Assessing Effectiveness of Flood Emergency Management - Dissertation Example

The study will evaluate the effectiveness of flood emergency management. Basically, flood emergency management is situated resolutely in public as well as policy discourse as a crucial system for preparedness, protection as well as response to threats posed by floods. Flood risk in UK and Turkey has been increased by climate change, with torrential storms increasing in intensity and frequency. Flood risk can be reduced if the local and national governments put into practice structural measures such as the construction of flood control reservoirs as well as storage and infiltration facilities. Besides that, the governments can espouse non-structural measures in order to decrease the flood risk by means of tools like effective forecasting systems and hazard maps. An accurate and timely response to a flood entails having suitable equipment and personnel to manage the threat. Furthermore, it involves the coordination of resources that would be utilized effectively in managing the emergency. Managing an emergency effectively needs the collaboration of emergency management agencies, citizens, as well as first responders. Lack of collaborative effort could lead to improper resource allocation, poor communication, and efforts repetition by various entities taking part in the response activities.  The effectiveness of flood emergency management relies on numerous factors, like the need for means that allow for communication, collaboration, and coordination. This proposal seeks to assess the effectiveness of flood emergency management at the local level with the view to Southampton and Izmit.


1.0 Introduction
Emergency management is differentiated from crisis management discussions, where since the latter is normally related to the stressors or events, which surpass the ‘normal workaday systems’ capacities to effectively manage them. On the other hand, emergency management is associated with the ‘’ordinary’, instead of the extraordinary, forms of events that could be managed by utilizing the available resources as well as the established procedures. Lately, floods emergency management in many countries focus mainly on the development of improved preparedness capacities. For this reason, the emergency management concept has changed from focusing primarily on emergencies response as well as its effects to improved attention of increasing resilience in the communities to the floods’ impacts. Without a doubt, the ability to effectively respond to floods is still crucial but emergency planners and responders are more intently considering the earlier emergency planning stages as well as how floods’ plans could be enhanced.  Besides that, it has become imperative that such plans include preparations for high consequence, low probability events.

1.1 Problem Statement
Lately, the floods’ emergency management has focused mainly on developing improved preparedness capacities. With this regard, the emergency management concept has changed from the main emphasis on responding to the flood events as well as their impacts. The ability to respond with effectiveness is very crucial; still, emergency planners, as well as responders, are intently looking more at the emergency planning’s earlier stages and how floods plans could be enhanced.  It has become challenging to ensure that these plans include preparations for high consequence and low probability flood events. At the local level, the amount of information accessible for emergency response planning in the UK and Turkey is not enough. As mentioned by Lumbroso et al. (2011), the response quality and effectiveness of an emergency response depend on the information reliability, which is accessible to enlighten the responders. Developing capacities for ensemble flood forecasting that capitalize on the ensemble prediction techniques, according to Drobot and Parker (2007), is one of the challenges associated with flood emergency management. The way uncertainty data is communicated by the scientist to professionals tasked with flood forecasting and emergency response is still a major issue. How floods emergency responders, emergency planners, and forecasters handle and use the uncertainty information is still a key issue. Capacities and competencies for flood emergency response and forecasting have been challenged by the most recent coastal wave surge and rainfall-runoff models.

These models, according to Drobot and Parker (2007), were designed with the aim of stimulating the flood defense infrastructure fragility. The study would address the issue of flood management effectiveness evidenced by emergency planners, emergency responders, and the public in Izmit, Turkey, and Southampton, UK. Operations related to emergency response are normally plagued by confusion over responsibilities amongst the emergency managers, law enforcement, policymakers, first responders, and federal agencies as well as poor information sharing.