help actors to gain knowledge about their emergency response capabilities and limits thereof. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Emergency response capabilities, analytic framework, operational definition
host publication
Proceedings of Disaster Recovery and Relief: Current & Future Approaches (TIEMS 2007)
conference name
14th TIEMS Annual Conference, 2007
conference location
Trogir, Croatia
conference dates
2007-06-05 - 2007-06-08
project
FRIVA
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
51ee6042-6fb1-4649-a22c-476d3f2a7e06 (old id 583500)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:51:24
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:11:06
@inproceedings{51ee6042-6fb1-4649-a22c-476d3f2a7e06,
  abstract     = {{Well developed emergency response capabilities are crucial in order to keep the risk in a community at low levels. Analysing these capabilities before an emergency occurs is important since it can identify weaknesses and possibilities for improvements. To start off from an operational definition is a possible point of departure in such an analysis. In this paper, therefore, we develop an operational definition of emergency response capabilities, which builds on systems theory and an operational definition of risk. The definition includes three essential elements; the task to which the capability is related, measures of how well that task can be performed and a description of the context affecting the performance of that particular task. The definition makes clear that the context might have large effects on how well a task can be performed and that there are uncertainties both regarding the context and how well a task can be performed given a context. Furthermore, we argue that it should be possible to make judgements about any statements that are made in the analysis regarding their validity and therefore the tasks and performance measures must be defined accordingly. The conclusion is that the operational definition provides an analytic structure which can help actors to gain knowledge about their emergency response capabilities and limits thereof.}},
  author       = {{Hassel, Henrik and Abrahamsson, Marcus and Tehler, Henrik}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of Disaster Recovery and Relief: Current & Future Approaches (TIEMS 2007)}},
  keywords     = {{Emergency response capabilities; analytic framework; operational definition}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{An Operational Definition of Emergency Response Capabilities}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}