What is Emergency Management?

Emergency management is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks.¹  It is a discipline that involves preparing for disaster before it happens, disaster response (e.g. emergency evacuation, quarantine, mass decontamination, etc.), as well as supporting and rebuilding society after natural or human-made disasters have occurred.  In general, any Emergency Management is the continuous process by which all individuals, groups and communities manage hazards in an effort to avoid or ameliorate the impact of disasters resulting from the hazards.  Actions taken depend in part on perceptions of risk of those exposed.²  Effective emergency management relies on through integration of emergency plans at all levels of government and non-government involvement.  Activities at each level (individual, group, community) affect the other levels.

Four Phases of Emergency Management

Mitigation - efforts to reduce hazards or its impacts

Preparedness - efforts to prepare for a likely hazard 

Response - actions taken to respond to an emergency or disaster

Recovery - actions taken to restore the community to pre-disaster condition

Disaster risk reduction refers to a wide sector of work on emergency/disaster management, including: Mitigation, Prevention, Preparedness and Vulnerabilities.

1. Haddow, Geroge D.; Jane A. Bullock (2004). Introduction to Emergency Management.  Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. 2. Wisner, Ben; P. Blaikie, T. Cannon, and I. Davis (2004). At Risk - Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters. Wiltshire:Routledge.