AGCI Session I: Natural Hazards and Global Change

Session Chairs: Louis Walter and E. L. Quarantelli - July 10 to 20, 1996

5. Nexus of All System Elements

The Challenge

Decisions that affect safety, including those regarding natural hazards, are made continuously by businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals. Each decision is a "nexus," a situation that brings together the factors that influence the framing of the problem, the solutions considered, and the action that is taken. The conceptualizations of natural disaster reduction problems are influenced by disciplinary perspectives, existing organizational structures and arrangements, values, and economic and political considerations.

The increasing range of disciplines and organizations participating in research on natural disaster-related issues has resulted in an increasingly complex challenge to integrate findings in the form of specifically applicable tools and methodologies. While there are substantial scientific findings and an array of technological tools already in existence to address NDR issues, there are not adequate mechanisms to synthesize and integrate them to meet decision makers' special needs, capacity and understanding at all levels: households, organizations, communities, regions, states, and countries.

The Opportunity

An opportunity exists to enhance the likelihood that safety-related decisions will:

· incorporate current information on natural hazards into these decisions;

· be informed by existing information ( e. g., hazard characterizations, risk assessments, vulnerability assessments, projections, etc.);

· use available technologies and methodologies as tools to better understand and deal with the nature of natural hazards and their potential impacts;

· understand and incorporate considerations of societal implications and economic consequences for any proposed course of action.

While there are substantial scientific findings and an array of technological tools already in existence to address NDR issues, there are not adequate mechanisms to synthesize and integrate them to meet decision makers' special needs, capacity and understanding at all levels.

The recommendations which follow will lead to a more integrated, informed approach to NDR which will expand both the participants in and the considerations of NDR concerns outside of the traditional hazards communities and to other issue areas (e. g. , housing, economic development, health care provision, and education.

Recommendations

1. Develop systems integrating mechanisms for natural disaster mitigation that will identify and assemble tools and information to improve decision making processes that meet NDR objectives.

It is the federal government's role to stimulate and facilitate the development of these mechanisms, perhaps on a regional basis. FEMA's Council on Multi-Hazard Reduction could lead this activity. Possible models for integrating mechanisms include regional organizations such as the Southern California Earthquake Preparedness Project (SCEPP) and the Bay Area Regional Earthquake Preparedness Project (BAREPP), academic/government partnerships, and private sector systems integrators such as EQE, Inc.

2. Recognizing the complexity of and changes in NDR issues, there is a need to establish and sustain long-term interactive relationships between research/technology providers and actors at all levels of decision making in order to make effective use of available knowledge and technologies.

Such relationships would provide assistance on an iterative basis through sustained, interactive communication and contact. In addition, they would provide a way to identify new research problems or needed modifications in tools and methodologies from the actors' perspectives. A possible model for such relationships can be found in the Cooperative Extension Service programs.

3. Foster the development of disaster-systems professionals who can manage systems integration and work between academic/scientific communities, governmental systems, the private sector, and community groups.

Skills needed by such professionals include discipline-spanning capabilities, knowledge translation abilities, and the ability to identify and demonstrate useful "tools." Existing university programs in Environmental Management/Policy and related fields or those that have centers for applied research should be identified and encouraged to develop these training/educational opportunities. FEMA and NSF should stimulate these efforts. Funding research assistantships in these programs would enhance the development of these professionals. Relevant agencies could also provide internships for students in these programs.

4. Assess the ability and capacity of actors and specific decision environments (in households, organizations, and local governments) to use existing knowledge and technologies for application to NDR issues.

Multidisciplinary research teams should be solicited to address this issue for specific types of actors. Funding for these efforts could come from FEMA, NSF, USGCRP, USGS, the private sector, etc., depending on the actors.

Develop systems integrating mechanisms for natural disaster mitigation that will identify and assemble tools and information to improve decision making processes that meet NDR objectives.

5. Continuously incorporate information from the U. S. Global Change Research Program to provide decision makers with information on changing patterns of natural hazard and risk.

Natural science tools and methods from the global change research community promise a significant contribution to the improvement of the societal functions of disaster mitigation and response. The USGCRP will benefit from this interchange with the natural hazards community in policy development and program implementation to enhance appropriate mitigation behavior at the local level and within the private sector. The USGCRP should develop mechanisms to transfer and translate their information for hazards-application purposes.

6. Take the lead in promoting NDR globally with a plan to disseminate materials, methodologies, and programs internationally.

Recognize that the broad approach the U. S. has taken in addressing NDR issues from an integrated, multi-disciplinary perspective can be used to enhance both concerns about and the technical capacity for disaster reduction through organizations concerned about international development. FEMA and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) have taken the lead role in this effort for response and preparedness, and now the emphasis should shift to mitigation. This can be done by funding joint collaborative projects by OFDA, AID, USIA, CISET, the World Bank and other international development institutions.

See Side Bar: Don Geis: On creating sustainable and disaster-resistant communities

Natural science tools and methods from the global change research community promise a significant contribution to the improvement of the societal functions of disaster mitigation and response.

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