Evaluation a City Emergency Management Exercise for Organizational Learning

Abstract

All relevant emergency management services are necessary for a Smart City to achieve public protection and property safety in response to a major disaster or an unplanned event, including simulated flooding exercise measures. It is the first time that a Safety through Organizational Learning methodology has been used for Evaluating a City Emergency Management Field Exercise. A city's ability to respond effectively to a natural disaster e.g. flood defence heavily depends on emergency management's preparation for successful responses. An efficient way to test the level of preparation of City Emergency Management is to hold a Field Exercise in a vulnerable city. Analysing with Safety through Organizational Learning allows the identification of concrete alternative corrective actions/measures by which the probability that similar events occur in the future can radically be reduced. Furthermore, such measures help organisational learning, thereby contributing to the development and maintenance of a long-term, safe organisational culture.