Challenges to the Fire Service–Centric Emergency Management System
Publication: Natural Hazards Review
Volume 23, Issue 1
Abstract
Taiwan has a population of 23.6 million on just . This densely populated area is highly vulnerable to destructive natural hazards and thus the Taiwanese government is constantly focusing on improving its emergency management system. This research explores how the fire service-centric system influences disaster response on the ground in Taiwan. The data come from 28 qualitative, semistructured, in-depth interviews with disaster responders from four disasters in Taiwan between 2014 and 2016. Based on the authors’ findings, the current Taiwanese disaster response system might not be sufficient to cope with disasters with uncertain situations. As a result, the authors suggest (1) adding more networking functions to the current hierarchical system, (2) increasing the diversity of participants in the decision-making processes during responses, and (3) considering incorporating previous disaster research to develop a new response system.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work (overall research design and phone interviews) was supported by the College of Arts and Sciences, Oklahoma State University, US. The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers and the editors for their comments and insights. Parts of the on-site interviews are funded from the grant sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Project No. MOST 108-2410-H-031-064).
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Published In
Natural Hazards Review
Volume 23 • Issue 1 • February 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 15, 2020
Accepted: Aug 19, 2021
Published online: Sep 28, 2021
Published in print: Feb 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2022
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