Risk Management in a Disaster Management Context

This paper discusses how the adoption of a systematic risk management framework can enhance disaster management. In the analysis of risk, a focus on the interactions between sources of risk and elements at risk, rather than a pre-occupation with hazards, adds more value to management. Vulnerability is the crucial modifier of consequences and, as such, its analysis highlights critical areas and opportunities for developing effective intervention strategies. Risk communication processes based on community involvement need to underpin the development and application of evaluation criteria to determine which risk treatments will be implemented. Closing considerations reflect on how risk management may be used within public administration to re-define emergency management service provision. The paper concludes that Emergency Risk Management provides a framework which, by focusing on managing community exposure to major risks, facilitates the identification and implementation of intervention options which address socially significant problems.