Six Stages of Integrated Emergency Management (IEM)
Anticipation
At this stage, the organization attempts to foresee the potential threats associated with a specific setting. Anticipation is necessary for a proper understanding of the incident and decreasing the possibility of unexpected situations.
Assessment
Once the potential threat is identified, it is necessary to evaluate its potential impact as well as the number of resources necessary for its prevention. An appropriate assessment provides the possibility of prioritizing threats according to their severity and complexity.
Prevention
Once the priorities are determined, it becomes possible to introduce preventive measures that would help to avoid the occurrence of the undesirable event or minimize its negative impact on the community. The allocation of resources is done in accordance with the estimated likelihood and severity of the event.
Preparation
This phase ensures the readiness of the stakeholders to the occurrence of the event and includes allocating roles and assigning responsibilities.
Response
The execution of the assigned actions in the case of the occurrence of the event. The goal of this phase is the elimination of direct and indirect consequences of the incident.
Recovery
Once the event is addressed, the recovery phase ensures the rollback of the community to the pre-event stage.
Four Elements of Recovery
Infrastructural
This element includes the restoration of buildings, transportation means, and access to necessary services, such as shelter food, water, and energy sources. In its most basic form, it may include debris management aimed at gaining access to roads, bridges, and households. On a grander scale, infrastructural recovery also includes restoration and creation of communal services which ensure protection, nutritional support, and relevant training.
Environmental
Both natural and man-made disasters often create a tremendous impact on the economy. Importantly, on some occasions, recovery activities aggravate the influence, either by necessity or due to poor planning. In order to prevent adverse long-term effects, recovery must account for environmental impact and include mitigating strategies that would minimize the effect.
Economic
Once all immediate threats are eliminated, it becomes important to ensure the sustainability of the affected community. Since it largely depends on the economic capabilities of the population, the primary focus of this element is on employment opportunities and poverty reduction.
Humanitarian
Certain social and cultural discrepancies, such as gender and class discrimination, can create significant barriers to successful community recovery. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge and address them as a part of the recovery effort.
Command Structure
A major power loss in the city as large as Doha would require the participation of multiple agencies in order to address the adverse effects. To maintain the necessary level of cooperation between them and ensure appropriate resource distribution, a central entity is required for city-wide coordination. Doha Office of Emergency Management must include representatives of all the agencies involved in response associated with power outage must be present in the operations center of the Office, with each participating entity forming their own internal Emergency Operations Center.
The head of operations would be the city’s government representative and the commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management. In the emergency operations center, they would b represented by a liaison officer. They would oversee the operation led by an incident commander, assisted by a senior-level consultant and a senior emergency manager. The latter must have three subordinate officers, namely the safety officer, documentation officer, and finance officer. The departments in control of the incident commander are expected to include logistics, information systems, public information, transportation, environmental agency, emergency health services, and fire department, among others.