Climate change has begun to affect the frequency, intensity, and duration of weather related disaster events. This trend may foster a greater probability of encountering 2 or more disaster events simultaneously, increasing the potential to deplete emergency resources. Using Canadian forest fire management as a focal point, this research has determined the extent to which forest fire resource sharing (resources being equipment, fire fighter teams, planes, etc.) has been able to mitigate the impacts of simultaneous forest fire events induced by climate change. Provincial and territorial forest fire management agencies are responsible for forest fire suppression within their jurisdictions, but when fires exceed their suppression capabilities they may request resources from other agencies using resource sharing agreements including: Compact agreements with American States, other international agreements and agreements initiated through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC). If the potential for simultaneous forest fires is neglected, excess fire activity may overwhelm the resource sharing structure. A historical analysis, 2 case studies, and a survey were employed to uncover information regarding simultaneous forest fires. Moreover, an examination of other resource sharing disciplines was used to uncover new ways of approaching resource sharing issues. The results of this study show that simultaneous fire events have overwhelmed the resource sharing system (during at least two years 1998 and 2003) and that modifications are needed to prepare for the potential increase in forest fire frequency.

Samhällsstörningar i form av större olyckor, naturkatastrofer och liknande kriser har under senare år varit relativt frekvent förekommande i Västsverige. Denna kvalitativa studies övergripande syfte var därför att fördjupa kunskapen om vissa avgränsande faktorer som upplevdes som underlättande respektive försvårande med avseende på ledarskapet vid hanteringen av orkanen Gudrun samt vid raset av Europaväg 6 i Munkedals kommun. Ett delsyfte med studien var även att koppla studiens resultat mot Ronthys (2006) teori om ledarintelligens. Underlaget för studien utgjordes främst av hur personer i ledande ställning inom räddningsorganisationen upplevt dessa händelser, något som författaren fick ta del av genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer. Av de intervjuade var sex män och en kvinna, åldersfördelningen varierade mellan 40 till 65 år. Samtliga deltagare var väl erfarna inom krishanteringsområdet med minst tio års arbetslivserfarenhet. Insamlad data analyserades med tematisk analys. De styrkor med avseende på ledarskapet som framkom av studien var vikten av att ha ett gemensamt mål, väl definierade roller, erfarenhet, gemensam struktur, möjlighet att distansera sig, att organisationerna fanns samlade samt att avlösningar finns tillgängliga. Svårigheter med avseende på ledarskapet som påpekades, var att deltagarna ställdes inför ovana situationer, osäkerhetsfaktorer, konflikter, emotionell påverkan samt att det kunde vara problem med att kunna tillgodose basbehov. Resultatet visade även på de många krav som ställdes på ledarna, exempelvis sakkunskaper och sociala kompetenser som ödmjukhet och förmåga att inge lugn och förtroende hos sina medarbetare. Slutligen visade resultatet på vikten av fortsatta övningar och kompetensutvecklingsbehovet hos de ledare som har till uppgift att hantera krissituationer, vilket bör beaktas inför kommande händelser som ställer krav på ett långvarigt ledningsarbete. / Community disturbances in the form of major accidents, natural disasters and similar emergencies have in recent years been relatively frequent in western Sweden. This qualitative study’s overall aim was to expand the knowledge concerning some delimiting factors perceived as being facilitating or aggravating for the leadership in the handling of hurricane Gudrun and the collapse of the European Highway 6 in Munkedal. A lesser aim of the study was to connect this study's results to Ronthy’s (2006) theory of leadership intelligence. The basis for this study consisted mainly of how the management personnel in the rescue organization experienced these events, which the author got acquainted to through seven semi-structured interviews. Of those interviewed were six men and one woman, and the age distribution ranged from 40 to 65 years. All participants were well experienced in crisis management with at least ten years of work experience. Collected data were analyzed by thematic analysis. The strengths of leadership that emerged from the study was the importance of having a common objective, well-defined roles, experience, common structure, the opportunity to distance oneself, that the organizations were in place, and personnel replacing available. Difficulties with respect to leadership, as noted, was that the participants were faced with unfamiliar situations, uncertainties, conflicts, emotional impact, and that there could be problems to meet basic needs. The results also showed the many demands made on the leaders, such as expertise and social skills such as humility and ability to produce harmony and trust among employees. Finally, the results showed the importance of continued training and the professional development needs of the leaders who are working in crisis management organizations, which should be considered for future events that require a long-term management work.

Bakgrund: Plötsligt hjärtstopp är en av de vanligaste orsakerna till för tidig död i vårt samhälle och den största dödsorsaken runt om i världen. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att studera vilken kunskap, utbildning och beredskap i hjärt-lungräddning (HLR), som medarbetarna i primärvården anser sig ha och om det fanns skillnader i detta mellan yrkesprofessioner och mellan vårdcentraler i stad respektive landsort. Metod: Designen är en deskriptiv och jämförande tvärsnittsstudie. En enkät användes för att få med så många respondenter som möjligt. Resultat: Resultatet baseras på svar från 144 respondenter. Av samtliga medarbetare hade 87 ­% gen­omgått en HLR utbildning det senaste året. Detta till trots ansåg sig endast 66 % ha tillräckliga kunskaper i HLR. Någon signifikant skillnad mellan yrkesprofessioner gällande kunskap i HLR gick inte att signifikant säkerställa (p = 0,107). Endast 80 % av medarbetarna visste hur ambulans larmas. I en jämförelse mellan stad och landsort fanns dock ingen signifikant skillnad i den kunskapen (p = 0,12). Slutsats: Det är viktigt att skapa förutsättningar för fortlöpande utbildningar till medarbetarna för att öka kunskap, utbildning och beredskap i HLR, vilket även kan ses som ett kvalitetssäkringsarbete i vården. / Background: Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the most common causes of premature death in our society and the largest cause of death worldwide. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate primary health care employee’s knowledge, training and preparedness they consider themselves to have in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and to study whether there are differences between professional roles as well as differences in urban and rural health centers. Method: The design of this study is a descriptive and comparative cross-sectional study.  To capture as many respondents as possible a questionnaire was used. Result: The result in this study is based on responses from 144 respondents. Eighty-seven percent of employees have been training CPR the last year. Despite that only 66 % felt they have sufficient know­­ledge. There was no significant differences indicated in knowledge in CPR between professions roles (p = 0,107). Only 80 % knew how to alert the ambulance. In a comparison between urban and rural no significant difference in knowledge can be seen (p = 0, 12). Conclusion: The conclusion of the study is that it´s important to create competence for the employees, education for members of the CPR in order to improve the skills which can also be seen as a quality work in health care centers.

Global climate change has brought about not only rise in global temperature, but also other climate anomalies such as severe storms, droughts and floods. To reduce damages from these disasters, both the government and public need to take preparations. This study aims to explore the factors that may influence the public's flood preparedness. The explored factors were derived from Rogers¡¦s (1983) protection motivation theory and Grothmann and Patt's (2005) model of private proactive adaptation to climate change. A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of Kaohsiung citizens, 490 of whom lived in flood-prone areas and the rest 210 lived in other areas in Kaohsiung. A total of 264 citizens responded. Results showed that threat appraisal and coping appraisal could affect the intent to prepare, and threat appraisal was affected by reliance on government and disaster experience. These suggest that if the government wants to increase people's flood preparedness, it should both (a) make people alert to the severity and high possibility of future floods, and (b) make people believe that they could take affordable and effective measures to reduce their flood damage.

The current study aimed to examine two potential positive outcomes of an earthquake experience, namely posttraumatic growth (PTG) and earthquake preparedness behavior. Variables that may be related to PTG and earthquake preparedness behavior were examined after earthquake victimization by using two models, which were the Person Relative to Event (PrE) Model (Mulilis &amp / Duval, 1997) to understand earthquake preparedness behavior, and Model of Life Crises and Personal Growth (Schaefer &amp / Moos, 1992) to understand PTG. In order to examine earthquake preparedness behavior, the roles of demographic variables, event-related variables, cognitive appraisal factors, and coping strategies, and in order to examine PTG, environmental factors, system factors, event related factors, earthquake specific coping and cognitive appraisal factors, and general ways of coping responses factors were examined. Data was collected by a questionnaire consisting of three parts. The first part was a socio-demographic information form. The second part of the questionnaire included set of items designed to examine past earthquake experience, the severity of past earthquake experience and reasons to prepare for a possible future earthquake. The third part of the questionnaire consisted of eight scales. These scales were Ways of Coping Inventory (WCI) to measure coping strategies used in stressful situations, Revised and Translated Mulilis-Lippa Earthquake Preparedness Scale (MLEPS) to measure the level of earthquake preparedness behavior, perceived difficulty and perceived effectiveness of being prepared, Religiousness Scale (RS) to measure the level of religious resources of participants, The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) to measure perceived adequacy of social support, The Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL) to measure the quality of life of the participants, Psychological Well-Being Scale to measure the level of psychological well-being of participants, Traumatic Stress Symptom Checklist (TSSC) to measure posttraumatic stress, and Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) to measure stress-related growth. One hundred ninety nine adults (105 females and 94 males with an age range of 18 to 73) were participants of the study. The participants were from Kaynasli, D&uuml / zce. The participants were selected on the basis of their age, gender, and the type of their houses. They were contacted through home visits. In the result section, the level of the different categories of earthquake preparedness behavior, self-efficacy and outcome efficacy / the reasons of preparedness and nonpreparedness for earthquakes, the variables related to earthquake preparedness behavior and PTG were presented. Hierarchical regression analysis results revealed that perceived responsibility to prepare for earthquakes, outcome efficacy, and problem-focused coping were positively and posttraumatic stress was negatively related to earthquake preparedness behavior. As a result of the regression analysis, it was found that being married, perceived social support, well-being, problem-focused coping, and seeking social support coping were significant predictors of the level of PTG. The results of regression analysis also showed that, general problem focused coping was more efficient than earthquake specific active coping after earthquake victimization for the development of PTG. The results of the study were discussed within the relevant literature, shortcomings of the current study, clinical implications and suggestions for future research were proposed.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The frequency of natural disasters and its negative consequences in terms of the number of people killed, property destroyed and negative environmental impacts caused in the affected communities constitute one of the basic foundations and motivations for the development and use of ICT and other means of preventing as well as responding to disasters in the world today. This is simply because disaster management constitutes an important part of any developmental framework. Unfortunately a majority of these natural disasters occur in developing countries where information flow is greatly hampered because the national actors in disasters lack the skills to use ICT to prepare for and to response to disasters in their communities. Current study aims at studying the use of ICT in disaster management in Cameroon-a less developing country south of the Sahara</p><p>To achieve the aim of this study, a quantitative research approach was chosen. A total sample of 150 organisations was selected from a population of 285 organisations within Cameroon, that are directly or indirectly involved with disaster management or developmental issues of any nature. In total 150 questionnaires were administered to these selected national actors by mail, internet, telephone and self-administration and 85 of the organisations respondended to the questionnaire.</p><p>After collecting and analysing the data, the authors came to the conclusions that; disasters occur in Cameroon on frequent bases causing lots of damages thus the need for ICT use in humanitarian logistics to move information and material. Results showed that national actors use the radio and local TV (CRTV) for disaster preparedness and the mobile phone for disaster response, while the internet and computer techonology, foreign TV, Fixed phone and fax had a very low usage rate or sometimes not used at all. The reason for low usage or no usage was due to problems encountered by national actors in an attempt of trying to use them. Against this background, the authors suggested a number of recommendations that could improve the degree of ICT usage. One of them was that the Cameroon government should partner with private sector firms to make ICT infrastructure available by investing more and improving on the telecommunication sector in the country. This will solve the problem of poor ICT infrastructure, poor radio and TV signals, limited internet connectivity accessibility and availability in Cameroon.<strong></strong></p>

<p>This study focus on decision makers in Swedish foreign and security politics with a special focus on two national crises. The crises that have been chosen for this study are the submarine U17 crisis and the shipwreck of the passenger ferry Estonia. The first crisis occurred in the fall of 1981 when the Swedish government accused the Soviet for violating Swedish territory with a Soviet submarine. The second crisis occurred in the fall of 1994 when Estonia, with over 900 people, ended up in a storm and the result of the shipwreck was that only 137 people were rescued.</p><p>The aims of the study are to analysis the Swedish crises preparedness and in the future develop and make it more effective. The thesis employs the following research questions to answer the purpose:</p><p>- How did the actors that were responsibility for the Swedish crises preparedness act when they found out about U137 and the shipwreck of Estonia to bother the best outcome?</p><p>- How did the final results of the crises preparedness in U137 and shipwreck of Estonia actually came out?</p><p>The method of the study is a type of an appraisal method that explains how you could evaluate a political decision. The results that I found in points that it is necessary to do more research in the subject area. None of the crises were handled very effective in crises preparedness way and in the future more coordination and collaboration with different public authority and private organisations is needed to meet the threat and the obstacles that a society today stands in front of.</p>

Klimatförändringarna är numera ett fenomen vi inte kan bortse ifrån. De sker här och nu och det råder mer eller mindre gemensam vetenskaplig konsensus om att så är fallet. Med klimatförändringarna kommer risker vi i nuläget har väldigt svårt att förutse och förhålla oss till och därmed påverkas integrationen av dessa i den kommunala krisberedskapen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka faktorer det är som påverkar integrationen av klimatrisker inom den kommunala krisberedskapen. Resultatet är baserat på ett antal intervjuer som har genomförts med personer inom kommun och kommunfullmäktige. Svaren har varit mer eller mindre entydiga om att de övergripande faktorerna som påverkar integrationen av klimatrisker inom den kommunala krisberedskapen är vetenskaplig osäkerhet och hur denna förmedlas av internationella organisationer, att det råder en gemensam kunskapsbrist om just de effekter som kan komma att uppstå av klimatförändringarna och det finns även en lägre medvetenhet om många av riskerna. Dessutom prioriteras olika effekter och risker olika högt inom olika kommuner vilket påverkar integreringen av alla risker överlag. Jag har även genomfört en dokumentanalys för att ge ytterligare substans till de resultat jag fått fram. / Climate change is now a phenomenon we cannot ignore. It is happening here and now and there is more or less common scientific consensus that so is the case. With climate change come risks that are difficult to predict and to relate to and this affects the integration of these risks in the municipal emergency preparedness. The purpose of the study is to examine the factors that are affecting the integration of climate risks in the municipal emergency preparedness. The result is based on a number of interviews conducted with people working with municipal activities and a Municipal Council. The responses have been more or less clear that the largest factors affecting the integration of climate risks in the municipal emergency preparedness is scientific uncertainty and how this is mediated by international organizations, the fact that there is a common lack of knowledge about the effects that may arise from climate change and that there is also a lower awareness of many of the risks in general. In addition, different effects are differently prioritized which affects the integration of all risks associated with climate change. I have also conducted a document analysis to give further substance to the results I found.

Många svenska organisationer har idag en bristfällig förmåga att planera och förbereda en storskalig utrymning. Enligt MSB:s vägledning om utrymning 2014 anses dagens planering ofta vara förlegad och återföring av erfarenheter sker godtyckligt. Vidare varierar tolkning och tillämpning av gällande lagstiftning. Denna upplevs generellt som otydlig och ansvarsförhållandet mellan olika organisationer behöver tydliggöras. Syftet med studien är att utifrån erfarenheter från internationella exempel och allmänna principer för storskalig utrymning jämföra det med svensk kontext. Hypotesen är att avsaknaden av erfarenheter från att faktiskt genomföra utrymning i större omfattning sannolikt påverkar hur samhällets beredskap ser ut idag. Vald metod är semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes med personer i nyckelfunktioner vid olika myndigheter på lokal och regional nivå i Halmstad, Halland. Materialet behandlades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studien består också av en fallstudie där Halmstads kommun utgör en avgränsning och ett fall att studera. Resultatet påvisar att kunskap och förmåga att genomföra storskalig utrymning är bristfällig eller saknas. Samtliga organisationer som deltog i studien saknar praktisk erfarenhet från storskaliga utrymningar och ser genomförandet som en stor utmaning. Behov finns för åtgärder, dels planering i egen organisation dels gemensam planering med berörda organisationer. Det anses också att det finns kompetens inom organisationerna där exempelvis Varbergs och Kungsbackas kommuner tillsammans med Polismyndigheten Väst har mångårig erfarenhet av utrymningsplanering och övningar rörande kärnteknisk olycka. En gemensam utbildningsinsats, utifrån allmänna principer, med målsättning att skapa en gemensam inriktning och handlingsstruktur för storskalig utrymning rekommenderas. / Today many Swedish organizations have weak capacity to plan and prepare for a large-scale evacuation. According to MSB:s guide on evacuation 2014 todays planning is often considered outdated and feedback of experience is done arbitrarily. Furthermore, interpretation and application of existing legislation is varying. The legislation is generally perceived as unclear and responsibilities between different organizations need to be clarified. The purpose of the study is, based on the experience of international examples and general principles for large-scale evacuation compare it with Swedish context. The hypothesis is that the lack of experience actually implementing the evacuation on a large scale is likely affecting how society's preparedness looks today. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people in key positions at various agencies on local and regional level in Halmstad, Halland. A qualitative content analysis was used. The study also consists of a case study where Halmstad Municipality and its proximity to the nuclear power plant in Ringhals represent delimitation and a case study. The result demonstrates that knowledge and ability to carry out large-scale evacuation is incomplete or missing. All organizations miss practical experience of large-scale evacuations and envision the implementation as a major challenge. There is a need for planning, in own organization and joint with interested organizations. It is also considered to be expertise within the organizations, as example Varbergs and Kungsbackas municipalities together with Police Authority West has many years of experience in emergency planning and exercises related to nuclear accidents. A joint training program, from general principles, with the aim of creating a common focus and action structure for large-scale evacuation is recommended.

The aim: to examine the alternation of physical preparedness of the cadets aged 23-25 of the Great Lithuanian etmon Jonusas Radvila training company, while purposely training the least trained physical feature. The object of the study: the physical preparedness of the cadets. Hypothesis: The results of the physical preparedness of the cadets will improve after 8 weeks of emphasized training of the least trained physical feature. Methods used in the work: theoretical analysis and generalization, anthropometry, physical fitness test, pedagogical experiment, mathematical statistics. Subjects: 54 healthy cadets, aged 23-25, of the Great Lithuanian etmon Jonusas Radvila training company. Anthropometrical measurements (height and weight) were performed using standard methods. The body mass index was calculated according to formula (kg/m2). The physical preparedness of the cadets was examined with the tests corresponding to the NATO standards: press-ups (t/2 min), sit-ups (t/2 min), and 3000 m running. Physical preparedness was assessed according to the table of points in the system of 5 points. After analyzing the results of physical preparedness it was observed that for those cadets who failed or performed weakly, the hardest exercise was sit-ups in 2 minutes. The experimental group of the cadets was made of volunteers, who failed or performed this normative of physical preparedness weakly. The program for training the dynamic endurance strength of abdominal muscles was applied... [to full text]