Australian Journal of Emergency Management

Decision-making in disasters and major crises faced by emergency services globally is a difficult combination of science and art to master. To assist decision-makers in these environments, a number of cognitive aids have been developed and subsequently adopted by individuals and organisations alike. However, these aids vary according to their intent and the context in which they are intended to be applied. This review explores the use of cognitive aids in the context of emergency management and explores how existing knowledge regarding the use of cognitive aids from other industries may be translated to emergency management. An iterative literature review of academic and industry material related to cognitive aids during incident and crisis response across a broad range of international emergency service and other industries within the last 20 years was completed. Ultimately, cognitive aids are not a silver bullet when it comes to decision-making in the emergency management context. The correct tool (that is correctly designed) must be correctly applied by trained and competent end users. The Australian emergency management sector may benefit from future research exploring how these existing tools adhere to the good practice principles identified in this study.

Greg Penney

Chris Bearman

Peter Hayes

Jim McLennan

Philip Butler

Rhona Flin

A review of cognitive aids and their application to emergency management in Australia

澳大利亚应急管理中的认知辅助工具及其应用综述

Globally, the frequency and magnitude of weather-related hazards poses significant challenges for governments and the private and the not-for-profit sectors. This paper provides exploratory insight into the challenges that hinder institutional responses to risk reduction. This study specifically considered public sector organisations within disaster risk reduction (DRR) organisational fields. The paper identifies 3 major constraints, which include fragmentation, difficulties in using risk information and cultural identities that affect public sector organisations and community responses. To analyse these issues, an institutional theory lens was used to explain the antecedents under which institutional actors may respond based on events and stakeholder expectations and demands. The findings suggest that challenges hindering response to risks and emergencies are strategic, institutional or operational in nature. A selection of public sector organisations response initiatives is presented within an Australian context with analysis of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2023 Priority 4. Recommendations and further research to identify and address other institutional constraints and sectors are recommended.

Toinpre Owi

Jamie Mackee

Thayaparan Gajendran

Analysing institutional responses towards disaster risk reduction: challenges and antecedents

分析机构对灾害风险减缓的应对：挑战与先决条件

It has been almost a decade since Gonzalez-Mathiesen and March (2014) completed their international analysis that identified 9 design features for wildfire risk reduction via urban planning. Despite their recommendations and subsequent global attempts to enhance and improve resilience from an urban design perspective, wildfires1 remain one of the costliest hazards globally, both from a financial and a human perspective. This continued devastation raises the question as to whether urban design and wildfire engineering practices have either been adopted or changed since Gonzalez-Mathiesen and March (2014). To consider this, this paper presents a review and comparison of contemporary international wildland-urban-interface-related urban design legislation, policy and frameworks. Inconsistent approaches to addressing wildfire-related risk, and at times competing standards required between planning and building approaches were identified. These only serve to further reduce the potential effectiveness of measures intended to improve wildfire resilience at the national and international scales. Future work should focus on establishing evidence-based performance standards that emphasise the practical application of the findings of the best available current research to be incorporated into planning and construction. At the same time, it may be necessary to review policy approaches to clearly align key definitions of tolerable risk as well as provide clarification about how performance standards can be demonstrated.

Greg Baker

Andres Valencia

Danial Gorham

Urban design and wildfire engineering at the wildland-urban interface: a review of international urban planning and building requirements

城市设计与野火工程在野地-城市交界处：国际城市规划与建筑要求的综述

Managing emergencies is taxing for individuals due to the stress of making decisions in dangerous, high-stakes and time-constrained environments. These complex, dynamic environments also make it difficult to coordinate as other responders perform different roles that may have conflicting goals. This study explored some of the challenges faced by emergency management decision-makers through a literature review of 70 papers identified from SCOPUS and EBSCO database searches. Three major challenges for emergency management were identified: stress and fatigue, interoperability and ethical decision-making. Each of these challenges is examined to explore their nature and how they are likely to evolve in the future. This paper provides helpful advice on how to mitigate these challenges. We argue that to better meet these challenges, emergency services organisations need to develop and maintain appropriate doctrine and training, develop a supportive organisational culture and effectively learn the lessons of previous critical incidents.

Emergency management decision-making in a changing world: 3 key challenges

变化世界中的应急管理决策：3个关键挑战

The importance of training for effective performance in high-stakes, high-risk work settings is well-known. Successful training is the systematic acquisition of skills, rules, concepts or attitudes that result in improved work performance. Simply exposing people to training situations is not sufficient for them to develop knowledge and skills. This will only occur if the activity results in learning. While much training focuses on the development of technical skills, it is important to train people in non-technical skills, such as decision-making. This paper presents the results of a literature review of 95 peer-reviewed articles that consider the current training and exercise practices used to develop emergency management decision-making capability. The different approaches to training can be categorised into 4 types: discussion-based, operation-based, E-based and post-incident debriefs. This paper discusses current practice in emergency management decision-making training in each of these categories together with studies that have evaluated their effectiveness noting the generally limited nature of evaluation studies. To promote evaluation of training, several studies have developed tools to assess the effectiveness of training. Finally, key takeaway points related to emergency management organisational training and exercise programs are provided.

Training to improve emergency management decision-making: what the research literature tells us

培训以提升应急管理决策能力：研究文献告诉我们什么

Abbreviation
Journal Impact	1.21
Quartiles(Global)	PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH(Q4)

ISSN	1324-1540, 2204-2288
h-index	32

Publication Information	Publisher: Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 1998，Proportion of original research papers: 94.44%，Self Citation Rate:9.10%， Gold OA Rate: 0.00%

Australian Journal of Emergency Management

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A review of cognitive aids and their application to emergency management in Australia

Analysing institutional responses towards disaster risk reduction: challenges and antecedents

Urban design and wildfire engineering at the wildland-urban interface: a review of international urban planning and building requirements

Emergency management decision-making in a changing world: 3 key challenges

Training to improve emergency management decision-making: what the research literature tells us

A review of cognitive aids and their application to emergency management in Australia

Analysing institutional responses towards disaster risk reduction: challenges and antecedents

Urban design and wildfire engineering at the wildland-urban interface: a review of international urban planning and building requirements

Emergency management decision-making in a changing world: 3 key challenges

Training to improve emergency management decision-making: what the research literature tells us