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research topics in emergency management

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FEMA's Higher Education Articles and Papers

Emergency management higher education articles, papers, etc..

Documents below provided in MS Word , PowerPoint , Rich Text Format(rtf), PDF format and/or Winzip utility for large size file downloading and unzipping.

  • Bray, Grady, Ph.D. "The Growing Trend for Family Assistance in Higher Education with Disasters and Emergencies." Disaster Management International, Crisis Human Services, Inc. January 2014.

Drabek, Thomas E, Ph.D. Responses To and Revisions Of The Human Side of Disaster. Professor, Emeritus, University of Denver, Denver, CO. 2013

Review of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Response to the 22 February Christchurch Earthquake. Ian McLean Consultancy Services Ltd. Released: 5 October 2012

Grist, Robert E. Ph.D., CEM. "The Changing Paradigm of Emergency Management: Improving Professional Development for the Emergency Manager." (Ph.D. dissertation Portland State University, June 2007).

Coppola, Damon. "Investigation of the Political Implications of Disasters Requiring International Assistance." Bullock & Haddow, LLC. June 2011

Jensen, Jessica, Ph.D., "The Argument for a Disciplinary Approach to Emergency Management Higher Education." North Dakota State University. October 2010. 27 pages.

Glassey, Steve. "Pet owner preparedness and perceptions survey - Taranaki & Wellington Regions." Wellington, NZ: Mercalli Disaster Management Consulting. February 2010. 31 pages.

Glassey, Steve. "Research Report: recommendations to enhance companion animal emergency management in New Zealand." S Wellington, NZ: Mercalli Disaster Management Consulting. February 2010. 34 pages.

Cwiak, Carol L., Ph.D., "The Emergency Management Professionalization Process: Power, Dependence and Identity" . (Ph.D. dissertation summary. North Dakota State University, October 2009).

Fox, Jeffrey C., " Analyzing Leadership Styles of Incident Commanders ". (Ph.D. diss., Northcentral University, 30 August 2009).

" Effective Hazard Mitigation: Are Local Mitigation Strategies Getting the Job Done? " Jane Rovins, PhD, CEM, FPEM, President Natural Hazard Mitigation Association and Associate Professor, American Military University.  8 September 2009.

" Applications of Theory: Public Warnings Experienced While Returning from EMI Higher Education Conference 2008 ." Jeffery A. Hartle and Dianna H. Bryant. 12th Annual All-Hazards Higher Education Conference, June 1-4, 2009. 4 pages.

"Building a Better Crisis Leader: We Can Do More," by Stacy L. Willett, Associate Professor of Emergency Management, The University of Akron

Social Problems Perspectives, Disaster Research and Emergency Management:  Intellectual Contexts, Theoretical Extensions, and Policy Implications.   Thomas E. Drabek, John Evans Professor, Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Denver. February 2008.  Revision and expansion of the 2006 E.L. Quarantelli Theory Award Lecture presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York City, New York, August, 2007

Abstract: Strategic Contingency Planning. Karen Scott-Martinet , Masters Thesis Presented to the Professional Studies Department, California State University, Long Beach.

“How Can Emergency Managers Address Our Warming Climate? Relying on the Basics – An Essay.” Bob Freitag, Director of the Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research, University of Washington. June 2007 (Paper provided to FEMA EM HiEd Project), 6 pages.

“Emergency Management and Homeland Security Curricula: Contexts, Cultures, and Constraints” Thomas E. Drabek, John Evans Professor, Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Denver. 2007

Catastrophic Disaster Planning – Federal Emergency Management Agency. Michel S. Pawlowski, FEMA Incident Response Section Chief. FY2007

Civil Defense and Homeland Security: A Short History of National Preparedness Efforts. Homeland Security National Preparedness Task Force. September 2006.

Report – Principles of Disaster Management Workshop. Chris Webb, Auckland University of Technology, Akoranga Campus, Auckland, New Zealand. Notes taken by Chris Webb during the University of Toronto’s Natural City Conference, June 2 2006

Nationwide Plan Review – Phase 1 Report. Department of Homeland Security. February 10, 2006 - 1.2MB PDF

Avian Influenza Pandemic Conference Notes . Reporter: Edwin Jewett. Avian Influenza Pandemic Conference, Middlesex Community College, The Program on Homeland Security, Terrence B. Downes, Esq., Executive Director. December 6, 2005. - 91KB Word

Why Revolutionary Change is Needed in Emergency Management Richard Sylves, Ph.D., Dept of Political Science, University of Delaware, June 2005. - PowerPoint Presentation

Critical curriculum for emergency management leaders: Three essential themes. Glen L. Woodbury, MA. The Journal of Emergency Management, Vol.3, No. 2, March/April 2005. - PDF

Listing of Natural Hazards in the United States Compiled by B. Wayne Blanchard, Higher Education Project Manager Emergency Management Institute, National Emergency Training Center, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security. May 2, 2005.

Emergency Management in the 21st Century: Living in the New Normal. Kay Goss, CEM, Senior Advisor for Homeland Security, Emergency Management and Business Continuity. Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS). February 16, 2005. - PowerPoint Presentation.

Recent Developments in U.S. Homeland Security Policies and their Implications for the Management of Extreme Events by Kathleen Tierney, Professor, Sociology and Director, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder E-mail:[email protected]. Paper presented at the First International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction, Kobe, Japan, January 18-20, 2005. PDF

Using online tools to foster holistic, participatory recovery: an educational approach. Brenda Phillips, Ph.D., Oklahoma State University. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 19 No 4. November 2004” PDF

Reputation and Federal Emergency Preparedness Agencies, 1948-2003 by Patrick S. Roberts, Department of Politics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Prepared for Delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 2-5, 2004. PDF

Status of Emergency Management Theory. Dr. David McEntire, Director, Emergency Administration and Planning Program, University of North Texas, Denton, TX. Paper presented at the FEMA Higher Education Conference, June 8, 2004, Emmitsburg, MD. 2004. PDF

Terrorism and the All-Hazards Model. William L. Waugh, Jr., PhD, Professor, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. 2004. - MS Word

Emergency Management in the 21st Century: Dealing with Osama Bin Laden, Tom Ridge, and Julie Gerberding. NHRAIC Working Paper No. 108, University of Colorado, Boulder. Claire B. Rubin PDF URL: http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/wp/wp108/wp108.html

Establishing an EM Program by Dr. Brenda Phillips, Oklahoma State University, Fire and Science Management Program

A Precis' on Political Theory and Emergency Management By Richard Sylves. (The author's permission is required for quotation or other use)

Designing Educational Opportunities for the Hazards Manager of the 21st Century .Workshop Report, October 22-24, 2003, Denver CO. By Deborah Thomas, University at Denver and Dennis Mileti, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado at Boulder. - PDF

Prepare America - Power Point Presentation.

Neil Britton, PhD. Higher Education in Emergency Management: What is Happening Elsewhere? Team Leader (International Disaster Reduction Strategies), Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center (EdM), National Research Institute for Earth Sciences and Disaster Prevention, Kobe, Japan 651 0073 - 82KB Winzip file

Disasters by Discipline: necessary dialog for emergency management education. Brenda D. Phillips, Ph.D. Professor of Emergency Management, Jacksonville State University. [email protected]. 1-256-782-8053. A presentation made at the Workshop “Creating Educational Opportunities for the Hazards Manager of the 21st Century.” Denver, Colorado, October 22, 2003. I extend my appreciation to Deborah Thomas and Dave Neal for their suggestions and guidance but retain responsibility for any comments and conclusions.

Disaster Studies Programs in North American Higher Education - Historical Considerations by Fred May, Ph.D., Director/Chair Brandon University, Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies Program, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada 119KB MS Word

A Strategic Overview of the "New" Emergency Management - Robert O. Schneider, Ph.D., Chair-Dept. Political Science and Public Administration, University of North Carolina at Pembroke MS Word 51KB

Development of Specialized Accreditation for Emergency Management Degree Programs , A Paper Presented by Alan G. Walker for the Higher Education Project Conference, July 22-23, 1998.

Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tsumanis, Oh My ! by Michelle Hall-Wallace and C. Scott Walker, University of Arizona ArcNews, Summer 2002, www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer02articles/earthquakes.html

Emergency Management Higher Education. Abstract of Presentation of B. Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM An overview of (1) the history, current status, and future projections of Emergency Management Higher Education Programs for students - degrees, concentrations and certificates, (2) the history, current status and future projections for the FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project, and (3) thoughts on future emergency management professional development issues and core competency areas . A Power Point Presentation or Rich Text Format (rtf).

PDF - IAEM Bulletin, Special Focus Issue: Emergency Management Education, Part I, Falls Church, VA. Vol. 21, No.5, May 2004.

Feedback From The Field - Teaching Introduction to Disaster Management: A Comparison of Classroom and Virtual Environments. By David M. Neal, Jacksonville, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL 36265. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, March 2004, Vol. 22, No.1, pp. 103-116. The FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project thanks the International Research Committee on Disasters for the use of this copyrighted article. For further information on the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters www.usc.edu/dept/sppd/ijmed/.

"FEMA Higher Education Project Manager Discusses The New Generation of Emergency Managers" MS word 38kb - Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM, Manager of the Higher Education Project for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He was recently interviewed by IAEM Bulletin Editor Karen Thompson.

The Emergency Manager Of The Future by Monique C. Hite, National Research Council. A Summary of a Workshop, June 13, 2003, Washington, DC. The FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project thanks the International Research Committee on Disasters for the use of this copyrighted article. The complete citation is: International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, November 2000, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 417-437.

The Role of Colleges and Universities in Disaster Reduction by B. Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM, Emergency Management Higher Education Project Manager, Federal Emergency Management Agency. A Power Point Presentation .

THE SHANGHAI PRINCIPLES FOR CREATING SAFER CITIES & SOCIETIES Through Sustainable Urban Development . 2002. Donald E. Geis, Geis Design-Research Associates, Potomac, MD 20854 U.S.A.

Feedback From The Field - Developing Degree Programs in Disaster Management: Some Reflections and Observations - PDF by Dr. David Neal, University of North Texas

For further information on the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters www.usc.edu/dept/sppd/ijmed/ .

The Profession of Emergency Management: Educational Opportunities and Gaps - PDF by JoAnne DeRouen Darlington, Western Illinois University

Teaching Emergency Management with Blackboard: A Personal Case Study - PDF by Walter G. Green III, Ph.D., C.E.M., University of Richmond

Teaching Is An Essential Component of Hazard Mitigation by Richard A. Alvarez, Deputy Director, Florida International Hurricane Center, Florida International University, Natural Hazards Observer. May 1996. pp. 14-15.

Tertiary Emergency Management Education in Australia - PDF by Ian D. Manock, BSocSc (EmergMgt), Charles Sturt University

With Eyes Wide Open by Lorri King, International Emergency Management Student Association, Arkansas Tech University, Emergency Administration and Management. MS Word 22KB

  • An Integrated Approach For Community Hazard, Impact, Risk and Vunerability -- Analysis: HIRV by Pearce, Dr. Laurence. Excerpt -- Doctoral Dissertation. Dr. Pearce has graciously consented to this excerpt appearing in the Intro Student Reader.

Journal of Emergency Management

research topics in emergency management

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The  Journal of Emergency Management   is edited, written, and peer-reviewed by an internationally recognized team of the foremost, hands-on EM experts. They include top professionals from the public and private sectors who offer real-world experience and practical solutions and leading academics who provide perspective and analysis on the latest research and studies. Together, they bring you the most thorough, relevant, and useful source of information on emergency management.

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Published bi-monthly, every issue of the journal of emergency  management  is peer-reviewed and packed with invaluable information and insight. topics include:.

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research topics in emergency management

Finalizing emergency management professionalization in 2024

Forecasters, emergency managers, and residents: building better risk communication.

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Modeling roadway impacts and recovery from volcanic ashfall from the 2021 St. Vincent eruption volcano

A longitudinal follow-up study of rescue and recovery narratives of oklahoma city bombing responders nearly a quarter century later, considering collaborative incident management: a study of the covid-19 response and initial recovery in a rural west virginia community, covid-19 pandemic and fourth industrial revolution (4ir): reflection on the challenges and opportunities in south africa, covid-19 and cbrne: effects of the pandemic in the field of cbrne, decision-making drivers for pandemic response for institutions of higher education, measuring mental health outcomes in walbridge fire 2020, complete issue, volume 22, number 3, subscription.

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These are the best databases to search for articles in Emergency & Disaster Management Studies.

  • Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window Full-text publications from all academic areas of study, including the sciences, social sciences, humanities, education, computer science, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
  • ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window Combines several of the Library's heavily used databases, including ProQuest Research Library, into one easy-to-search interface. Thousands of journals, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, and other scholarly content on a very broad range of topics and sources.
  • Emerald Intelligence + Fulltext This link opens in a new window This source has over 130 full-text journals published by MCB University Press. Subjects include: general management, human resources, information management, library & information services, marketing, property, engineering, quality, training & education, operations, production & economics. Most of the journals have an international perspective.
  • ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window Web database for scientific research that contains abstracts, tables of contents, and full text of Elsevier journal articles mainly in science and medicine, with some coverage of social sciences and humanities, particularly business, economics and psychology. The full text of most journals is available to Georgetown users. You can search across all journals or browse/search in an individual journal.
  • Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window Indexes the major scholarly journals in the social sciences, including public policy, since 1983. For prior years, use Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective.
  • Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window Note: Access to all content on this platform is incomplete. Please reference HoyaSearch or the Journal Finder for the library's complete holdings. Portal to Wiley's scientific, technical, medical and professional journals.
  • JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full text (in PDF format) of selected, important scholarly journals in a number of fields. Note: journals in JSTOR usually do not include the most recent three to five years.
  • Nexis Uni: Political Science This link opens in a new window This LexisNexis interface allows you to search: Government and Politics News, The Washington Daybook; GAO Red Book, U.S. Supreme Court Cases, and Government & Politics Blogs.
  • ABI/Inform Complete This link opens in a new window The most comprehensive ABI/INFORM™ database, this comprises ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry, and ABI/INFORM Dateline. The database features thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals such as the Economist, country-and industry-focused reports, and downloadable data. Its international coverage gives researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.
  • HeinOnline This link opens in a new window One of the premier sources for legal and political information. Full-text law journals are a major part of the database, but HeinOnline also includes deep historical collections of U.S. federal government documents. more... less... Titles digitized include the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, bills and public laws in the Statutes at Large, the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, selected legislative histories, Supreme Court documents, Presidential documents, and more. Search the Sources of Compiled Legislative History database by Public Law or Bill number, from the 37th to the 107th Congress. The U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection has full text legislative histories on significant legislation in banking, civil rights, labor, digital rights, the USA PATRIOT act, and other selected laws.
  • Homeland Security Digital Library This link opens in a new window Electronic documents made available by the Dudley Knox Library at the Naval Postgraduate School, searchable by keyword or by topic, including general U.S. policy documents, national strategy documents, theses and research papers from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security and the Naval Postgraduate School, and homeland security executive orders. Also includes notices of events and conferences pertaining to homeland security, and news items drawn from various news sources.
  • Jane's News Centre This link opens in a new window To access, enter your Georgetown email in the login box. You will be taken to the standard Georgetown NetID login screen to complete authentication. News and analysis on state and international security, terrorism and insurgency, proliferation, resource security, and organized crime. Includes articles from Jane's publications Country Risk Daily Report , Intelligence Weekly , Terrorism and Insurgency Monitor , Intelligence Review , and more.

Below is a list of acceptable peer-reviewed journals in the interdisciplinary field of Emergency and Disaster Management. By selecting the journal title, you will be redirected to the research database (access provided by the Georgetown University Library System) that provides access to the respective journal title. 

Disasters  

Disaster Prevention and Management 

Environmental Management  

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment  

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction  

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science  

Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning

Journal of Hazardous Materials  

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management  

Natural Hazards  

Natural Hazards Review  

Risk, Hazards, & Crisis in Public Policy

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism  

  • Environmental Issues Online This link opens in a new window Environmental Issues Online brings together multimedia materials (text, archival primary sources, video and audio) around key environmental challenges, including climate change, water/air pollution, biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, deforestation and more. This mixed media collection spans over 173 hours of video and 132,000 pages of digital material. more... less... The database is curated around specific environmental issues and events from the 20th and 21st centuries, enabling students to build a critical understanding of the relationship between people and the environment through social, cultural, economic, political, historical and ecological perspectives. Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of the field of Environmental Studies, content is drawn from the social sciences, ecology and earth science, and the humanities.
  • Security Issues Online This link opens in a new window Security Studies Online is organized around major themes related to security, including terrorism and counter-terrorism, conflicts and resolution, nuclear threats and weapons, and transnational organized crime. Historical background is offered on key worldwide events, such as the U-2 incident (1960), the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979), and the 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001). Featured in the collection are video, images, and scholarly text, including works published by Cambridge University Press and Cornell University Press. more... less... The collection provides primary and secondary materials across multiple media formats and content types for each selected event, including Iran (1940s to the Present), 1960 U-2 Incident, World War II and Intelligence, Cold War: The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1961-1962, and more.
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Articles on Emergency management

Displaying 1 - 20 of 24 articles.

research topics in emergency management

Niagara pre-emptively declares a state of emergency in anticipation of massive solar eclipse crowds

Jack L. Rozdilsky , York University, Canada

research topics in emergency management

Why Canada needs to dramatically update how it prepares for and manages emergencies

Jack Lindsay , Brandon University

research topics in emergency management

Fire authorities are better prepared for this summer. The question now is – are you?

Graham Dwyer , Swinburne University of Technology

research topics in emergency management

Canada urgently needs a FEMA-like emergency management agency

Ali Asgary , York University, Canada

research topics in emergency management

Until we address chronic underfunding, Canada will keep failing at emergency management

research topics in emergency management

Tackling burnout: How to deal with stress and safety in the workplace

Kristen Deuzeman , Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

research topics in emergency management

Hurricane warnings and advice can get lost in translation, leaving migrants unprepared

Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf , University of Florida and Jason von Meding , University of Florida

research topics in emergency management

5 strategies to prepare now for the next pandemic

Tiffany A. Radcliff , Texas A&M University and Angela Clendenin , Texas A&M University

research topics in emergency management

Nearly half a million poultry deaths: there are 3 avian influenza outbreaks in Victoria. Should we be worried?

Michelle Wille , University of Sydney and Stacey Lynch , The University of Melbourne

research topics in emergency management

It’s Hurricane Preparedness Week, and communities aren’t ready for both coronavirus and a disaster

Mark Abkowitz , Vanderbilt University

research topics in emergency management

Australia can expect far more fire catastrophes. A proper disaster plan is worth paying for

Dale Dominey-Howes , University of Sydney

research topics in emergency management

Hotels play vital roles in relief efforts when disaster such as the Maui wildfires strikes

Rick Lagiewski , Rochester Institute of Technology

research topics in emergency management

Why Texans heard conflicting messages about evacuating ahead of Hurricane Harvey

Ashley Ross , Texas A&M University

research topics in emergency management

FirstNet for emergency communications: 6 questions answered

Ladimer Nagurney , University of Hartford and Anna Nagurney , UMass Amherst

research topics in emergency management

Attackers can make it impossible to dial 911

Mordechai Guri , Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ; Yisroel Mirsky , Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , and Yuval Elovici , Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

research topics in emergency management

Disaster communications: Lessons from 9/11

Thomas Terndrup , The Ohio State University and Nicholas Kman , The Ohio State University

research topics in emergency management

Welcome to City Plaza, Athens: a new approach to housing refugees

Vicki Squire , University of Warwick

research topics in emergency management

When disaster-response apps fail

Nicholas Kman , The Ohio State University

research topics in emergency management

Hide your location on Twitter? We can still find you and that’s not a bad thing in an emergency

Mohsen Kalantari , The University of Melbourne ; Abbas Rajabifard , The University of Melbourne , and Farhad Laylavi , The University of Melbourne

research topics in emergency management

Future bushfires will be worse: we need to adapt now

Justin Leonard , CSIRO

Related Topics

  • Climate change
  • Disaster management
  • Disaster relief
  • Disaster response
  • Emergency planning
  • Natural disasters

Top contributors

research topics in emergency management

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University

research topics in emergency management

Associate Professor and Chair of Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies Department, Brandon University

research topics in emergency management

Associate Professor of Geospatial Engineering, UNSW Sydney

research topics in emergency management

Associate Professor of Global and Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University

research topics in emergency management

Professor of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University

research topics in emergency management

Professor and Eugene M. Isenberg Chair in Integrative Studies, UMass Amherst

research topics in emergency management

Professor of International Politics, University of Warwick

research topics in emergency management

Senior research fellow, The University of Melbourne

research topics in emergency management

Ph.D. Candidate in Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

research topics in emergency management

Professor of Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

research topics in emergency management

Professor of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Hartford

research topics in emergency management

Professor, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

research topics in emergency management

Team Leader, Bushfire Urban Design, CSIRO

research topics in emergency management

Professor of Digital Communications and Culture, The University of Sydney, University of Sydney

research topics in emergency management

Head of R&D, Cyber Security Research Center; Chief Scientist, Morphisec endpoint security, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

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303 Disaster Research Topics & Essay Titles + Examples

Are you looking for a good idea for your presentation, thesis project, dissertation, or other assignment? StudyCorgi has prepared a list of emergency management research topics and essay titles about various disaster-related issues. Below, you’ll also find free A+ essay examples. Read on to get inspired!

🌋 TOP 7 Disaster Management Topics for Presentation

🏆 best natural disaster essay topics, 💡 simple disaster management research topics, 👍 good disaster research topics & essay examples, 📌 easy disaster essay topics, 🔥 hot disaster management topics to write about, ❓ essay questions about natural disasters, 🎓 most interesting disaster research titles, ✍️ disaster essay topics for college, 📝 disaster argumentative essay topics.

  • Earthquakes’ Impacts on Society
  • 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami
  • Forest Fires as a Global Environmental Hazard
  • Chernobyl Disaster and Engineering Ethics
  • Emergency Operations Plan During Earthquake
  • Flooding and Ways to Survive in It
  • Natural Disasters and Disaster Management in Katmandu
  • Natural Disasters: Rebuilding and Recovery Using the case of Hurricane Sandy, this paper explores some of the best approaches that can be used to address social justice and multicultural issues related to rebuilding and recovery.
  • Disaster Management in Nursing Practice Nurses play a significant role in disaster management – they disseminate knowledge, care for people, and develop improvement strategies.
  • A Natural Disaster Preparation Plan Common steps in preparing for natural disasters include assembling an emergency kit, developing a plan of action in case of a catastrophe, and educating children.
  • Floods: Stages, Types, Effects, and Prevention Flood is the most regularly occurring and the most destructive natural disaster. The most flood-prone area in the world is Asia, but the US has its own share of floods.
  • Community Health: Disaster Recovery Plan Healthy People 2020 is a government initiative aimed at improving health for all groups. Its objectives are raising length and quality of life, achieving health equity.
  • Strategies Applicable to the Hurricane Katrina The Mississippi Crisis Plan many focuses on public information in order to ensure more communities and populations are aware of possible disasters.
  • Hurricane Katrina: Government Ethical Dilemmas Hurricane Katrina is a prime example of government failure. That`s why the leadership and decision-making Issues are very important at every level: local, state and federal.
  • Nurse’s Role in Disaster Planning and Preparedness Public health officials play an important role in disaster planning and emergency preparedness. Nurses are involved in disaster planning, preparedness, response and recovery.
  • Mississippi’ Disaster: Hurricane Katrina Crisis Strategy The primary strength of the crisis plan adopted by the authorities in Mississippi is the commitment of the authorities respond faster than they did during Hurricane Katrina.
  • Environmental Studies: The Chernobyl Disaster On April 26, 1986, The Chernobyl Unit 4 Reactor was undergoing a test on the system that was meant to provide electric power in case of a power outage.
  • Earthquake’s Intensity and Magnitude Intensity measures earthquakes’ strength and indicates how much the ground shook. An earthquake’s magnitude quantifies its size.
  • Disaster Recovery Plan in Overcoming Disparities Health services are a social determinant and barrier that affects community health, safety, and recovery efforts.
  • Earthquake Threats in Bakersfield Earthquakes and dam failures are the most severe threats to Bakersfield, both of which can result in gas leaks and power disruptions.
  • A Report on Earthquakes Using Scientific Terms The current essay is a report on earthquakes using scientific terms from the course. Moment magnitude or moment magnitude scale refers to the relative size of an earthquake.
  • Information Technology Disaster Recovery Planning Disaster recovery planning is the procedure and policies set aside by a given organization to ensure their continuity and recovery from a natural or human-caused disaster.
  • Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response Health Care practitioners play a very important role in hurricane preparation initiatives and disaster response.
  • Nuclear Disasters: Fukushima and Chernobyl Both Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters were nuclear crises that occurred accidentally in Japan and Ukraine respectively.
  • MAP-IT Framework for Disaster Recovery Plan for the Vila Health Community This Vila Health Disaster Recovery Plan will address the potential threat of the Monkeypox (MPX) outbreak in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area.
  • The Tohoku Earthquake: Tsunami Entry The paper discusses the Tohoku earthquake. The tsunami evacuation can be described as one that was preceded by warning, preparation, and knowledge.
  • Disaster Recovery Plan for the Vila Health Community The Vila Health community has significant limitations as it has many elderly patients with complex health conditions, with shelters for the homeless running at capacity.
  • Overpopulation’s and Environmental Disasters’ Connection This essay focuses on evaluating overpopulation as one of the greatest environmental threats, the relationship between the problem of overpopulation and harm to harmony in nature.
  • Human Factors In Aviation: Tenerife Air Disaster The probability of mistake linked to the issue estimates around 30%, which is too high for aviation. For this reason, there is a need for an enhanced understanding of the problem.
  • Disaster Recovery Plan At Vila Health At Vila Health, the use of inadequate protocols caused confusion, staff overload, and excessive use of resources, so an improved Disaster Recovery plan is needed.
  • Disaster Operations and Decision Making This paper discusses disaster operations issues, particularly the planning process, decision making, operations plans, protection in place and evacuation, and others.
  • Decision-Making in the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster The decision-makers in the case of the Hillsborough Disaster were the event organizers, road engineers, and policemen handling the crowd.
  • Valero Refinery Disaster and Confined Space Entry On November 5, 2010, a disaster occurred at the Valero Delaware City, Delaware. Two workers succumbed to suffocation within a process vessel.
  • Risk Management Model and Disaster Recovery Plan Risks may be categorized by their financial outcomes. Risks that entail merely an economic loss are the worst type of risk that is detrimental to organizational sustainability.
  • Galveston Hurricane of 1900 The paper discusses Galveston, the 1900 hurricane. It remains the deadliest in terms of natural disasters ever witnessed in the history of America.
  • The Flood in Genesis and Lessons Learnt The story of the Flood in Genesis is fascinating because it is illustrative of the new beginning and a chance to achieve a different result for humanity.
  • Disaster Planning for Public Health: Darby Township Case The present paper is devoted to flood preparedness and planning in Darby Township (DT) located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
  • Links Between Natural Disasters, Humanitarian Assistance, and Disaster Risk Reduction: A Critical Perspective
  • Global Warming: The Overlooked Man-Made Disaster Assignment
  • Natural Disaster, Comparing Huadong and Spence Views
  • Natural Disaster, Policy Action, and Mental Well-Being: The Case of Fukushima
  • Natural Disaster Equals Economic Turmoil – Trade Deficit
  • Disaster and Political Trust: The Japan Tsunami and Earthquake of 2011
  • Minamata Mercury Pollution Disaster
  • Natural Disaster Damages and Their Link to Coping Strategy Choices: Field Survey Findings From Post‐Earthquake Nepal
  • Flood Forecasting: Disaster Risk Management
  • Disaster Relief for People and Their Pets
  • Man-Made Natural Disaster: Acid Rain
  • What Spiritual Issues Surrounding a Disaster Can Arise for Individuals, Communities, and Health Care Providers
  • Natural Disaster Management Strategy for Common People
  • Flood Disaster Management With the Use of Association for Healthcare Philanthropy
  • Disaster Relief and the United Nation’s Style of Leadership
  • India’s 1984 Bhopal Disaster Analysis
  • The National Disaster Management Authority
  • Natural Disaster Insurance and the Equity-Efficiency Trade-off
  • What the Puerto Rican Hurricanes Make Visible: Chronicle of a Public Health Disaster Foretold
  • Disaster, Aid, and Preferences: The Long-Run Impact of the Tsunami on Giving in Sri Lanka
  • Natural Disaster Early Warning Systems
  • Disaster Preparedness for Travis County Texas
  • Establishing Disaster Resilience Indicators for Tan-SUI River Basin in Taiwan
  • Natural Disaster Death and Socio-Economic Factors in Selected Asian Countries
  • Managing the Arsenic Disaster in Water Supply: Risk Measurement, Costs of Illness and Policy Choices for Bangladesh
  • Large-Scale Natural Disaster Risk Scenario Analysis: A Case Study of Wenzhou City, China
  • Hurricane Katrina: Natural Disaster or Human Error
  • Disaster Relief and the American Red Cross
  • Extreme Natural Events Mitigation: An Analysis of the National Disaster Funds in Latin America
  • The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster and Its Effects on the World
  • Natural Disaster Preparedness in Texas: Nursing Response Southeast Texas is the territory largely affected by hurricanes. In addition to property damage, hurricanes pose threats to public and individual health in different ways.
  • Nursing and Natural Disasters: An Emergency Planning Project The purpose of this paper is to describe the role of the nurse in an emergency situation (an earthquake) by listing priorities, resources, describing the nursing process.
  • The Importance of Disaster Recovery The paper aims at providing a Disaster Recovery Plan for the Vila Health community and presenting evidence-based strategies to enhance the recovery effort.
  • Spiritual Considerations in the Context of a Disaster The purpose of this essay is to discuss the spiritual considerations arising after disasters and a nurse’s role in this scenario
  • The Role of Nurses in Disaster Management Taking action in the event of adversities and helping out communities in recuperation is a central part of public health nurses.
  • Emergency and Disaster Preparedness in Healthcare The impromptu nature of emergency and disaster occurrence makes it almost impossible to prepare for emergencies and other challenges.
  • Historical Perspective and Disasters as a Process Natural disaster should be analyzed on the social level, because disasters are socially constructed and experienced in different ways by individuals or groups of individuals.
  • 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina in Psychological Aspect The purpose of this essay is to analyze the response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, mainly from psychological perspectives.
  • India’s, Indonesia’s, Haiti’s, Japan’s Earthquakes In 2001, the major tremor hit the Indian state Gujarat. It was reported as the most significant earthquake in the region in the last several decades.
  • Mining as a Cause of Environmental Disaster Mining does great damage to the environment and biological diversity of the planet. The negative consequences of mining indicates the gravity of the present ecological situation.
  • Natural Disasters and Their Effects on Supply Chains This paper identifies emerging global supply chains and uses the cases of Thailand and Japan to explain the impacts of natural disasters on global supply chains.
  • Developing a Disaster Recovery Plan for Vila Health Community The purpose of the presentation is to develop a disaster recovery plan that will address health disparities and improve access to services after a disaster.
  • Disaster Preparedness for an Earthquake Knowing the signs of an earthquake is the key to survival in the event where it happens. It includes a roaring sound that may initially be gentle but grows louder within seconds.
  • Ohio Catastrophe: Train-Induced Chemical Pollution Disasters The paper presents an overview of the chemical pollution incident caused by a train derailment in Ohio alongside possible remedies to combat the pollution.
  • Climate Activism to Prevent Ecological Disasters The most relevant concern of modern society’s activism revolves around the climate situation and ecological disasters threatening humanity.
  • A Hurricane Threat: A Risk Communication Plan The paper discusses a risk communication plan for the residents of New Orleans about a hurricane threat. It addresses disaster scenarios and introduces the risk communication plan.
  • Why the Hurricane Katrina Response Failed Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive hurricane in US history, hit in late August 2005. The most severe damage from Hurricane Katrina was caused to New Orleans in Louisiana.
  • The US Disaster Recovery System’s Analysis The US disaster recovery system is operating below its potential, hence there is a need to review performance in past disaster incidents.
  • Chornobyl Disaster: Exploring Radiation Measurement After Fukushima The event is the Chornobyl disaster. A flawed reactor design caused it (Westmore, 2020). It resulted in the discharge of radioactive particles.
  • Lake Oroville Disaster: Analysis Water released from the lake through the spillway was halted to assess the damage, which caused the quick rise of Lake Oroville water levels.
  • Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery in the US PDD-39 and HSPD-5 are very similar safety directives, united by the provisions concerning terrorism as a world problem and the attitude of the United States towards it.
  • An Agent-Based Model of Flood Risk and Insurance This paper provides all essential information concerning the nature of property and liability insurance along with its core principles.
  • Henderson Flood Hazard and Risk Assessment A proper understanding of the disasters capable of disorienting the lives of the people of Henderson can guide different agencies to formulate interventions.
  • Hurricane Maria and Community Response to Hazard Hurricane Maria, which took place in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Dominica on September 20, 2017, is believed to be one of the most devastating natural disasters.
  • Discussion of Managing Disasters in the USA People in the United States of America are constantly in danger of natural disasters, such as storms and tornadoes.
  • FEMA Assistance to Man-Made and Natural Disasters The Federal Emergency Management Agency can provide financial assistance to individuals and families who, as a result of natural disasters, have incurred expenses.
  • Hurricane Response Plan: Analysis The City of Baton Rouge Emergency Services has developed a five-step detailed response plan in the event of a major hurricane to reduce risks to civilians and city infrastructure.
  • The Hurricane Katrina: Consequences Hurricane Katrina is one of the unprecedented disasters that led to deaths and the destruction of economic resources.
  • The Possibility of Agroterrorism: Disaster Management Efforts The U.S. needs to prepare for the possibility of agroterrorism. Local administrators are responsible for disaster management efforts.
  • Earthquakes Preventions in USA and Japan The article clarifies the issue of earthquakes in the United States, investigate the weaknesses of the American system, and explore the benefits of the Japanese technique.
  • Aspects of Hurricane Irma: Analysis The paper examines Hurricane Irma and the responses of the country, state, and Monroe County to the disaster. Irma was one of the most powerful hurricanes.
  • Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand The earthquake is considered one of the costliest natural disasters in history. Thousands of buildings, cars, and other property were damaged or destroyed completely.
  • Researching of Record-Breaking Floods Floods are natural disasters, usually caused by excessive precipitation, leading to severe consequences. The most significant flood in the world occurred in 1931 in China
  • Concrete Homes Your Fortress in a Natural Disaster
  • II-the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster the Year
  • Hurricane Katrin Human-Made Disaster
  • Hurricane Sandy: Lessons Learned From the Natural Disaster
  • Thomas Drabek and Crisis and Disaster Management
  • Disaster Management: The Cases of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and Hurricane Ike
  • Natural Disaster, Environmental Concerns, Well-Being and Policy Action
  • Improving the American Red Cross Disaster Relief
  • Union Carbide Disaster: Bhopal, India
  • Managing Risk the Disaster Plan That You Will Need
  • Disasters: Disaster Management Cycle and Major Disasters in India in the Year 2017
  • Ready for the Storm: Education for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
  • Fire Prevention and Basic Disaster Management
  • Japan Tsunami Disaster March 2011 Present the Earthquake-Tsunami Hit Japan
  • Indian Ocean Tsunami: Disaster, Generosity, and Recovery
  • Gauley Bridge Disaster and Bhopal Disaster
  • Natural Disaster Shocks and Macroeconomic Growth in Asia: Evidence for Typhoons and Droughts
  • Disaster Recovery Toms River After Sandy
  • The History About the Bhopal Disaster Construction
  • The Black Death Was the Largest Disaster of European History
  • Middle Tennessee Disaster Analysis
  • Living With the Merapi Volcano: Risks and Disaster Microinsurance
  • Natural Disaster Risk Management in the Philippines: Reducing Vulnerability
  • Korea’s Neoliberal Restructuring: Miracle or Disaster
  • The Indian Ocean Tsunami: Economic Impact, Disaster Management, and Lessons
  • Modeling the Regional Impact of Natural Disaster and Recovery
  • Knowledge Management Systems and Disaster Management in Malaysia
  • Disaster Planning and Emergency Response
  • Disaster Vulnerability and Evacuation Readiness: Coastal Mobile Home Residents in Florida
  • Hurricane Katrin Disaster Response and Recovery System
  • Disaster Preparedness and Recovery The paper analyzes the characteristics of public and private partners concerning disaster, their advantages and disadvantages, and the government’s role in disaster control.
  • Bhopal Disaster: Analytical Evaluation The Bhopal accident occurred in India almost 40 years ago, on December 2, 1984. This disaster claimed the lives of 3800 people.
  • Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, on the United States Gulf Coast, on August 29, 2005, leaving a path of devastation and flooding in her wake.
  • “Emergency Management”: Building Disaster-Resilient Communities “Emergency Management” exemplifies the opportunities available currently in regard to building disaster-resilient communities to strengthen emergency management in the US.
  • Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster: Results After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, NASA identified the management failure elements that led to the disaster and substituted them with sustainable alternatives.
  • Hurricane Vince: The Tropical Cyclone Hurricane Vince is a tropical cyclone that formed and developed in the eastern region of the Atlantic Ocean in 2005, near the Iberian Peninsula.
  • Consequences of Northridge Earthquake The paper discusses Northridge Earthquake. A blind thrust fault provoked an earthquake of a magnitude of 6.7, which is high for such a natural phenomenon.
  • Humanitarian Assistance After 2010 Haiti Earthquake This paper aims to discuss how the people of Haiti experienced the earthquake, as well as how humanitarian aid from various organizations helped make a difference for Haitians.
  • Disasters Influenced by Technology Depending on the natural environment of a community, social and building systems could either be strong or weak and vulnerable to a disaster.
  • Ethics of the Flixborough Chemical Plant Disaster The Flixborough chemical plant disaster exposed some problematic ethical issues found in the engineering industry.
  • Disaster: Typhoon in Philipines Developing countries struggle to receive equal access to the same options. States like the Philippines do not have enough resources to invest in resilience and prevention measures.
  • Destructive Atlantic Hurricane Season in 2017 The deadly and destructive 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season affected many people in society as it made people lose over 200 billion dollars.
  • Earthquakes: Determination of the Risk There is a need to create awareness and knowledge about earthquake disasters and how to mitigate and respond to such disasters.
  • Disaster Management and Analysis of Information The assessment and analysis of a disaster help understand the main problem, causes, and effects on human safety and security.
  • Disasters and Emergency Response in the Community The onset of a disaster prompts the nation, region, or community affected to depend on the emergency response team.
  • Disasters and Actions of Rapid Response Services The collaborative work of rapid response services in emergencies is crucial for the rapid and effective elimination of their consequences and for saving people’s lives.
  • Earthquake Mitigation Measures for Oregon Oregon could prepare for the earthquake by using earthquake-proof construction technologies and training people.
  • The Mississippi Floods of 2020, Its Impact and the Requisite Solution for the Future For numerous years, the Mississippi River has been prone to flooding incidents proved quite inconvenient for the local communities.
  • Hurricane Katrina: Military and Civilian Response One of the three most dramatic catastrophes of the millennium, hurricane Katrina highlighted weak points of government and military forces.
  • Earthquake: Definition, Stages, and Monitoring An earthquake is a term used to describe the tremors and vibrations of the Earth’s surface; they are the result of sudden natural displacements and ruptures in the Earth’s crust.
  • The Haiti Quake and Disaster Aid The experience of Haiti with earthquakes supports the opinion of researchers that there are factors that might prevent entities from assisting the populations.
  • Earthquakes: Effects on People’s Health Earthquakes are one of the global environmental health issues that hugely impact people’s lives in certain geographical areas and communities.
  • Flood Environmental Issues in the Netherlands With the current constantly rising sea levels, the Netherlands is at constant risk of floods, and those calamities were harsh incentives for the country’s development.
  • Hurricane Katrina and Failures of Emergency Management Operations Hurricane Katrina came from the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005, immediately resulting in a Category 3 storm as winds reached the speed of over 120 miles per hour.
  • Incident Command System and Disaster Response The significance of successfully deploying the Incident Command System to any type or scale of emergency response situation cannot be overestimated.
  • Preventing Forest Fires in California with Forestry Changes From the beginning of the 21st century, California has been experiencing an increase in forest fires, destroying citizens’ lives and property.
  • Preparedness Planning in Case of Flooding According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a preparedness plan for floods is divided into multiple steps that meet a national preparedness goal.
  • Earthquakes as the Natural Disaster Posing the Greatest Danger to Societies The scope of irreparable damage, human losses, and paralyzed infrastructure due to earthquakes causes high economic costs for rescuing, preventing, reconstructing, rehabilitating.
  • Disasters Caused by Climate Change This paper focuses on several recent natural disasters caused by climate change – simultaneous fires in Russia and floods in Pakistan.
  • Hurricane: How Human Actions Affect It To prevent the frequent occurrence of hurricanes, it is necessary to understand the process of their occurrence and how human actions affect it.
  • “Measuring Inequality in Community Resilience to Natural Disasters” by Hong et al. This paper analyzes the scientific study “Measuring inequality in community resilience to natural disasters using large-scale mobility data” and the content of the article.
  • Hurricane Katrina: Hazards Management This paper explores the events of Hurricane Katrina in regard to the arguments for and against rebuilding along the shorelines.
  • Disaster Preparedness Experience It is essential to conduct such training for water damage, which can come from floods or even a small leak that goes undetected for some time.
  • Noah’s Floods: Development of the Grand Canyon Rocks The paper discusses Noah’s floods. Developing a distinction between the sole causes for the development of the Grand Canyon rocks is still a daunting task.
  • Disaster, PTSD, and Psychological First Aid Psychological first aid should be consistent and evidence-based, practically applicable in the field, appropriate, and culturally flexible.
  • Drought as an Extremely Dangerous Natural Disaster On our planet, especially in places with an arid climate, drought itself, like the dry winds that cause it, are not uncommon.
  • IT Disaster Recovery Plan Information technology disaster recovery management procedures remain an important element of the overall corporate strategy.
  • Adopting Smart Grid to Mitigate the Blackout Disaster The author proposes the creation of a smart grid for effective blackout monitoring and mitigation the blackout disasters.
  • Loss Prevention and How It Was Affected by Hurricane Katrina The most damaging flood in United States’ history, is known as the 2005 Great New Orleans Flood or Katrina. It is estimated that the damages were incurred in 2005.
  • Prevention of Nuclear Disasters The paper reports on the mechanical and engineering failures that sparked a nuclear meltdown in the Three Mile power plant, its effects and the ways to improve safety.
  • How Can We Prevent Natural Disasters?
  • What Is the Relationship Between Disaster Risk and Climate Change?
  • How Does Disaster Affect Our Lives?
  • Where Do Natural Disasters Happen?
  • What Natural Disasters Are Caused by Climate Change?
  • How Can We Communicate Without a Phone or Internet in a Disaster?
  • What Is the Difference Between Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery?
  • Can Natural Disasters Be Prevented?
  • How Can We Reduce Disaster Risk?
  • Are Natural Disaster Situations a Formidable Obstacle to Economic Growth?
  • Why Is Communication Important in Disaster Management?
  • How Do Natural Disasters Help the Earth?
  • What Are the Principles of Disaster Management?
  • Are There Any Aspects of BP’s Ethical Culture That Could Have Contributed to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Disaster?
  • Why Is Governance Important in Disaster Management?
  • How Does Weak Governance Affect Disaster Risk?
  • What Are the 5 Important Elements of Disaster Preparedness?
  • How Can Climate Change Affect Natural Disasters?
  • What Is Alternative Communication System During Disaster?
  • How to Cope With the Stress of Natural Disasters?
  • Does Economic Growth Really Reduce Disaster Damages?
  • Who Is Responsible for Disaster Management?
  • What Is the Importance of Disaster Risk Assessment?
  • How Important Is Disaster Awareness and Preparedness?
  • Does Natural Disaster Only Harm Humankind?
  • Nuclear Disaster Prevention and Related Challenges The article addresses the role of transparency in monitoring nuclear arsenals as well as the varied approaches for identifying challenges.
  • Chernobyl and Fukushima Disasters: Their Impact on the Ecology The fallout’s impact poses a danger to animal and plant life because of the half-life of the released isotopes. Longer exposure to radiation may lead to the burning of the skin.
  • Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: Causes of the Tragedy and the Measures to Be Taken On January 28, 1986, the Challenger was launched to explode 73 seconds after its lift-off. The tragedy is commonly called “the worst disaster in the history of the space program”.
  • Disaster Responses: Improving the State of Affairs Despite technological improvements and increased knowledge, humanity is still struggling against disasters because they cannot either predict them or respond to them appropriately.
  • Stop Disasters Game: Learning, Entertainment, or Both? It is worth mentioning that the game seems to be informative in helping the player understand how to get prepared for natural calamities.
  • Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and Hurricane Harvey The coast of the United States in general and Texas in particular experiences tropical storms on a regular basis. Hurricanes hit the Texas coastline, often causing property damage.
  • Hurricane Katrina: Improvised Communication Plan This article seeks to highlight improvised communication plans adopted by the victims in the shelter at the Houston Astrodome.
  • The Review of the Challenger Disaster This essay aims to discuss the Challenger Disaster and consider the details of the mission. It examines the reasons why the mission was conducted despite the warnings of engineers.
  • William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster The 1928 St. Francis dam disaster in Los Angeles, California is one of the most devastating man-made failures in the history of the United States.
  • Lazarus Island: Disaster Systems Analysis and Design This paper aims to develop a web-based emergency management system for the government of Lazarus Island. This system will be used at the response stage of disaster management.
  • Earthquake Resistant Building Technology & Ethics Foreign engineers aimed to replace Japanese architecture with a more solid one with masonry houses, new railroads, iron bridges and other European technological advances.
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Data loss is the center of focus of business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR), as this is the lifeblood of business operations today.
  • Fire Disaster Plan For a Skilled Nursing Facility The purpose of this fire disaster plan is to provide guidance to the skilled nursing facility on fire emergency procedures to protect the lives and property of staff, residents.
  • Southern Europe Flash Floods: Disaster Overview Southern Europe flash floods are the most recent significant event. People need to learn about the cause and effects of flooding and apply the knowledge to protect themselves.
  • The Atlantic Hurricane Season Explained The Atlantic hurricane occurs from June 1 to November 30. It peaks sharply from late August to September; in most cases, the season is at the highest point around September 10.
  • Community Disaster Preparedness in Nassau County, New York The objective of disaster management is to design a realistic and executable coordinated planning that minimizes duplication of functions and optimizes the overall effectiveness.
  • Article Review: “The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Trust in Government” The research applies trust concept to and measured in dwellers of several counties within Mississippi and Louisiana.
  • International and South Africa’s Disaster Management When South Africa gained self-governance status in 1931, one of the issues that its government focused on was the management of major disasters.
  • Effect of Flooding on Cultures in Egypt and Mesopotamia The effects of Tigris and Euphrates river largely impacted on the Mesopotamian culture more so with regard to its frequent and destructive floods.
  • Disaster and People Behavior Changes Some of the behavioral changes that occur due to the presence of a disaster relying from research from sources across the world on the countries affected by the disasters.
  • Disaster Planning and Health Information Management This paper discusses promising measures and practices to help the organization to avoid situations with loosing all health information in case of future disastrous events.
  • Organizational Behavior and Motivation in Hurricane Response This article examines methods that could be used to manage the aftermath of the Katrina disaster by some theorists in the field of creating mechanisms to regulate human behavior.
  • All-Hazards Disaster Preparedness: The Role of the Nurse Preparing for hazards means developing skills and gaining knowledge that will allow allocating less time to decision-making in case of emergency.
  • Hurricane Katrina’s Mental Health Impact on Populations The occurrence of Hurricane Katrina and Tsunami disasters called for the development of specialized techniques that would respond to a crisis.
  • Disaster, Crisis, Trauma: Interview with a Victim An interviewed process suffered trauma in 2008. He was just a teenager when all the members of his family died in a plane crash.
  • Effects of Earthquakes: Differences in the Magnitude of Damage Caused by Earthquakes There are various types of earthquakes depending on the cause of the earthquake hence have different effects and damage to property and loss of life.
  • How Natural Disasters Impact Systems at Various Levels? Health complications such as cancer are associated with nuclear disasters. Such diseases are hard to cure and manage.
  • Disasters’ Benefits to People Who Experience Them The disasters cause more harm than good. This is because their negative consequences supersede the positive impacts.
  • Chernobyl Disaster’s Socio-Economic and Environmental Impact Future efforts to prevent the impacts of a disaster similar to the Chernobyl accident is to invest more in public information, considering the previous misconceptions.
  • Causes of the Haiti Earthquake This paper defines what an earthquake is, then discusses and reviews the causes of the Haiti Earthquake and the possibility of another Earthquake.
  • Environmental Disaster Education: Incorporation Into the University Curriculum Naturally, disasters occur without any notification. Depending on the type of disaster, it is always important to approach the problem with immediate effect.
  • Was the BP Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf Avoidable Most of the people feel that the government would have done something to prevent the occurrence of the spillage.
  • The 1900 Galveston Hurricane: Disaster Management Failure Isaac Cline, who by then was the director of the Galveston Weather Bureau, placed his arguments which were based on the statements saying that the city of Galveston did not require a seawall.
  • Managing Change, the Challenger and Columbia Shuttle Disasters The crash of the Columbia and Challenger space shuttles is often construed with varied opinions. Both the incidences are blamed on a mixture of both technical and organizational breakdown.
  • Ethical and Legal Issues During Catastrophes or Disasters This paper will discuss the ethical and legal issues during catastrophes or disasters, with particular reference to the Haiti earthquake disaster.
  • Has the Media Changed the Response to Natural Disasters? This ethical information structure of this paper will be based on expounding the issues of the media and the way the media has played its part during a disaster.
  • Managing Emergencies and Disasters In the research paper, the responses that were made during the four disasters and emergencies will be compared. Areas of success in dealing with these issues will be pointed out.
  • Energy Safety and Earthquake Hazards Program The distribution of earthquakes around the world is not uniform. Some parts experience earthquakes frequently while others do not.
  • Recovery Efforts During 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina It is a prerequisite of any government in place to always be prepared for any disaster of whatever nature whether natural or humanly initiated.
  • Hurricane Katrina as One of the Worst National Disasters in the USA This paper illustrates the reasons why american levees failed to control the flooding problems during the Katrina hurricane what attributed to engineering ethics and the precaution.
  • Comparison of the Loma Prieta California Earthquake and Armenia
  • Destructive Force: Earthquake in Aquila, Italy
  • Hurricane Katrina and the USA’s South
  • International Studies: Global Disasters
  • Hurricane Katrina: Determining Management Approach
  • Scientific Responsibility for Earthquakes in Japan
  • Disaster Recovery. Automated Management System
  • Media Coverage of the China 2008 Earthquake
  • Vulnerability of Hazardville to Flooding Disasters
  • Natural Sciences. 1996 Mount Everest Disaster
  • The Climate Tragedy and Adaptation to Disasters
  • Potential Disasters’ Impact on Nursing Community
  • Teaching Experience in Disaster Management Among Teenage Students
  • National Guidance During Hurricane Katrina
  • Psychological Issues After a Crisis or Disaster
  • Disaster Management and Training for Emergency
  • Hurricane Katrina and Public Administration Action
  • Dell Technologies Company’s Disaster Recovery Plan
  • Emergency Planner’s Role in Disaster Preparedness
  • Disaster Recovery Plan: Business Impact Analysis
  • Riverbend City’s Flood Disaster Communication
  • The “New Normal” Concept After Disaster
  • Disaster Management: Evacuations from Gulf Coast Hurricanes
  • American and European Disaster Relief Agencies
  • Flooding in Houston and New Life After It
  • Deepwater Horizon Disaster and Prevention Plan
  • Hurricane Hanna, Aftermath and Community Recovery
  • Emergency and Disaster Management Legal Framework
  • Disaster Support by Miami and Federal Emergency Management Agency
  • Disaster Plan Activation and Healthcare Staff
  • Hurricane Katrina and Emergency Planning Lessons
  • Family Self-Care and Disaster Management Plan
  • The Role of Homeland Security in Terrorism and Disaster Management
  • How Can the Negative Effects of Disasters Be Avoided?
  • The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Factors
  • Disaster Management: Terrorism and Emergency Situations
  • Defence Against Coastal Flooding in Florida
  • Evaluation as Part of a Disaster Management Plan
  • World Trade Center Disaster and Anti-Terrorism
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Post-Disaster Fraud
  • Structural Violence and Hurricane Matthew in Haiti
  • Vulnerable Population: Disaster Management’ Improvement
  • Disaster Triage and Nursing Utilitarian Ethics
  • Kendall Regional Medical Center’s Disaster Plan
  • Houston’s Revitalization After Harvey Hurricane
  • Disaster Recovery Team and Disaster Recovery Strategy
  • Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Impacts and Prognosis
  • Hurricane Katrina, Its Economic and Social Impact
  • Nonprofit Organizations’ Disaster Management
  • Philadelphia Winter Snow Disaster and Its Impact
  • Fukushima and Chernobyl’ Nuclear Disasters Comparison
  • Natural Disasters Effects on the Supply Chain
  • Natural Disasters: The Budalangi Flood
  • Homeland Security: Fast Response to Disasters and Terrorism
  • Geology: Iquique Earthquake in Chile
  • Tornado and Hurricane Comparison
  • The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
  • Hurricane Katrina’ Meaning: Mental, Economic, and Geographical Impact
  • Preparing for Terrorism and Disasters in the New Age of Health Care
  • Healthcare Facilities Standards and Disaster Management
  • Hurricane Katrina Emergency Management
  • Planning Disaster Management in the Urban Context
  • Strategic Preparedness for Disasters
  • Hurricane Katrina and the US Emergency Management
  • Earthquakes: History and Studies

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StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 303 Disaster Research Topics & Essay Titles + Examples. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/disaster-essay-topics/

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StudyCorgi . "303 Disaster Research Topics & Essay Titles + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/disaster-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "303 Disaster Research Topics & Essay Titles + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/disaster-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Disaster were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on June 21, 2024 .

  • Disaster Medicine

A review of emergency response in disasters: present and future perspectives

  • January 2021
  • Natural Hazards 105(3)
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Shaoze Cui at Beijing Institute of Technology

  • Beijing Institute of Technology

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Software and framework of bibliometric analysis

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research topics in emergency management

Reducing the Impact of Disasters through Research

When disasters threaten US populations, it’s often the most vulnerable people who have the hardest time preparing for, responding to, and recovering from their impacts – and many may never fully do so.

It’s this challenge that drives UCF Coastal Professor Christopher Emrich and Associate Professor Claire Connolly Knox’s research.

research topics in emergency management

Ensuring Strength in the Face of Adversity

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Researchers are constantly learning from past disasters to improve all phases of emergency management , including preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

At UCF, we are leveraging our expertise from across disciplines to help people become better prepared and build resilience in the face of crises, disasters, hazards and storms .

As a result, UCF has emerged at the forefront of research and academics in emergency and crisis management, including having the top-ranked master’s program in the country .

Minimizing the instability caused by these critical situations not only helps people, but it also keeps the nation secure. The work has obvious implications for Florida, but its impact can help people in communities all over the nation and the world

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Meet Christopher Emrich

B.A. and M.A in Geography from USF, Ph.D. in Geography from UofSC

“I think the impetus for my research is to help people stay in their homes after a disaster by mitigating the threats hazards pose. If we can protect people’s homes, and people don’t have to leave, then they don’t suffer mental distress as deeply, and they don’t lose jobs as frequently. We can avoid a bunch of losses just by keeping people in their homes.”

Chris Emrich, Ph.D.

Boardman Endowed Professor of Environmental Science and Public Administration in UCF’s School of Public Administration and UCF Coastal Science Director

As a hazard geographer, Chris Emrich uses geospatial technologies to assess disaster impacts and outcomes with a specific focus on how vulnerable populations fare in recovery . Among his more recent publications are several focused on inequities in disaster recovery and what barriers exist in access to recovery programs and associated outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Emrich partners with citizens, local governments, other academics and UCF developers to build tools to help individuals and communities gain perspective on social vulnerability, disaster losses, and how to mitigate future impacts and build resilience.

Through funding from the National Academies of Sciences, Emrich has helped build a social vulnerability mapping application for any place in the nation. This map will help emergency and crisis management decision makers understand the areas that need special attention in their region.

As a result of his expertise, Emrich has been called upon regularly since 2016 to assess the impact of hurricanes in Florida. He’s also helped the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity formulate long-term recovery plans for areas recently hit by disasters, including Florida, Puerto Rico and South Carolina. And in Orlando and the surrounding region, he’s working with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council to design strategies to measure the disaster risks the area faces.

Chris works alongside some of the nation’s leading scholars, including the emergency management and homeland security faculty , public administration faculty and public policy faculty .

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Researching to Build Resilience

Chris Emrich leads a $3.4 million, multi-institution project that looks at building community resilience through residential risk disclosure. The HazardAware project is funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program and involves researchers in the Sustainable Coastal Systems cluster and from across UCF. A recently released tool from the project shows how much hazards, such as winds and flooding, could cost a homeowner each year.

HazardAware Collaborators at UCF

  • Chris Emrich
  • Thomas Wahl
  • Kristy Lewis
  • Sergio Alvarez
  • Jacopo Baggio
  • Sonia Stephens
  • Claire Knox
  • Roel Fleuren
  • Susan Bethel
  • Eric Johnson
  • Tammie McClellan
  • Erica Recktenwald
  • Boardman Endowed Professor of Environmental Science and Public Administration
  • UCF Luminary Award
  • Principal Investigator of a $3.4 million, multi-institution UCF-led project funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program
  • R&D100 Award

Research Areas:

  • Hazards Geography
  • Social Vulnerability
  • Disaster Recovery & Resilience
  • Emergency Management Decision Support
  • Geospatial Information Science

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Meet Claire Connolly Knox

Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from FSU, M.P.A. in Public Administration from FSU, B.S. in Renewable and Sustainable Resources and B.A. in English from UL-Lafayette

“I geek out when it comes to analyzing post-disaster plans and policies. I’m really interested in can we capture those lessons learned, and can we translate those lessons learned into actionable policy and planning solutions?”

Claire Connolly Knox

Associate Professor in UCF’s School of Public Administration, part of the College of Community Innovation and Education; Founding Director of the Master in Emergency and Crisis Management Program

As a native of Coastal Louisiana, Claire Connolly Knox has experienced firsthand devastation to coastal zones and environmental injustices . She’s witnessed repeated hits from storms and hurricanes that have ravaged Louisiana’s coastlines, and she’s volunteered in underserved communities languishing in the infamous Cancer Alley that stretches from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

It was during her time working as an interpretative specialist for the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act at the U.S. Geological Survey National Wetlands Research Center that she became interested in ways to use science to improve policymaking .

This interest has led Knox to where she is today, improving disaster plans and policies through research and teaching as an associate professor in UCF’s School of Public Administration and founding director of the Master in Emergency and Crisis Management Program.

Knox says that the challenge isn’t always just researching and documenting the lessons learned from past disasters but actually implementing them. There are political, financial and organizational hurdles that must be considered. However, these challenges are, in-part, what drive her passion for analyzing plans and policies.

She works to make sure that emergency management plans are linked to land use plans and that the plans involve the whole community , including vulnerable and underserved residents who may be most impacted by disasters. These efforts can help ensure positive impacts like avoiding development in flood zones, the equitable distribution of food and supplies during relief efforts, and nursing homes that are prepared for disasters.

National Recognition and Implementation

Knox’s work on disaster planning and cultural competency has local and national impacts . She was invited to join the National Pandemic Task Force because of her outstanding work. Her book is used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Social Equity Initiative specifically for emergency planning for shelters and disaster housing.

Knox’s recommendations have also been implemented across the state of Florida. She was part of a team who updated the behavioral component of Florida’s Statewide Regional Evacuation Study last year, which Florida counties use for evacuation planning and in local evacuation decision making.

  • 2022 Kay C. Goss Awardee for Innovation at the FEMA Higher Education Symposium
  • National Pandemic Task Force member
  • Co-edited the 2021 American Society of Public Administration’s Section on Democracy and Social Justice Book of the Year
  • Nearly $5 million in grants, including a National Science Foundation grant
  • 2015 Florida Emergency Preparedness Association’s Gary Arnold Awardee
  • Environmental vulnerability and disaster response
  • Environmental policy and planning in coastal zones
  • Habermas’ critical theory
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UCF is a Recognized Leader in Emergency Management

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UCF’s Master of Emergency and Crisis Management program placed No. 1 in the nation, ranking among the top ten in the country for the sixth consecutive year.

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The National Weather Service renewed UCF’s designation as a StormReady University through 2023 for the university’s commitment to practices that keep the campus community safe.

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The bachelor’s in emergency management program at UCF is the first undergraduate degree of its kind in the state of Florida.

UCF Researchers are Thinkers, Dreamers and Doers.

Get a quick glimpse into some of the latest innovative work that’s transforming the way to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.

World-class Emergency Management Research in Orlando

With more than 8,000 miles of coastlines in the state, and teams of researchers who work across disciplines, UCF is a prime location to learn how to improve emergency management and homeland security readiness. Its abilities are bolstered by cutting-edge facilities, such as Research 1 that houses many of the interdisciplinary research team members; innovative and top-ranked public administration programs that prepare the next generation of leaders in their fields; and on-campus resources that help the university and the world better prepare for threats and hazards.

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National Center for Integrated Coastal Research

Our team of interdisciplinary researchers and scientists is committed to an evidence-based, whole-community approach to increase the resiliency and sustainability of coastal communities. UCF Coastal’s goal is to link the ecological security of coastal ecosystems with the economic security of coastal communities, ensuring the sustainability of our coastlines and economy for generations to come.

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Sustainable Coastal Systems Faculty Research Cluster

UCF’s Sustainable Coastal System Cluster integrates science and societal needs to address coastal issues and teach students conservation and resource management.

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The UCF School of Public Administration is dedicated to preparing undergraduate and graduate students who will serve and lead in careers in nonprofit management, urban and regional planning, research administration, emergency management, public administration and public policy.

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UCF Office of Emergency Management

The Department of Emergency Management prepares UCF by enhancing partnerships and coordinating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the university’s ability to mitigate, protect, and prevent against; respond to; and recover from natural, technological, and human-caused threats and hazards.

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Coastal Risks & Engineering (CoRE) Lab

Research in the CoRE Lab mainly focuses on connecting engineering and various science disciplines (e.g., oceanography, hydrology, meteorology, climatology) to better understand the vulnerability of coastal societies, built infrastructure, and fragile ecosystems under climate change conditions.

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research topics in emergency management

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Emergency Management of Tomorrow Research Fact Sheet

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is coordinating with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to develop an effective research agenda that supports emergency managers with effective information sharing technologies and to identify, develop and transition the use of these advanced technologies in support of EOC activities. These technologies include emerging artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, and decision aids.

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Emergency planning and management in health care: priority research topics

1 Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.

Naomi Chambers

Simon french.

2 University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K.

Duncan Shaw

Russell king.

3 Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, London, U.K.

Alison Whitehead

4 Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, Wigan, U.K.

Many major incidents have significant impacts on people's health, placing additional demands on health-care organisations. The main aim of this paper is to suggest a prioritised agenda for organisational and management research on emergency planning and management relevant to U.K. health care, based on a scoping study. A secondary aim is to enhance knowledge and understanding of health-care emergency planning among the wider research community, by highlighting key issues and perspectives on the subject and presenting a conceptual model. The study findings have much in common with those of previous U.S.-focused scoping reviews, and with a recent U.K.-based review, confirming the relative paucity of U.K.-based research. No individual research topic scored highly on all of the key measures identified, with communities and organisations appearing to differ about which topics are the most important. Four broad research priorities are suggested: the affected public; inter- and intra-organisational collaboration; preparing responders and their organisations; and prioritisation and decision making.

Introduction

Most disasters and many major incidents have significant short- and long-term impacts on people's health, placing additional demands on health-care organisations ( Pan American Health Organization, 2000 ). Emergency planning and management to address these demands are complex. The many determinants of mental and physical health mean that a wide variety of non-health-care organisations may have roles in prevention and recovery efforts, 1 spanning the public, private and voluntary sectors. During the response phase, temporary organisational networks need to be deployed rapidly, but with large-scale emergencies not respecting administrative boundaries, even the health-care organisations involved in the care of casualties requiring urgent treatment may not be used to working together with such tight coordination or short timescales. Depending on the nature and severity of the hazard, specialist equipment and resources that are in short supply or geographically distant may also need to be mobilised, posing significant logistical issues. In some disasters, entire health-care facilities may be put out of action or overwhelmed, necessitating fundamental changes to care processes and standards for a period.

In addition to planning for emergency incidents, emergency planners in health-care organisations are also likely to be involved in business continuity planning and management. This is an important role, as the health-care sector is a major component of the economies of developed nations ( OECD, 2011 ). Good access to efficient, high-quality health care is a high priority for societies and their political representatives, so incidents that adversely affect everyday services can have serious reputational and financial consequences for organisations, in both the public and private sectors, through mechanisms such as penalty clauses in contracts, adverse media coverage and litigation. People receiving health-care services, particularly acute hospital care, are already in ill health, making them particularly vulnerable if the service they rely on is affected by an incident. Thus, for example, fires in hospital buildings, where patients are typically elderly, lack mobility and may require a sterile environment or electrical equipment for their treatment, pose difficult challenges for safe evacuation ( Wapling et al , 2009 ).

The environment for health-care emergency and business continuity planning is also continually changing, with factors as varied as climate change, technological advances in medical care, an ageing population, economic cycles and the reorganisation of services potentially having an impact. Indeed, during 2010–2011, impending changes to health-care emergency planning arrangements in England, and uncertainty about their exact nature and timing and about the level of commitment to emergency planning, were of great concern to staff interviewed as part of the study. Given such complexity and change, there is an ongoing need for high quality organisational and management research that does not presume a well-ordered, rational world, where the development of utility-maximising tools to be applied by planners and managers is sufficient, but engages with the messiness and politics of organisational life in order to provide a strong foundation for policy and practice ( Sementelli, 2007 ). Such research may, however, be difficult to conduct because of planners concerns about security, or the rapid onset of many emergency incidents, which does not sit easily with slow moving research ethical approval processes. Careful planning of research is therefore also important, so that it properly addresses knowledge gaps of practical significance and has the necessary support in place to facilitate access to the field.

The main aim of this paper is to suggest a prioritised agenda for organisational and management research on emergency planning and management relevant to U.K. health care based on a scoping study commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research. A secondary aim is to enhance knowledge and understanding of health-care emergency planning among the wider research community by highlighting key issues and perspectives on the subject and presenting a conceptual model. Stuart-Black et al (2008) provides an overview of health-care emergency planning in the United Kingdom. While the primary focus was on the United Kingdom, comparisons were also made with the United States, because much of the research on emergency planning and management has been conducted there, and because planned changes to the NHS in England being proposed by the government at the time of the study appeared to be moving towards a more market-based health-care system closer to that in the United States. In the first section below, a conceptual model of health-care emergency planning is presented in order to further elaborate and communicate the topic. The following section describes the methods that were used in order to gather information about potential research topics and to prioritise them. The findings of the study are then presented in the form of clusters of topics and a discussion about their importance.

A health-care perspective on emergency planning and management

Drawing on a U.S. definition of public health preparedness planning ( Nelson et al , 2007 ), and the U.K. NHS definition of a major incident ( Department of Health, 2005 ), health emergency planning can be defined as:

A coordinated, cyclical process of planning, implementation, evaluation and learning which aims to increase the capability of society to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from any occurrence which presents a serious threat to the health of the community, or disrupts the health care system, or causes (or is likely to cause) such numbers or types of casualties as to require special arrangements to be implemented by one or more health care organisations.

At the start of the study, a conceptual model of health emergency planning was developed based on this definition and on a preliminary scan of the literature, which highlighted the importance of mismatched resources and demands ( Dombrowsky, 1998 ), the nature of the hazard and the capacities of organisations and communities ( Wisner et al , 2004 ), and various activities that need to be planned for and managed ( Hodgkinson & Stewart, 1991 ; Pearson & Mitroff, 1993 ). The model shows from an organisational perspective the key processes that are involved and the connections between them, and is represented schematically in Figure 1 . An incident may increase demand for health care, or reduce its supply, or both. The increase in demand may have two aspects – the simple volume of patients, and also the nature of the health problems they present. Similarly, the supply of health care, which relies on a range of structures, processes and resources including human resources, facilities, organisation, equipment and supplies, has both quantitative and qualitative aspects. During a radiological incident, for example, the available staff may be unfamiliar with the symptoms of radiation poisoning and what the appropriate treatment procedures are. It is these quantitative and qualitative mismatches between demand and supply, which vary according to the nature of the incident and the vulnerability to it of the demand and supply systems, that can compromise the quality or efficiency of care.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is hs201315f1.jpg

Conceptual model of health emergency planning.

A variety of potential hazards need to be planned for. Health-care organisations have major roles to play in preventing, mitigating and responding to pandemic human disease, such as influenza. This is both the highest impact risk on the U.K. National Risk Register matrix ( Cabinet Office, 2010 ) and also one of the most likely risks to occur. While demand increases, supply of health-care staff can also be reduced, most obviously because they are infected, but also for a variety of other reasons, including caring for children if schools are closed, caring for ill relatives and the impacts of the pandemic on public transport systems.

It is characteristic of disasters that they reduce the supply of health care through their adverse effects on general infrastructure, so it is important that that business continuity plans are integrated into wider emergency plans. Similarly, loss of staff and supply chain planning are key components of pandemic flu planning. Nevertheless, business continuity issues usually occur in relation to relatively small-scale incidents. NHS emergency planners spend most of their time on such issues, yet the concept of business continuity planning is fairly new to the NHS, with the first mention being made in 2005 ( Department of Health, 2005 ) and further interim advice provided in 2008 ( Department of Health, 2008 ). Intelligence gathered from study interviewees, workshop participants and the networks of research team members suggests that formal, in-depth business impact analysis is not generally conducted by operational units within NHS organisations due to competing pressures on managers' time and the lack of specialist support – in many organisations one person takes responsibility for both emergency planning and business continuity.

Severe weather such as snow, extreme cold, heat waves and storms resulting in flooding can produce significant short- and long-term demand for health care, with, for example, flooding causing psychosocial health problems ( Du et al , 2010 ), and heat waves leading to cases of sunburn, heat exhaustion, respiratory problems and other illnesses associated with the hot weather, such as food poisoning ( Department of Health, 2010 ). But severe weather may as much affect the supply of health care through its effects on general infrastructure, again bringing it into the domain of business continuity planning. Further internally focused planning may also be required because existing NHS patients in both community and institutional settings are among groups vulnerable to adverse health impacts from severe weather. For example, large buildings such as hospitals may struggle to keep room temperatures down during heat waves and to prevent patients from becoming dehydrated. Such internally focused planning may be regarded as part of business continuity planning, but business continuity planning also needs to be outward looking, engaging external suppliers, for example.

Terrorist attacks, while thankfully rare in the United Kingdom, can place massive short-term demands on ambulances and hospitals, and then a large task to provide follow-up psychological care. For example, the 7/7 terrorist attacks on London in 2005 resulted in 56 deaths, including the 4 suicide bombers, and over 700 injured within a single day, with blast injuries not commonly encountered by health-care staff. Major health-care incidents involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials, whether from industrial accidents or acts of terrorism, are also relatively rare, but are likely to be difficult to manage, partly on account of that rarity, despite significant investment by the NHS in preparing for CBRN incidents. Although ambulance services and acute hospitals have protective and decontamination equipment, staff may lack the training to use them properly, for example. Finally, major transport accidents seldom require more than a local response, other than access to existing specialist regional trauma and burns injury centres, but significant additional demands can be placed on local ambulance services and hospitals, with follow-up psychosocial care being commonly required.

In general, emergency planning aims to increase the resistance and resilience of health-care supply and demand systems by implementing measures to prevent incidents, and preparing systems to respond to and recover from the incidents that do occur. To achieve this, an emergency planning system needs to have structures, processes, resources and governance that enable it to develop suitable plans, and to implement those plans effectively. It also needs to be able to continuously improve plans through conducting regular exercises and drills and learning from them ( Nelson et al , 2007 ). As disasters may occur when events contradict accepted assumptions ( Turner & Pidgeon, 1997 ), a ‘double loop learning' system ( Argyris & Schön, 1996 ; Herzog, 2007 ) is needed.

This conceptual model provides an overview of health emergency planning and helps to clarify the relationship between health-care emergency planning and business continuity planning. The understanding generated by developing the model informed subsequent data collection and analysis undertaken in the remainder of the study. For example, although reports of major incidents may give some insights into business continuity plans that may have been invoked as part of the response, unpublished internal reports also need to be accessed in order to provide a full picture. The concept of supply and demand systems highlights the need not just to focus on NHS organisations and their internal workings, but also to bring in external partner organisations and suppliers, and to go beyond organisations by taking a public health perspective that includes communities and their roles. Governance arrangements are also relevant, not only for emergency planning, but also for the health care and other systems that are involved, because they influence how organisations act. Consideration of learning processes is important, and not just for the purposes of identifying policy and practice issues and research gaps. It also provides a means of understanding how research can have an impact on the practice of emergency planning, which is crucial. There is little point in applied research that is subsequently ignored by practitioners!

Methodology, data collection and analysis

The study aimed to identify future research priorities across a wide, complex area of policy and practice, spanning different hazards, organisations and sectors. In view of this, and the limited resources available for the study, it was therefore appropriate to conduct it as a scoping study, which describes the breadth and key characteristics of research on a topic rather than performing in-depth analyses of individual pieces of research. Scoping study methodology is underdeveloped, with no universally agreed definition or purpose, but a number of commonly occurring features have been identified ( Levac et al , 2010 ). A scoping study is generally a precursor to further work, synthesising and analysing a wide range of material (rather than just high quality academic research) in order to provide a guide to a topic, which may take the form of a conceptual map like the model above ( Davis et al , 2009 ). The guide may identify what is and is not known, and contextualise this knowledge by relating it to policy and practice, so that these can become more informed and further practically relevant research can be undertaken ( Anderson et al , 2008 ). To achieve relevance, it is often desirable that the study is conducted rapidly ( Arksey & O'malley, 2005 ), but this may be a challenge as the process is typically iterative, with the discovery of previously unappreciated aspects of a topic taking the study in new directions. Carefully designed engagement with policymakers, practitioners and researchers may help guide and speed the process, and some scoping studies also aim to develop networks across these stakeholders in order to build capacity to conduct future research.

Data collection took place over 12 months, starting in September 2010, and comprised various strands: a structured literature review; a survey of researchers; interviews; an exploration of debriefs of incidents and of larger case studies; and a prioritisation workshop and survey (see Figure 2 ). Boyd et al (2012) provides full methodological details. The aim was to identify not only research gaps, but also good practices and issues of concern regarding practice.

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Object name is hs201315f2.jpg

Flowchart of the research process.

The literature review began with a keyword search of several academic databases and was followed by citation searches using Scopus and Google Scholar. Priority was given to literature reviews, and to citations focused on health or health care, on the United Kingdom and published from 2006 onwards. The recent contents pages of five key journals were also scanned, and various research registers and research funder websites were searched to locate recent and current research. Researchers identified through the literature search were asked by email to identify their most recent publications and research, and to say which topics they thought should be priorities for future research. Grey literature from the United Kingdom was found by searching the Emergency Planning College online library, NHS Evidence, the Department of Health website, the Health Protection Agency website, the U.K. Resilience and Cabinet Office website, the Centre for Public Scrutiny library of local authority scrutiny committee review reports and the Royal United Services Institute website, journal and newsbrief. All relevant citations and research project outlines were categorised using a multidimensional framework with categories for: country/area of the disaster; phase of the emergency; hazard type; research method; and various elements of preparedness. U.K.-focused research was compared with research conducted elsewhere by calculating frequencies, cross tabulations and correlations of framework categories.

Text was also extracted from documents regarding issues identified, theories developed and claims made; suggestions for improving practice and for further research; and any supporting evidence. Particular attention was paid to research priorities identified by previous scoping studies from the United States ( U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention, 2006 ; Abramson et al , 2007 ; Altevogt et al , 2008 ; Kelen & Sauer, 2008 ; Acosta et al , 2009 ; Savoia et al , 2009 ; Yeager et al , 2010 ), as analysis suggested that their main findings would also apply to the United Kingdom. These priorities were mapped onto each other visually to produce an ordered list of nine groups of research priorities.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 people drawn from a range of U.K. stakeholder groups, including the ambulance and fire services, the Department of Health, a local council, voluntary and community organisations, and the Health Protection Agency, which provides specialist support and advice to help protect public health. Key staff from federal agencies in the United States were also interviewed. Specific issues and lessons learned were extracted from debrief reports of 20 small-scale incidents in the Greater Manchester and Lancaster areas of England. Two more detailed case studies were also examined: the 2009/2010 swine flu (H1N1) outbreak and the Cumbria floods of 2005 and 2009. Text was extracted from debrief documents and published articles, identified through a snowballing process of key informants, who were also asked to give their views on key issues, good practices and knowledge gaps.

Thematic analyses were conducted on the textual data from each of the various sources above. After integration with the nine groups identified from previous scoping reviews, 18 potential research topics and associated research questions were formulated. A workshop involving 16 people drawn from a range of stakeholder groups suggested criteria against which to assess the topics. The topics were scored against the criteria by the workshop participants, and ranked by both the participants and a further 16 people via an email survey. The stakeholder groups covered included those represented in the interviews (see above); NHS commissioning organisations and providers of acute hospital and mental health care; NHS Blood and Transplant; the Police; researchers; and the Emergency Planning College, which provides training courses. The research team developed the criteria into a more comprehensive assessment framework that considered the existence of knowledge gaps, the importance of filling those gaps and the practicality of doing so. The team then scored the research topics systematically, taking account of all of the evidence that had been uncovered by the study. The various scores and rankings were compared using average rankings, correlations between scores and average rankings, and a two-dimensional scaling analysis of the rankings.

Four clusters of related research topics are suggested as the basis for the commissioning of future research on health-care emergency planning and management in the United Kingdom ( Table 1 ).

1. Affected publicRecovery (including long-term health impacts)Robust• How can social support networks be supported in the recovery phase? • What are the best interventions for addressing psychosocial health problems?
 Community involvement and vulnerable groupsRobust• What are the relationships between community resilience and wellness following disasters? • What is the potential for active community, voluntary sector and business involvement in emergency planning and management, and how can it be developed?
 Communication and public informationRobust• How effective are risk communication efforts during particular events? • What are the levels across the workforce of competencies in crisis risk communication?
 Social networkingPlausible• How can social networks be monitored most effectively for intelligence on what is happening during an incident? • Can social networking be used to build trust between the authorities and the public?
2. Inter- and intra-organisational collaborationCoordination/collaborationRobust• What are the factors that enable and inhibit standardisation/interoperability across organisations, including the contribution of training and exercising? • How can the collaborative spirit engendered during incidents be built upon? • How can coordination across a ‘mixed economy' of relatively autonomous health-care organisations be maintained and improved, especially during the response and recovery phases? • What is the potential for productive linking of emergency planning and management with other strategic and operational planning and management?
3. Preparing responders and their organisationsLearning and quality improvementRobust• What approaches are effective in facilitating learning from good practice, exercises and incidents of all sizes – locally, regionally and nationally? • What approaches (regulation or internal processes) are effective in producing continuous, sustainable quality improvement in emergency preparedness?
 Training/exercisesRobust• What are the connections between training, competency and capability, and outcomes, for example, with regard to decision making during response? • How do we train and share best practice among emergency planners?
4. Prioritisation and decision makingPriority and resourcingUnable to assess• What characteristics (capabilities, capacities etc.) make for an effective emergency planner/planning function in NHS organisations? • Which factors (e.g., professional background of senior managers, political, social and administrative contexts, funding sources, targets etc.) have the greatest impact on the resources (staff, financial, equipment etc.) that organisations devote to preparedness?
 Impact of organisational change (e.g., NHS reorganisation)Plausible• How to maintain emergency planning and management capability and effectiveness during periods of organisational change? • How does the emergency planning system provide sufficient consistency and leadership for emergencies covering a wide geographical area?
 Social, administrative and political contextsPlausible• What constitutes effective and fair systems for commissioning, contracting and performance management of emergency preparedness and response (e.g., taking account of the costs and knock-on impacts of response)? • What is the impact of political imperatives on decision making with regard to emergency preparedness, response and recovery?
 Leadership and decision support systems during crisesUnable to assess• What competencies and training are needed for NHS managers who may take on command and control roles? • How are decisions taken during emergencies, and what use is made of decision support data and of emergency plans?

Research Cluster 1: public affected by health emergencies

Health-care emergency planning aims to protect the public's health and maintain services to treat people's illnesses. Therefore the communities to be served should be central to such planning. Yet it would appear that not enough is known about communities and how to support them, and the potential for active partnership between communities and services has not been fully realised ( Ahmed et al , 2012 ).

Despite the existence of national guidance on recovery ( National Recovery Working Group, 2007 ), which makes reference to people's health needs, recovery often seems to be the poor cousin of emergency planning and response. Yet unless recovery processes swing into action as the emergency is being dealt with, there is evidence that long-term problems can be created ( Levine et al , 2007 ; Madrid et al , 2009 ). Moreover, since social, psychological and political factors can affect needs, health-care organisations should be part of an integrated recovery process that addresses the broad range of issues that concern victims, their families and the wider public. Recovery also needs to recognise that some groups are more vulnerable than others.

There are many issues relating to vulnerable populations whose health, social or economic circumstances make them more susceptible to the effects of an incident, as well as those who are made vulnerable by the incident itself. Identifying vulnerable groups can be difficult. Data relating to vulnerability is not generally held by a single agency, but needs to be garnered from a range of organisational and community sources. Information can be hard to access during an emergency, as the relevant gatekeeper both needs to be identified and persuaded to sanction release of data. Furthermore, the data quality may be uncertain, and there is an intrinsic problem that people's vulnerability varies depending on the characteristics of the incident as it proceeds.

Although there is greater recognition of the importance of communicating risk and other information to the public, and practice would appear to have improved, levels of competence across the workforce are not known. There is a lack of understanding about how communities access, generate, share, interpret and use information, particularly with the advent of new technologies and the rise of social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Information generated by social networks is not quality assured and can be difficult to capture efficiently, but there are potential benefits that might be realised. These include being able to communicate with the public quickly, including monitoring public perceptions of organisational performance; capturing data to monitor the course of an incident; better targeting and analysing information through enhanced geographical awareness; and supporting communities to take action themselves.

Research Cluster 2: inter- and intra-organisational collaboration

Constructive partnership working between agencies is important to both planning and response, and is a continued focus for policymakers and practitioners. This is particularly relevant to an NHS in the midst of a substantial reorganisation, which may dissolve existing relationships and require new relationships to be established across an increasingly diverse set of organisations, many of which are themselves new. Research is needed to better understand multi-agency working and what promotes and impedes it. For example, how does multi-agency working differ between routine operations, planned large events and major emergencies? How can the collaborative spirit engendered during incidents be built upon? It can be difficult for cross-organisational teams to have enough personal contact and familiarity to be sure that they will work effectively during an incident, despite training and exercises. In the United Kingdom, planners build relationships through planning forums, but not responders; and within organisations, there is the issue of how to develop relationships and share tacit knowledge between responders and planners.

Cluster 3: preparing responders and their organisations

The U.K. research studies ( Anathallee et al , 2007 ; Williams et al , 2007 ; Fell, 2008 ; Day et al , 2010 ) typically indicate shortfalls in the emergency preparedness of health-care services. Training and exercises are a major component of developing preparedness, but knowledge is lacking regarding their effectiveness. There may also be untapped potential to learn from past experiences and to make use of quality improvement methods.

Responding organisations generally debrief after any significant incident producing a report known as an After Action Report in the United States. These reports may be circulated locally, with particular recommendations and learning points being followed up, but no structured attempts have been made to collate, compare and learn from them on a larger scale. The reports represent an underused resource to improve practice, to recognise business continuity issues and also to identify emerging threats and patterns.

Training and exercises both train the participants to deal with specific features of events, and build trust and understanding. However, exercises tend to rehearse well-anticipated events that run to plan, to consider only the worst case scenario and to cover all functions and address all issues within all the allotted time. There is a danger of superficiality and of failing to consider conjunctions of events that can compromise planning assumptions.

Generally there is an issue of professional training for emergency managers and ways of sharing best practice. In the study interviews, no clear mechanisms were identified for the professional training of emergency managers other than membership of certain professional bodies, taking part in exercises and attending planning meetings. Interviewees observed that senior emergency planners may have worked their way up from being responders. This provides them with a valuable wealth of practical experience, but a paucity of relevant theory and body of evidence on which to build appropriate behavioural and management competencies.

Cluster 4: prioritisation and decision making

The priority and the resources devoted to planning, preparedness and response are important. There is little point in knowing how to design effective training, for example, if there are insufficient funds to deliver it to staff, or if staff attendance is poor. The wider administrative and political context is influential in this regard, especially given the NHS reorganisation, associated staff ‘churn' and pressures to realise cost savings, yet little is known about exactly how wider systems impact on emergency planning and response, and about the decision-making processes of health-care leaders.

Many smaller organisations assign emergency planning to be only one part of a single manager's role. The other parts can relate to activities with continual day-to-day demands, inevitably diverting attention away from emergency planning. Similarly, although emergency planning is an NHS priority, regulatory and performance monitoring systems are not conducive to prioritising resources to deal with what may be rare events.

Organisations need senior managers who have the abilities to take effective command and control decisions during emergencies. Yet decision-making processes during crises are not fully understood ( Rake, 2003 ; Sementelli, 2007 ) due to the dynamic complexity of incidents and the nature of the evolving and unknown risks that are present. This makes it difficult to provide suitable training or to incorporate assessment of the necessary abilities into recruitment processes.

The study's assessment of research priorities is based on three key measures that the study identified: the strength of evidence indicating the existence of a research gap; the extent to which the research would address the needs of organisations; and the extent to which the research would address the needs of communities. No individual research topic scored highly on all of these measures ( Boyd et al , 2012 ), so it is prudent to set priorities at a more general level. The feasibility of research to answer specific questions should be assessed during the commissioning process.

Communities and organisations appear to have different views, particularly with regard to what are the most important topics needing research. Analysis of the workshop rankings ( Figure 3 ) suggests that Cluster 1 is a high priority for communities but less so for organisations, while the remaining clusters are higher priorities for organisations than for communities, with Cluster 4 having very little resonance for communities. Some of these differences may reflect the lack of visibility to the general public of internal organisational workings, and also a lack of awareness of community concerns among emergency planners located within large organisations. This suggests the importance of trying to increase mutual understanding between organisations and communities and of planning involving a wide range of stakeholders.

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Two-dimensional scaling analysis of research topic priorities from the workshop and survey combined, showing clusters. Note : See Boyd et al (2012) for details of topics not included in the priority clusters.

There are differences between the U.K. and U.S. contexts that should be reflected in the research priorities of the two countries. Among other things, the United States has a greater incidence of extreme weather and a more complex legal situation, with both federal and state laws. Nevertheless, many of the research gaps identified by previous U.S.-focused scoping studies are also relevant to the U.K., and there would appear to be scope for collaboration between research commissioners, including the U.K. government departments and commissioners in the United States, to compare research priorities, coordinate commissioning, develop commissioning models and build capacity to conduct research, learning from the experiences of the Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers in the United States.

Four broad research priorities have been identified for which there is good evidence of the existence of knowledge gaps that are important issues either for communities or for organisations. The findings have much in common with those of previous U.S.-focused scoping reviews, and with a recent U.K.-based review ( Challen et al , 2012 ; Lee et al , 2012 ; Mackway-Jones & Carley, 2012 ), confirming the relative paucity of U.K.-based research. Closer cooperation between stakeholder groups within and outside the United Kingdom may be a practical way forward to developing research capacity and filling the knowledge gaps. The conceptual model presented in this paper may help by increasing understanding of emergency planning among communities, practitioners, policymakers and researchers.

The online version of this article is available Open Access.

1 Detailed definitions of terms such as ‘recovery' that are used in emergency planning can be found in Boyd et al (2012) .

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  • 5 Research Topics for Emergency Management Students

Students enrolled in emergency management classes, with the intent to complete the degree, have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of incident command systems; learn about hospital preparedness; and become more familiar with response agencies at the federal, state and local levels. In order to complete the program, most emergency management students are required to research, write and submit a  thesis project  that correlates closely with the area of study.

Resource:  Top 10 Online Emergency Management Degree Programs 2015

These are 5 research topics appropriate for emergency management students:

1. A critical analysis of the 2001 anthrax attacks

The anthrax attacks, often delivered via postal services, were traumatic events in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Because the United States was still on high alert from that incident, new protocol was quickly established to handle anthrax and other forms of bioterrorism. These procedures, in hindsight, may not have been the most effective means for dealing with this calamity. An emergency management student could research the real-life situations and responses of the crisis teams in 2001, detailing how these incidents would be better handled in today’s society of improved and more experienced crisis teams.

2. Procedures specific for urban search and rescue

With terrorist attacks focused mainly on cities and with the density of populations and buildings in cities, urban searches and rescues can be complicated and difficult. Victims could be on the upper floors of tall buildings, trapped inside interior rooms or even along a side street or alley that is nearly impossible for rescuers to access. In most of these situations, time is of the utmost importance, so urban areas must have thorough and implementable plans of attack in the event of such an emergency. This project could research some cities’ plans and possibly propose changes to their current methods.

3. Humanitarian disaster relief

Many nations rely on humanitarian relief following natural disasters, such as a hurricane or drought. In these instances, there are often projects that raise funds and supplies, or sometimes the governments of more prosperous nations step in to provide aid. Sometimes the delivery is nearly impossible, often because of the state of the area after the disaster or because those who need the aid the most are not easily accessible. This research project could examine recent disasters that have required humanitarian relief by analyzing the process of obtaining supplies and physically delivering those items.

4. Personal preparedness for terrorism and disasters

Many people are unprepared should a natural disaster, or even an act of terrorism, come to them. While it is not necessary or practical for the average citizen to have a panic room or bomb shelter at his or her residence, there are steps that individuals can take to be more prepared if a disaster should occur. This research project could examine typical types of disasters and the provide protocol for the types of supplies people should have on hand and what their reactions should be during such a disaster.

5. Protocol for water rescues

Although not one of the most typical types of rescues, saving people from a river, lake or ocean can present many unusual obstacles. From the difficulty of locating a person who may be drowning or on a raft in the vast ocean to physically rescuing the person when another boat or a helicopter are the only options, water rescues require clear procedures in order to be successful. An emergency management student could research and create the best protocol for each of these situations, especially for a coastal town that may face the problem.

Students hoping to fulfill their requirements for a degree in emergency management will likely need to complete a thoroughly researched project. Although there are many different topics that will meet this requirement, especially dealing with disaster relief and national attacks, these are a few possibilities for the project.

Additional Resource:   50 Most Affordable Schools for an Emergency Management Degree 2015

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  • Chemical Biology
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  • Ecosystem Science
  • Cancer Biology
  • Exposure Science & Pathogen Biology
  • Metabolic Inflammatory Diseases
  • Advanced Metabolomics
  • Mass Spectrometry-Based Measurement Technologies
  • Spatial and Single-Cell Proteomics
  • Structural Biology
  • Biofuels & Bioproducts
  • Human Microbiome
  • Soil Microbiome
  • Synthetic Biology
  • Computational Chemistry
  • Chemical Separations
  • Chemical Physics
  • Atmospheric Aerosols
  • Human-Earth System Interactions
  • Modeling Earth Systems
  • Coastal Science
  • Plant Science
  • Subsurface Science
  • Terrestrial Aquatics
  • Materials in Extreme Environments
  • Precision Materials by Design
  • Science of Interfaces
  • Friction Stir Welding & Processing
  • Dark Matter
  • Flavor Physics
  • Fusion Energy Science
  • Neutrino Physics
  • Quantum Information Sciences
  • Emergency Response
  • AGM Program
  • Tools and Capabilities
  • Grid Architecture
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  • Earth System Modeling
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  • Appliance and Equipment Standards
  • Building Energy Codes
  • Advanced Building Controls
  • Advanced Lighting
  • Building-Grid Integration
  • Building and Grid Modeling
  • Commercial Buildings
  • Federal Performance Optimization
  • Resilience and Security
  • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
  • Building America Solution Center
  • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
  • Home Energy Score
  • Electrochemical Energy Storage
  • Flexible Loads and Generation
  • Grid Integration, Controls, and Architecture
  • Regulation, Policy, and Valuation
  • Science Supporting Energy Storage
  • Chemical Energy Storage
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  • Carbon Capture
  • Carbon Storage
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  • Advanced Hydrocarbon Conversion
  • Fuel Cycle Research
  • Advanced Reactors
  • Reactor Operations
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  • Solar Energy
  • Wind Resource Characterization
  • Wildlife and Wind
  • Community Values and Ocean Co-Use
  • Wind Systems Integration
  • Wind Data Management
  • Distributed Wind
  • Energy Equity & Health
  • Environmental Monitoring for Marine Energy
  • Marine Biofouling and Corrosion
  • Marine Energy Resource Characterization
  • Testing for Marine Energy
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  • Environmental Performance of Hydropower
  • Hydropower Cybersecurity and Digitalization
  • Hydropower and the Electric Grid
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  • Water + Hydropower Planning
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  • PNNL Portland Research Center
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Panelists Discuss Technology, Partnerships for Emergency Response

Panelists discuss emergency management at the National Homeland Security Conference

It was standing room only at the 2024 National Homeland Security Conference panel highlighting how artificial intelligence can support emergency management.

(Photo by Maren Disney | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

In the wake of cascading effects resulting from nationwide outages, there was a lot to discuss at the 2024 National Homeland Security Conference held in Miami, FL, July 23–25, 2024. Keynote speakers emphasized the dire consequences the outage posed to critical infrastructure like power, water, and transportation. This, combined with other emerging threats like cyberattacks and natural disasters, is just a snapshot of what emergency managers deal with on a daily basis.

Fortunately, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) came prepared. Throughout the week, the team spoke on a series of panels sharing how partnerships and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can play a key role in emergency management preparedness and response.

“Disruptive technological challenges are always top of mind for this event. This year’s timing in particular spurred valuable conversations about how real the threat is and how science and technology can improve preparedness in the future,” said Ryan Eddy , PNNL director of homeland security programs.

Exploring AI and emergency management

The panel “The Future is Now: How Artificial Intelligence Can Support Emergency Management Today” presented to a packed house on the future of AI and emergency response. The panel opened with an overview of the Emergency Management of Tomorrow Research (EMOTR) Program , in which PNNL has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to conduct research on strengthening and reimagining the future emergency response structure. The panel was moderated by Dan Cotter, executive director for the DHS S&T's Office of Science and Engineering, and featured panelists Jon Barr , PNNL senior research engineer; Mark Sloan, homeland security and emergency coordinator for Harris County, Texas; and Chris Lombard, assistant chief of resource management for the Seattle Fire Department.

“AI is enabling exciting change in how emergency management is done, but it requires a whole-of-community approach to get there. This panel was a great discussion of the policy, testing, and overall implementation challenges we face in bringing this tool into practice,” said Barr, the EMOTR AI task lead. Reports summarizing the EMOTR Program are available here .

Partnering for preparedness

Eddy moderated the panel “Partnering for Preparedness with National Laboratories,” which focused on what it means to have a national laboratory “in your backyard” when it comes to partnering. The panel featured Ann Lesperance , director of PNNL’s Northwest Regional Technology Center and joint appointee with the College of Social Science and Humanities Programs at Northeastern University in Seattle; Heather Kelly, emergency manager for the City of Kirkland; and Sharon Wallace, the deputy director for the Washington Military Department Emergency Management Division. Panelists shared how efforts like the Northwest Regional Technology Center are bridging gaps between science and technology and public safety needs. The presentation included a short video showcasing regional stakeholders underscoring the effects of partnering both regionally and nationwide.

“Recent events demonstrated our dependence on technology and the cascading effects that can have,” said Wallace. “Partnerships play a pivotal role in our ability to respond to such widespread events.”

“Partnerships come from ideas of all sizes. National laboratories like PNNL are ready to partner and they’re just a phone call away. Call them,” added Kelly. 

Photo of panelists discussing partnerships at the National Homeland Security Conference

Science for evolving threats

The conference spanned the spectrum of homeland security challenges, from cybersecurity and critical infrastructure to the deadly opioid epidemic. The panel “Standards Development and Technology Assessments to Enhance Public Safety Against Fentanyl and Related Compounds” highlighted ongoing research, standards development, and technology assessments focused on combating the rapidly evolving threat of fentanyl and the hazards it presents to first responders in the field.

“This was an opportunity to share with first responders and other emergency management practitioners how technology assessments and standards development are addressing public health and first responder safety concerns in this field,” said Ashley Bradley , a biomedical scientist at PNNL who recently coauthored an article highlighting PNNL’s fentanyl detection work in the Domestic Preparedness Journal. “This panel just further emphasized the need for product development to communicate equipment limitations and best practices for operation,” Bradley said.

Published: August 13, 2024

Research topics

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EDITORIAL article

Editorial: advancements and challenges in emergency health services.

\r\nRobert R. Ehrman

  • 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States
  • 2 JPS Health Network, Fort Worth, TX, United States
  • 3 Lincoln Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

Editorial on the Research Topic Advancements and challenges in emergency health services

Emergency Medicine (EM) began in the 1970's as a field dedicated to improving acute care for patients across a wide spectrum of health conditions. Initially met with skepticism from some in the medical community who viewed it as an unnecessary addition to established specialties, EM has since grown into a recognized and essential global specialty. It now provides care across diverse settings and environments, including at accident scenes, during transport to hospitals, and within Emergency Departments (ED).

While models of care provision vary across health systems and geographic locations, the principles guiding emergency medical care are unified: continuous and easy access to pre-hospital services, rapid transport to definitive care, and competent and compassionate care within EDs. A seamless integration of pre-hospital services and hospital-based care is essential to creating a continuum of care that extends from the moment of the emergency to the patients' full recovery.

Another foundational aspect of EM is its commitment to growing and expanding the field as knowledge and technology improve and adapting to new perspectives on how, when, and by whom emergency care is provided. This commitment is evident in incorporating the latest scientific advancements and technological innovations into emergency medical practices. Additionally, EM provides affordable care and minimizes healthcare access disparities among individuals affected by various Social Determinants of Health. These commitments are crucial for ensuring that emergency medical services remain at the forefront of healthcare delivery, providing timely and effective interventions. The goal of this Research Topic, Advancements and challenges in emergency health services , is to highlight some of the many ways the field continues to develop.

Wang L. et al. explored potential limitations in the current organizational and operational facets of Emergency Medical Teams in China. Through surveys of team leaders, they identified several potential areas of weakness, including weak internal stability, unclear management structure, and inadequate support within the existing system. This paper highlights the numerous challenges in designing systems that provide emergency medical services to large populations across large geographic areas, often with limited resources.

Wang A.-Q. et al. addressed an important but often overlooked aspect of emergency care—mental wellbeing and career resilience in emergency medical personnel.

Using qualitative survey methods, they developed a career resilience instrument specifically for emergency responders in China. This study highlights the importance of, and the challenges to, maintaining emotionally healthy and engaged emergency health workers.

Emergency Medicine and organized pre-hospital emergency services are spreading globally, but challenges persist, particularly in developing countries or regions with limited resources. Beyera et al. found that the lack of ambulance services was the factor most strongly associated with fatalities in traffic accidents in the South West Shewa Zone of Ethiopia. Although this study utilized data from a single hospital, it highlights the critical nature of structured Emergency Medical Services and the urgent need for resource allocation to develop such systems. This finding reveals disparities in Emergency Medical Service infrastructure between developed and developing regions, emphasizing the necessity for international support and collaboration.

Finally, the papers by Gao et al. and Ehrman et al. emphasize the important contribution that epidemiologic and social factors play in the provision of emergency care. Gao et al. identified factors associated with poor healing in pediatric wounds. Such data are useful for informing parents or caregivers and planning for post-ED follow-up. Ehrman et al. identified limitations in the existing literature on how Social Determinants of Health affect outcomes for patients with sepsis. Both papers remind readers that patient-level and environmental factors can influence what happens to patients before they arrive in the ED and can also affect post-discharge outcomes.

Since its inception more than 50-years ago, the core aspects of Emergency Medicine have remained unchanged—a commitment to providing acute medical care to all patients, regardless of condition or time. However, many aspects of the world have undergone significant changes during this time, and the specialty has grown and evolved considerably to meet new challenges while maintaining its core principles. As demonstrated by the papers in this Research Topic, researchers in Emergency Medicine are dedicated to developing innovative solutions and meeting the needs of the modern healthcare environment.

Author contributions

RE: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. HW: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. MW: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Keywords: emergency medicine, population health, public health, emergency medical services, emergency care

Citation: Ehrman RR, Wang H and Waseem M (2024) Editorial: Advancements and challenges in emergency health services. Front. Disaster Emerg. Med. 2:1471180. doi: 10.3389/femer.2024.1471180

Received: 26 July 2024; Accepted: 31 July 2024; Published: 13 August 2024.

Edited and reviewed by: Theodore Chan , University of California, San Diego, United States

Copyright © 2024 Ehrman, Wang and Waseem. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Robert R. Ehrman, rehrman@med.wayne.edu

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Focal mechanics and disaster characteristics of the 2024 M 7.6 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, Japan

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  • Guang-qi Chen 1 , 2 ,
  • Yan-qiang Wu 3 ,
  • Ming-yao Xia 4 &
  • Zhi-yuan Li 2  

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On January 1, 2024, a devastating M 7.6 earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, resulting in significant casualties and property damage. Utilizing information from the first six days after the earthquake, this article analyzes the seismic source characteristics, disaster situation, and emergency response of this earthquake. The results show: 1) The earthquake rupture was of the thrust type, with aftershock distribution showing a north-east-oriented belt-like feature of 150 km. 2) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), observations detected significant westward to north-westward co-seismic displacement near the epicenter, with the maximum horizontal displacement reaching 1.2 m and the vertical uplift displacement reaching 4 m. A two-segment fault inversion model fits the observational data well. 3) Near the epicenter, large Peak Ground Velocity (PGV) and Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) were observed, with the maxima reaching 145 cm/s and 2681 gal, respectively, and the intensity reached the highest level 7 on the Japanese (Japan Meteorological Agency, JMA) intensity standard, which is higher than level 10 of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) standard. 4) The observation of the very rare multiple strong pulse-like ground motion (PLGM) waveform poses a topic worthy of research in the field of earthquake engineering. 5) As of January 7, the earthquake had left 128 deaths and 560 injuries in Ishikawa Prefecture, with 1305 buildings completely or partially destroyed, and had triggered a chain of disasters including tsunamis, fires, slope failures, and road damage. Finally, this paper summarizes the emergency rescue, information dissemination, and other disaster response and management measures taken in response to this earthquake. This work provides a reference case for carrying out effective responses, and offers lessons for handling similar events in the future.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience of Japan (NIED), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan (MLIT) and Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ) for providing data and reports in the 2024 M 7.6 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. This study was supported by National High-level Innovative Talents Scientific Research Project in Hebei Province, China (No. 405492), JSPS KAKENHI (No. JP19KK0121), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42207224).

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School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300131, China

Guang-qi Chen

Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

Guang-qi Chen & Zhi-yuan Li

The First Monitoring and Application Center, China Earthquake Administration, Tianjin, 300180, China

Yan-qiang Wu

State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China

Ming-yao Xia

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Chen, Gq., Wu, Yq., Xia, My. et al. Focal mechanics and disaster characteristics of the 2024 M 7.6 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, Japan. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-024-1111-1

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Accepted : 27 February 2024

Published : 13 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-024-1111-1

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