Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management最新文献

Societies are increasingly subject to transboundary crises that pose new challenges to crisis management and require a structural rethinking of longstanding arrangements. This study explores which governance aspects could be embedded in legislation to facilitate the organization of such transboundary crisis management. It builds upon research findings from the comprehensive 2020 governmental evaluation study of the Safety Regions Act in the Netherlands and the relevant literature. First, we provide a framework for a systematic study of the relationship between law and practice. Second, we present a model on how legislation for crisis management could be adapted to better fit with transboundary crises. This consists of a set of 10 key aspects categorized into five pillars: the interconnectedness of the various phases of crisis management and risk assessments as a starting point; flexible crisis management organization and network collaboration; allocated facilitator and exceptional decision-making power; professional competences and netcentric information management; and learning capacities and democratic feedback. This model provides a point of departure for researchers and policymakers alike for rethinking the role that legislation can play in preparing for the crises of the future.

Türkiye has long been plagued by deadly natural hazards, including earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, and floods, which have caused widespread destruction throughout the country. 2021 Wildfires in Türkiye, the most destructive in the country's history, have disrupted the region's ecological balance by destroying vast swathes of forests and the habitats of many species. This study aimed to explore crisis management and communication practices during the 2021 Türkiye wildfire. This qualitative research utilized a phenomenological approach and the discourse analysis method to study the data. The study's methodology aimed to delve into the lived experiences surrounding the disaster and analyze the statements of the responsible minister to uncover best practices. The results indicate that wildfires were not contained during the initial day, and a needs assessment was impossible. During the response, frequent disinformation, rumors, and suspicious situations arose, indicating difficulties in information management. A consistent call for solidarity is beneficial for crisis management and communication. However, a debate about inadequate resources highlights trust and transparency issues in crisis communication. Moreover, drawing comparisons with other countries and making self-congratulatory statements about success and strength are not aligned with crisis management or crisis communication and may be perceived as politically motivated.

One of the most time-sensitive and critical tasks for first responders in the aftermath of a disaster is to locate people for effective and successful rescue operations. The existing solutions for large-scale location detection of citizens depend on expensive equipment that may not be readily available in many urban areas and also cannot cover a vast area quickly. To address this challenge, the present study proposes a novel location estimation method by creating a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) using citizens' mobile phones. The proposed solution can accurately estimate the location of mobile devices in a MANET based on their Received Signal Strength (RSS) and communicate the estimated location coordinates to first responders without any dependencies on telecommunication infrastructures. This system will help first responders locate and map mobile devices in the affected area in a matter of seconds to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of postdisaster rescue operations. The envisioned solution offers unique capabilities that differentiate it from previously existing methods. The proposed method directly estimates device locations using their basic cellular signal strength without any dependency on GPS and relies only on basic cellphone signals. Therefore, nonsmartphones can also join and function in the envisioned MANET system. It also does not impose any computational operations or requirements for installing an app on citizens' phones. The performance of the proposed system was empirically evaluated using a simulation analysis. The results indicated that the method could efficiently and accurately discover more than 93% of mobile devices and estimate their locations.

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge level of teachers about basic fire and extinguishing and the effectiveness of the fire training received. This is a cross-sectional study. The research population comprises teachers employed in educational institutions affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (MNE) in Konya, Turkey, during the year 2021. The sample of this research consisted of 2649 participants who voluntarily agreed to participate in the research and answered all questions completely. Data were collected from the questionnaire forms prepared by the researchers by examining the literature in the electronic environment via Google Forms. Of the participants, 53.7% were women, 39.8% were between the ages of 35 and 44 and 93.0% were working as teachers. The fire safety knowledge score is higher for those who attended the fire training. While the fire knowledge score increased as the end-of-training attainment score increased in those receiving fire training, no significant relationship was found between the education environment and content score, the educator effectiveness score, the status of having a fire extinguishing task and having encountered a fire and this score. Teachers' fire safety knowledge score is higher and at a moderate level compared to the attitude score. Participating in fire education positively affects both knowledge and attitude toward fire.

Refugees often face structural inequities, a disproportionate share of environmental challenges, and receive inadequate risk information. In most cases, the host country, United Nations, and other humanitarian organizations provide critical weather and climate information and disaster risk management support. This is equally true for the Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, who fled their home country Myanmar as a response to political violence. To provide critical humanitarian services to the Rohingya population, the in-country United Nations agencies formed the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG). This paper investigates the effectiveness of the ISCG's strategies for communicating monsoon risks in the Rohingya context. Particularly, it measures ISCG communication effectiveness by both the increased formalization of ISCG communication and the number of Rohingya refugees affected during the monsoon seasons in the years 2021–2022. The paper highlights the importance of the ISCG's existence in this humanitarian context as an effective coordinating institution. The ISCG provides impoartant environmental risk information to partner organizations that benefit the Rohingya's overall physical well-being. Even though the geographical focus of this paper is on the Rohingya populations in Cox's Bazar, the discussions and findings have important policy implications in other parts of the world facing similar social, environmental, political, and humanitarian challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined the corporate sector's communication requirements to maintain organizational reputation among employees. This situation has led to lacklustre organizational performance and a decline in employee well-being. However, little is known about how the sophisticated execution of internal crisis communication can foster productive employee responses. This study examines how internal communication during times of crisis strengthens employee task performance and well-being, both of which are crucial for organizational success following the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing inspiration from situational crisis communication theory, the study primarily investigates the outcomes of internal crisis communication that generate favourable employee perceptions of their organization. A quantitative survey of 384 employees from various organizations was conducted, and the results indicated that efficient internal crisis communication enhances employee task performance, boosts employee well-being and reduces crisis attribution, thus promoting employee behaviour that improves reputation. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature in public relations focused on understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying positive employee behavioural intentions during times of crisis. More importantly, strategic internal communication and maintaining a human element in employee interactions will benefit organizations in the long run. Practical implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Based on early evidence, risk communication scholars have come to believe that longer (360-character maximum) mobile public warning messages generate more compliance than shorter (90-character maximum) messages. This study used an experimental design to test that premise. The study measured participants' (N = 481) likelihood of compliance in response to a mock Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) message, as well as alternatives to immediate compliance: seeking additional information, taking non-recommended action, or ignoring the message. The study found that both longer and shorter messages generated relatively high levels of compliance, but longer messages did not generate higher levels of compliance. Rather than message length, risk personalization and hazard experience were stronger differentiators of WEA message response outcomes. Results included a moderation effect: Shorter messages produced slightly greater compliance than longer messages among people who reported lower levels of risk personalization. The study concluded that 90-character messages may be more effective than previously believed. Consequently, the authors recommend renewed focus on public safety communication related to risk personalization and hazard experience.

This study explores the impact of transformational leadership style on hurricane crisis response planning in the coastal destinations of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Using the Perceived Transformational Leadership Scale (PTLS) proposed by Donmez and Toker, alongside demographic variables, employment profiles and past crisis experiences, the study investigates how leaders' innate leadership characteristics influence crisis response adoption. Results indicate that transformational leadership significantly predicts engagement in crisis response planning, surpassing other predictors such as employment profile and experience. The study also validates the PTLS's usability across different contexts and its ability to predict varied behaviours beyond job satisfaction. Additionally, it underscores the importance of considering transformational leadership traits in managerial recruitment for risk management roles. The findings theoretically contribute by reinforcing the independence of transformational leadership scale items and informing recruitment processes and decision-making in hurricane-prone coastal regions.

The ‘vulnerability’ approach highlights institutional factors as the primary drivers of flooding risk. However, the intricate connections between institutional vulnerability and urban flood disaster risk have not been extensively explored until now. This study aims to address this gap by examining the case of the 7·20 heavy rainfall disaster in Zhengzhou. Employing a hybrid analysis methodology that integrates text coding, fault tree analysis and analytic hierarchy process methods, the study seeks to identify and assess the distinct contributions of various institutional factors and their interplay, culminating in ineffective urban flood risk management. In contrast to previous research findings that emphasize the determinant role of policy-making and organizational coordination, this study demonstrates that inadequate legislative compliance constitutes the root cause determining the ineffectiveness of urban flood risk management. It is further exacerbated by insufficient policy attention, resulting in inadequate allocation of resources that ensure the legislative quality, risk coping skills and knowledge and stakeholders' coordination and collaboration. By emphasizing the significance of legislative compliance and policy attention, the study offers a fresh conceptual perspective to understand the factors influencing the efficiency of urban flood risk management. It provides valuable insights to develop targeted countermeasures for mitigating similar urban flood risks in the future.

Emergency rescue information is a significant factor affecting emergency decisions in the accident process, and determining the content and importance of this information can greatly assist emergency decisions and improve their effectiveness. For this reason, this paper combines decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) with a backpropagation (BP) neural network and uses the Levenberg‒Marquardt (LM) algorithm to optimize it, builds the LM-BP-DEMATEL model, and investigates the contents and importance of emergency rescue information with hazardous chemical spills as an illustrative case. First, the meaning of emergency rescue information was defined using national laws and regulations and academic research. Second, using hazardous chemical spills as an example, 62 hazardous chemical spills were collected, and 7 categories with a total of 32 emergency rescue information were extracted. Third, the constructed LM-BP-DEMATEL model was utilized to analyse the importance of 14 types of common emergency rescue information in 62 cases. Last, the centrality and causality of 14 types of emergency rescue information were obtained and then classified into four categories according to centrality and causality. The research results show that deaths (U8) and leakage information (U6) are the most critical emergency rescue information, that more attention should be given to emergency decision-making and that targeted strategies should be formulated to improve the effect of emergency decisions.