Naturally-occurring and technology-based hazards affect public health and safety to varying degrees. Naturally-occurring hazards include weather-related events and infectious disease epidemics/pandemics. Examples of technology-based hazards include hazardous materials incidents and electrical power outages. Due to limited resources, emergency planners have to prioritize hazards that may affect local jurisdictions. The purpose of the reported study was to construct a hierarchy of public safety hazards at the county and district levels to aid emergency planners. Public safety representatives from Indiana's District 6 region completed a survey, based on the Oregon Emergency Management Hazard Analysis Methodology, which assigns numerical scores to various hazard categories based on history, vulnerability, maximum potential, and probability of occurrence within a given jurisdiction. Participants also completed an open-ended question, in narrative form, to describe any additional hazards that may affect their jurisdiction. Significant differences were found in point totals for various hazards (p = .000). Significant differences were found among public safety disciplines in rating the infectious disease hazard (p = .02). No significant differences were found in point totals between naturally-occurring and technology-based hazards (p = .86). Overall, a high level of agreement between disciplines on rating hazards, and significant differences between hazard categories suggests that hazard category prioritization is warranted. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/188294 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Nehl, Ryan E. |
| Contributors | Pichtel, John |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 81 leaves : ill., map ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us-in |
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