Towards a Better Evaluation of Disaster Management Solutions

Abstract

Worldwide, disaster management endeavours are confronted with a rising number of calamitous events triggered by climate change, pandemics and armed conflicts. The increasing rate and complexity of such occurrences has determined governments worldwide to attempt improving the disaster management effort by adopting various specialised artefacts, among which disaster management frameworks feature prominently. It appears however, that such artefacts display shortcomings such as lack of directly applicable guidance, ambiguity and a lack of agility in the face of constant change inherent to disaster events. This situation poses a conundrum to disaster management decision-makers who need to select such frameworks in the knowledge that they have the necessary qualities, employ a suitable architecture and contain the required elements to effectively guide the typically trans-disciplinary and cross-organisational disaster management effort. This paper seeks to assist in this regard by providing a novel, multi-pronged appraisal approach for candidate disaster management frameworks.