During-incident process assessment in emergency management: Concept and strategy

An incident is normally composed of three stages: pre-incident, during-incident and post-incident. The assessment is a prominent composition in the lifecycle of emergency management for the purpose of quick and effective response. Present-day assessment methods mainly concern the pre-incident risk evaluation and the post-incident loss evaluation. However, during-incident process assessment is of crucial importance to assist the decision-making in emergency response and eventually achieve the goals of emergency management. This paper analyzes the influencing factors of during-incident process assessment and proposes a conceptual model of assessment. Three during-incident process assessment strategies, namely, "mitigability", "rescuability", and recoverability are illustrated which quantitatively characterize the evolution of incidents and corresponding responses, and hence contribute to appropriate decisions in practical applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.