Addressing challenges for future strategic-level emergency management: reframing, networking, and capacity-building

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Disaster Management
• Sociology

Background:

• Increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazards strain emergency management systems.
• Growing interdependencies in social-technical and ecological systems amplify risks.
• Strategic-level emergency management, focused on high-consequence events, is under significant pressure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze five core challenges facing strategic-level emergency management.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of current emergency management strategies.
• To propose improvements for Australia's strategic emergency management.

Main Methods:

• Literature review.
• Survey of senior emergency managers in Australia.
• Interviews and workshops with key stakeholders.

Main Results:

• Identified five primary challenges impacting strategic emergency management.
• Highlighted that viewing emergency management as the sole adaptation strategy is insufficient.
• Emphasized the need to address socio-political drivers of vulnerability.

Conclusions:

• Emergency management should be reframed as part of broader disaster risk reduction (DRR).
• Adoption of network governance is crucial for effective strategic management.
• Developing enhanced capacities for strategic-level emergency managers is essential.