Emergency management

Emergency management is the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies (preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery). The aim is to reduce the harmful effects of all hazards, including disasters.

Definition

The World Health Organization defines an emergency as the state in which normal procedures are interrupted, and immediate measures need to be taken to prevent that state turning into a disaster. Thus, emergency management is crucial to avoid the disruption transforming into a disaster, which is even harder to recover from. Emergency management is a related term but should not be equated to disaster management.

Emergency planning

Emergency planning, a discipline of urban planning and design, first aims to prevent emergencies from occurring, and failing that, should develop a good action plan to mitigate the results and effects of any emergencies. As time goes on, and more data become available, usually through the study of emergencies as they occur, a plan should evolve. The development of emergency plans is a cyclical process, common to many risk management disciplines, such as business continuity and security risk management, as set out below:

1. Recognition or identification of risks
2. Ranking or evaluation of risks
3. Responding to significant risks
4. Tolerating
5. Treating
6. Transferring
7. Terminating
8. Resourcing controls
9. Reaction planning
10. Reporting and monitoring risk performance
11. Reviewing the risk management framework

There are a number of guidelines and publications regarding emergency planning, published by professional organizations such as ASIS, and standards bodies, such as the American National Standards Institute.

See also

• Disaster
• Disaster risk reduction
• Emergency service
• Emergency evacuation
• Public Safety

References

Emergency management Resources
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