Systems Failure in Disasters

Abstract

This chapter explains why deaths in disasters occur by taking two overarching perspectives: risk and vulnerability. Risk or the traditional perspective gives the advantage of understanding the dynamics of geohazards and their effect on humans. Vulnerability perspective on the other hand, helps in explaining why some groups of people are more vulnerable to disasters than others due to their class, gender, age, and race identities. This chapter also adds on an additional perspective to explain deaths in disasters. This is a complex perspective. In this perspective, deaths occur due to the vulnerabilities that exist in the seams of disaster management system. This system is a conglomeration of different professional groupings and actors designed for specific tasks and goals. It is also a system that is highly reliant on technology. As such, loose coordination and communication between actors can lead disaster management system to fail. To showcase, how the disaster management system can fail to save lives, an analytical tool for systems failure is presented with its three inter-connected components: coordination, communication and world views.