The Future of Emergency Management

Relationship Between Disaster Science and Emergency Management

Emergency management is essential in dealing with natural and man-made disasters. Over the past few years, the scale of national and man-made disasters has increased and attracted the attention of various stakeholders. Machlis (2019) notes that environmental and technological disasters have increased in number, intensity, scale, and impact. Consequently, relevant professionals in emergency management are increasingly looking for measures to respond to and manage emergencies. Emergency management initiatives are geared toward addressing challenges brought by natural and man-made disasters. Science plays an important role in addressing emergencies because it is at the core of these incidents. According to Machlis (2019), science plays an important role in responding to emergencies across various disciplines including biological, social, physical, cultural, medical, and engineering disciplines. The role of science in this process has contributed to the emergence of the concept of disaster science.

Disaster science refers to a discipline that focuses on examining the effect of catastrophic incidents on natural and man-made environments. This field deals with catastrophic events that are brought about by the natural processes and nature of the earth. Disaster science entails the classification of risks based on an essential understanding of natural catastrophic events and measures to lessen these risks. In this case, disaster science also involves acknowledgment of the causes of exposure and vulnerability to catastrophic events. Disaster science is valuable in the field of emergency management as it helps to promote the adoption of a proactive approach in predicting and anticipating catastrophic events (Schmid, 2006). Through disaster science, professionals in the field of emergency management develop measures to predict, anticipate, and lessen disaster risks.

Therefore, scientific literacy is an important core competency for emergency managers as it helps in the development of proactive approaches to predicting, anticipating, and lessening disaster risks. Science is essentially at the heart of emergency management processes and approaches (Schmid, 2006). Scientific literacy enables emergency managers to be effectively prepared and equipped to predict and anticipate emergencies. This in turn enhances emergency response and management initiatives.

While scientific literacy remains core in the development of proactive approaches by emergency managers, there is a gap between research and practice. It is increasingly critical to bridge the gap between research and practice in order to enhance the effectiveness of emergency management approaches and efforts. This gap can be reduced by ensuring the various stakeholders in emergency response and management are trained on disaster science skills. Emergency management basically involves various stakeholders with different skills and from different disciplines. The difference in the skills and competencies between these stakeholders has contributed to the gap between research and practice. Therefore, ensuring that these stakeholders possess competencies in disaster science would help bridge the current gap.

Evolution of the Profession of Emergency Management

As previously mentioned, catastrophic events have increased in intensity, impact, frequency, costs, and complexities. Technological developments in recent decades have contributed to the complexities of disasters, particularly man-made disasters. Consequently, technology has made disasters to become more multi-faceted and generated new demands on professionals in the field of emergency management. In addition, the number and frequency of disasters or catastrophic events have been increasing at an alarming rate across the globe (Schmid, 2006). As a result, predicting, anticipating, and preventing disasters has become more important amidst rapid technological advancements and globalization. Global climate change has played an important role in shaping how disasters look like. Freak natural disasters have become common throughout the world because of global climate change (Borenstein, 2020). According to scientists, the nature of disasters is likely to worsen in the future. As global climate change continues to worsen alongside other factors, natural disasters are likely to become wild and increased in number/frequency in the future. Similarly, man-made disasters are likely to worsen in the future because of human activity and increased reliance on technology in nearly all facets of life and society.

Since these events have become more complex, professionals in the field of emergency management face the need to enhance their approaches in predicting, anticipating, and dealing with disaster risks. The increase in complexity of disasters and the need for improved approaches imply that the field of emergency management will continue to evolve in the future. The future of emergency management is likely to be characterized by an increased focus on prevention rather than response/management of disasters. This field is likely to witness increased collaboration between diverse stakeholders. As a result of the increased collaboration, emergency management will primarily become an interdisciplinary field that focuses more on the prevention of all kinds of disasters, particularly man-made disasters.

For the field of emergency management to continue advancing, emergency managers need to innovate and enhance information sharing through networking. This is an essential change that will help enhance the involvement of various stakeholders and the creation of multi-disciplinary approaches to emergency management. Secondly, professionals in this field will need to increasingly adopt and utilize technology. In so doing, innovative ways for emergency management will be developed resulting in advancements to the profession. Third, emergency management will need to be integrated into people’s daily lives given the increase in the number, frequency, and impact of disasters. This would involve increased awareness and commitment to emergency mitigation efforts. This change will help advance the profession by improving the prediction and anticipation of disasters as well as identifying ways to reduce disaster risk.