Premium
Assessment of Social Services’ Disaster Risk Management: Case Finland
Author(s) -
Rapeli Merja
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12160
Subject(s) - emergency management , business , preparedness , risk management , disaster preparedness , service (business) , private sector , civil defense , environmental planning , environmental resource management , risk analysis (engineering) , political science , geography , economic growth , finance , marketing , economics , law
Local actors are crucial in disaster risk management; thus, their capacities should be assessed periodically. In this study, local social services’ preparedness plans were assessed using Emergency Management Program Measurement and quantitative document analysis. The specific aim was to study how social service areas of various sizes were prepared for disasters in Finland. The results showed that disaster risk management capacity varied significantly between large and small service areas. Larger areas were better prepared for supporting management, and had better procedures to activate their response, modern public information and deeper cooperation with the private sector and the civil society. The differences might derive from the fact that large areas have more resources allocated to disaster risk management.