Emergency management as a complex adaptive system
Abstract
This paper explores the application of insights from the study of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) to emergency management in search of an adaptive approach to hazard management capable of functioning with increased effectiveness in dynamic, uncertain and unclear environments. This approach demands a shift in perception towards seeing emergency management at the local, tribal, state and national level as a CAS. To function successfully as a CAS, emergency management must move past its current linear hazard-based approach to a hazard-agnostic consequence-based systems approach. This must be predicated on building an understanding of systems, nodes and influencers within and around the emergency management networks before a disruption occurs. This paper encourages emergency managers to map the networks they exist within, describing the nature of the relationships between nodes and identifying their interdependencies, and to cultivate an understanding of CAS. This builds an appreciation of the critical emergency management functional components and the consequences of those components failing. Finally, the paper offers recommendations for emergency management agencies to begin the transformational process of emergency management from bureaucracy to a CAS.
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Author's Biography
Lori R. Hodges is the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County, Colorado. She is a Certified Emergency Manager through the International Association of Emergency Managers and the State of Colorado. She is also a graduate of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security executive leaders programme as well as its master’s programme. She has a master’s degree in political science and public policy and a bachelor’s degree in emergency management and planning. Lori received the Emergency Manager of the Year Award from the Colorado Emergency Management Association in 2008 and 2013 and the Graduate Study Award from the University of Colorado and Colorado Municipal League in 2007.
Michael D. Larrañaga is President of R.E.M., a science-based risk management business continuity consulting firm. He holds a bachelor of science in fire protection and safety from Oklahoma State University; master’s degrees in environmental science and homeland security from the University of Houston Clear Lake and the Naval Postgraduate School, respectively; and a doctor of philosophy in industrial and human systems engineering from Texas Tech. He is co-founder of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s HSx Advanced Thinking in Homeland Security Program and founding treasurer of the School Shooting Research Foundation.
Citation
Hodges, Lori R. and Larrañaga, Michael D. (2021, June 1). Emergency management as a complex adaptive system. In the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, Volume 14, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.69554/GKBT1226.
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