Title: Mapping an emergency management network

Authors: Christian Uhr, Henrik Johansson

Addresses: Swedish Rescue Services Agency, Revinge 241, SE-247 81 Sodra Sandby, Sweden. ' Department of Fire Safety Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

Abstract: We present a web-based method for mapping various relations between agents that have been involved in an emergency response operation. The method is based on combining a web-questionnaire with telephone interviews and it provides an efficient way of collecting large amount of information concerning the agents. By using the resulting network of agents, it is possible to perform various network analyses, such as identifying important agents and groups, analysing the correlation of certain relations between the agents, and studying the temporal development of the network. Furthermore, we illustrate the method by presenting results from an analysis of an emergency management operation concerning the release of 16,000 tons of sulphuric acid in the city of Helsingborg, Sweden. We conclude that the emergency management organisation included a significant amount of agents that were not part of any plans, such as boundary spanners and agents that were not part of any of the involved organisations but still played very important roles during the operation.

Keywords: emergency management; social network analysis; computer-based data collection; internet; relationship mapping; emergency response; web questionnaires; sulphuric acid release; Sweden; emergency roles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2007.012392

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2007 Vol.4 No.1, pp.104 - 118

Published online: 09 Feb 2007 *

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