Waring Sara, Humann Michael, Dawson Natasha
Critical and Major Incident Psychology Research Group, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
J Emerg Manag. 2019 Nov/Dec;17(6):469-486. doi: 10.5055/jem.2019.0440.
Effective information sharing is essential for the successful management of disasters. But as 30 years' worth of UK public inquiries repeatedly highlight, differences in terminology and goals across agencies can make this difficult to achieve. The growing scale and intensity of disasters raises additional challenges, with emergency responders being required to work across regions and even countries. The following study focuses on identifying facilitators and barriers to information sharing in dynamic contexts, where interdisciplinary teams from across geographic regions form ad hoc to rapidly address challenges. This case study draws on 257 naturalistic observations made by subject-matter experts during the largest disaster management exercise to take place in Europe to date. The 4-day exercise, funded by the European Commission, involved over 5,000 emergency responders from the UK, Cyprus, Hungary, and Italy, providing a unique opportunity to examine information sharing practices across international boundaries. Results of a mixed-method analysis highlight that barriers within and between countries are particularly prevalent during periods of greater uncertainty. These barriers include language and technological difficulties, differences in roles and responsibilities, and failure to co-locate and coordinate activities. Developing shared frames of reference, including adopting common structures for presenting information and understanding roles and responsibilities, facilitates information sharing, potentially reducing cognitive load. Implications for developing evidence-based approaches to disaster response are discussed.
有效的信息共享对于灾害的成功管理至关重要。但正如英国30年来的公共调查反复强调的那样，各机构之间术语和目标的差异可能使这一目标难以实现。灾害规模和强度的不断增加带来了额外的挑战，应急响应人员需要跨地区甚至跨国开展工作。以下研究重点在于识别动态环境中信息共享的促进因素和障碍，在这种环境下，来自不同地理区域的跨学科团队临时组建，以迅速应对挑战。本案例研究借鉴了主题专家在欧洲迄今为止规模最大的灾害管理演习期间所做的257次自然观察。这次为期4天的演习由欧盟委员会资助，有来自英国、塞浦路斯、匈牙利和意大利的5000多名应急响应人员参与，为检验跨国界信息共享实践提供了独特机会。混合方法分析的结果表明，在不确定性较高的时期，国家内部和国家之间的障碍尤为普遍。这些障碍包括语言和技术困难、角色和职责的差异，以及未能集中办公和协调活动。建立共同的参考框架，包括采用呈现信息以及理解角色和职责的通用结构，有助于信息共享，可能会减轻认知负担。文中还讨论了对制定基于证据的灾害应对方法的启示。
