Alawadhi, S
2019,
Developing an incident command system framework for natural hazards in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
, PhD thesis, University of Salford.
Abstract
It is beyond dispute that natural hazards cause significant damage to physical and human domains, with more disasters occurring in the last 25 years are increasingly linked to climate change. Therefore, there is a growing need to minimise the dangers and threats faced by individual countries. Due to its geographical location and environmental conditions, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is particularly exposed to various natural hazards, resulting in both the infrastructure and urbanisation being at risk. The uncertainty and complexity of emergencies requires particular arrangement responses from emergency agencies, such as the civil defence, and police services to share in minimising the impact of the emerging threats. The reoccurrence of hazards and their impact suggest that the implementation of the emergency response system and the incident command are wrong, or that there is a gap found between the theory and practice in emergency response. Consequently, the UAE has realised the necessity for implementing an appropriate hazard response system to avert and mitigate the potential consequences of the hazards and to deal with future emergencies. This has proven beneficial in the identification and evaluation of the primary vital factors and gaps in the implementation of the incident command system, in particular, the Civil Defence General Command (CDGC) agency used as a case study for this research. Thus, this research aims to develop an incident command system framework based on a feasibility assessment to facilitate emergency response, increase capacity, and enhance resilience of the CDGC in dealing with hazards in the UAE.
To achieve this aim the research employed exploratory sequential mixed method approach to collect and analyse the required data. In the first stage, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with Gold and Silver commanders (n=15). These commanders were selected due to their high positions in their departments, with the Gold commander in the role of a general director, and the Silver commander as a deputy director at the CDGC agency. In addition, thematic analysis was used to identify key critical factors of the incident command system, which were; implementation, organisational, individual, barriers and driver factors in the current deployment of the incident command structure. The second stage of the investigation employed questionnaires survey to measure and examine the perceptions and values of the Bronze commanders (n=153). These commanders were selected due to their job roles in the operational field as they being first responders to incidents. A Kruskal -Wallis test (KWt) was used to examine whether there were any significant relationships between the independent variables (CD departments, job position and academic qualification) and the dependent variables (the incident command system factors) at level (p <0.05). Thereafter, further questionnaires were collected from experts (n=11), which helped in achieving the UAE incident command framework validation. A sample size of experts was selected to reduce bias associated with a decrease in the possibility of data response. Generally, the higher commander ranks tended to reveal excellent judgment regarding the research results, in accordance with their years of experience, which was more than 11 years and above.
The realisation of key contributions to awareness and understanding completed the knowledge gap by presenting a developed incident command system framework that addressed the key factors associated with the successful implementation of the incident command system adaptable to the UAE’s environmental conditions. This research identified and evaluated the critical factors of implementation, organisational, individual, barrier and driver of the incident command system in the CDGC agency in the UAE. The barrier factors were treated statistically to build an improvement strategy for an effective emergency response. This research has practical implications for the incident commanders as it actively assures improved operation of the incident command system currently in place, so that it enhances the capabilities within the CDGC agency during emergency response operations. By doing so, emergency agencies in the UAE can be more effective and efficient. As a result, the proposal of a new framework contributed to a more detailed and less confusing system that overcome the identified barriers and aided successful emergency management.
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit record (repository staff only) |
Tools
Tools