How consistent are emergency and disaster measurements and scales?
Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Measurements play major roles in our lives and in many fields including the natural sciences, social sciences, economics, and technology. Emergency managers utilize emergency and disaster scales and measurements in their planning for, mitigation of, preparedness for, response to and recovery from emergencies, disasters and other events. The thesis explores the consistency of different emergency and disaster scales by measuring thirteen (13) case studies representing a range of different emergencies in terms of type, size, location, and impact using at least three (3) different emergency scales from a total of seven (7) selected scales from practice and the literature. The thesis then compares measurement results per emergency event showing very low consistency that could mislead emergency managers. The comparisons of measurement results per scale revealed important findings shared at the end of the thesis in addition future research suggestions.