New perspectives on disaster response: the role of systems theory and methods

This paper argues that systems theory-based human factors methods have a key role to play in understanding and enhancing systems of disaster response. This argument is tested by an application of a popular risk management framework to the analysis of bushfire response activities. Specifically, an Accimap analysis of the collective response to a recent major Australian bushfire was conducted. The analysis is used to test the applicability of this approach in a disaster response context. In conclusion, the analysis demonstrates that such approaches are highly suited to the analysis of disaster response efforts. Moreover, it is argued that, compared to the existing individual component failures approach, this holistic systems approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of response system performance and better promotes improvements in disaster response systems.