Major Criteria For Judging Disaster Planning And Managing Their Applicability In Developing Countries
Date
1998
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
The paper discusses what is important in preparing for and managing disaster occasions. The starting point is that what is crucial is not planning or managing per se since there is always a degree of both, but good planning and managing. It is after all possible to have bad instances of both. Thus, to assess in any intelligent way the preparedness planning for and the managing of disasters requires asking the question: What is good planning and managing?
We attempt to answer this question on the basis of the results of the empirical research undertaken by social and behavioral scientists over what is now a 40 year period. This research cuts across natural and technological disasters and since it essentially shows that no significant behavioral differences in the two types of crises, we do not discuss any distinction in the two occasions.
First, we discuss rather extensively ten general principles of good disaster planning. Our basic point is that any planning can be evaluated as being good or bad depending on how well it meets the ten criteria discussed. Such an evaluation can be made even prior to any disaster occasion.
This discussion is followed with a presentation of ten general principles of disaster managing. This is done because our view is that an evaluation of the management of a disaster has to use somewhat different criteria than those applied to preparedness planning. Good management does not automatically follow even from good planning since there is only a partial correlation between the two processes.
The paper concludes with noting that the greater part of the research studies we used has been done in developed countries rather than developing ones. Thus, we first discuss some possible disaster-related differences between the two kinds of social systems. Our general conclusion is that the 20 principles derived mostly from studies in developed societies are in varying degrees applicable to developing countries.
Description
This was prepared as a background paper for the International Seminar on the Quality of Life and Environmental Risks held in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil, October 10-11, 1996. It is a slightly revised version of Disaster Research Center Preliminary Paper # 199 which was the expanded written version of the oral remarks made at the 2nd National Congress of Universities on Civil Protection held at the University of Colima in Colima City, Mexico on June 27-29, 1994. Some of the material also appeared in earlier publications (Quarantelli 1988; 1991; 1992; 1993; 1994). There are plans in Brazil to publish this paper in Portuguese in 1999.
Keywords
Disaster Preparedness, Disaster Management, Developing Countries' Problems