Managing natural catastrophies

Produktbeschreibung

This book will assess the O'ahu disaster management system's current ability to manage a high-impact low-probability (HILP) event, a Category 4 or 5 hurricane striking the Hawai'ian island of O'ahu. It will investigate through one of the core diagnostic tool of management cybernetics, the Viable System Model (VSM), deficiencies of the existing disaster management system used across the United States and offers suggestions to improve its effectiveness. Further, this book represents a general assessment of the application of management cybernetics to disaster management systems worldwide. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents German preface for editionMALIK 7 Introduction: Natural disasters in
the light of management cybernetics 9 1. The Hawai'ian hurricane tale 16 1.1
Background on State of Hawai'i and O'ahu 18 1.2 Background on hurricanes 22 1.3
Hurricanes in Hawai'i and the risk of a future hit 33 1.4 Damage scenarios and
vulnerability analysis for O'ahu 33 2. Keys to solutions of a complex disaster
management world -the Viable System Model 59 2.1 The Viable System Model's core
concepts 64 2.2 Am I me? - On subjectivity and identity 66 2.3 The structure of
the Viable System Model 68 2.4 What a heart needs to be whole - understanding
VSM in depth 82 3. The Hawai'ian disaster management system - diagnosis and
suggestions for redesign with the Viable System Model 3.1 Time - the vital
factor to measure viability 99 3.2 Structural diagnosis of the Hawai'ian
disaster management 102 3.3 Diagnosis and redesign of the Hurricane Hazard
Management System processes 164 3.4 The HHMS's viability requirements 224 3.5
VSM application Summary 243 4. Is the Viable System Model worth the effort? 250
4.1 System Science - its important role in the field of Geography 254 4.2
Insights for the field of hazard management research 256 5. Appendix: Other
potential approaches inspiring future research 262 5.1 Potential redesign of the
HHMS using Human Activity Systems (HAS) 262 5.2 Ackoff's Idealized Design 262
5.3 The Analytical Hierarchy Process by Saaty 264 5.4 Designing a cybernetically
sound infrastructure system -Critical Path Analysis 264 5.5 Further research
potential 266 List of Abbreviations 270 References 271 Internet sites 276
Presentations and interviews 278 Events and conferences 281 Grey literature 281
Newspaper Articles 281 E-mail contacts 282 Glossary 283 Glossary of Beer's
cybernetic language 283 Glossary of rules for the Viable System 284 Glossary of
FEMA's acronyms 285 Index 286 

Autoreninfo

Dr. Anja Reissberg was born in Munich and studied Economic Geography at the Ludwig-Maximilians University. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA where she deepened her focus on the interface of natural disasters, the economy and society, specifically human-induced social, economic, environmental and cultural vulnerabilities researching in particular the functioning of the Hawai'ian hurricane hazard management system. For coping with the extreme complexity, interconnectivity and dynamics of such challenges for the first time she applied the most innovative and powerful cybernetic tool of the (so called) Viable System Model which led her to entirely new and highly relevant insights into the inner workings and deep structures of the organizations involved and, most importantly, reasons for inefficiencies and mismanagement. Immersing herself in the islands for seven years, she worked with local, state, federal, non-governmental and privat-sector organizations, departments and agencies to overcome interdisciplinary and bureaucratic boundaries thereby coming to highly relevant recommendations for the functioning of the wholistic total emergency system which would save countless lives in the case of any major disaster. Her dissertation on these complex systemic challenges in Management Cybernetics brought her to Malik Management in 2010 as a Systems Expert with a focus on the functioning of loosly-coupled dynamic networks of organizations.