University professors James Van Scotter and Suzanne Pawlowski of the Department of Information Systems and Decisions Sciences recently published a report examining the major barriers of disaster response.
The research cost slightly less than $200,000 and was funded by the Department of Homeland Security, according to the report.
“This project addresses interorganizational coordination problems by examining barriers … from the perspective of responders,” the report says.
Pawlowski said she was motivated to conduct the research after seeing coordination barriers during the aftermath of Katrina.
The two-year project had three main goals: to increase understanding of the major barriers, to explain their interdependencies and to suggest strategies for overcoming them, according to the report.
The project was conducted in several phases, the first of which was “a review of after-action reports and academic studies,” according to the report.
The obstacles faced in disaster response were ranked in terms of their importance, and workshops were conducted with state, parish and operational levels of government.
Van Scotter said the lessons people learn from disasters are fragmented. People often claim they learn lessons from disasters, but they actually don’t, Van Scotter said.
“Everybody realizes coordination is a problem,” Van Scotter said.
The results of the study show effective use of resources and proper training are the most important aspects in coordinating disaster response, followed by politics, planning and communication.
The report also says there is no “silver bullet” that will resolve coordination problems in disaster management once and for all.
The report says it “should be considered a starting point rather than an end point” in how to effectively respond to disasters.
“Much more research to explicate these complex and important issues is needed, and our hope is that this work will stimulate new avenues of research that will prove fruitful,” the report says.
The report says future research should try to uncover cross-organizational interdependencies in resource requirements.
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Contact Parker Cramer at [email protected]