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Cracking the humanitarian logistic coordination challenge: lessons from the urban search and rescue community
Author(s) -
Tatham Peter,
Spens Karen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/disa.12139
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , agency (philosophy) , urban search and rescue , poison control , humanitarian aid , interoperability , public relations , computer security , sociology , political science , medicine , computer science , environmental health , law , artificial intelligence , social science , geography , archaeology , robot , mobile robot , operating system
The challenges of achieving successful inter‐agency logistic coordination in preparing for and responding to natural disasters and complex emergencies are both well understood and well documented. However, although many of these challenges remain unresolved, the literature reveals that the organisations that form the urban search and rescue (USAR) community have attained a high level of coherence and interoperability that results in a highly efficient and effective response. Therefore, this paper uses the idea of ‘borrowing’ from other fields as it explores how the processes and procedures used by the USAR community might be applied to improve humanitarian logistic operations. The paper analyses the USAR model and explores how the resultant challenges might be addressed in a humanitarian logistic context. The paper recommends that further research be undertaken in order to develop a modified USAR model that could be operationalised by the international community of humanitarian logisticians.