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อังศุมาลิน อังศุสิงห์
The purpose of this research was to study 1) the status of the Emergency
Network and the governing by Emergency Management Network for Catastrophic
Floods ; 2) Problems and obstacles of network driven management; 3) development of
a suitable model of Governing by Emergency Management Network for Catastrophic
Floods in a Thai context; and 4) Support and barrier conditions when using the model.
The research used the Great Flood of 2011 as the extreme event of study and
Ayutthaya Province as the case study. The research methodology was a qualitative
study and data were collected by gathering related documents, in-depth interviews with
key informants and together in a focus group meeting.
The results of the study showed that the networks involved in flood
management in Ayutthaya Province consisted of the 1) formal Flood Management
Network “key network partners”, 2) “secondary network partners” of the key network, 3)
civil volunteer network established by key network partners, and 4) any other network
organizations, including civil society within the province and outside the province that
have specific intentions to support flood management operations. Flood management
is driven by formal mechanisms called “Provincial Flood and Storm Prevention and
Mitigation Task Force Operation Center and Forward Area Incident Command Center”.
The Command Centers are mainly composed of public organizations and agencies
within the province, which reflect lack of involvement and participation from other parts
of civil society. In addition, organizational structure of these centers is based on a
bureaucratic system. In terms of strategy formulation, the centers are driven by the
disaster life cycle while tactics are set up and performed for each situation depending
upon the severity of the situation. However, such strategies and tactics are mainly
decided by a centralized decision making process of the provincial governor serving
during that time. Therefore, the decision making process and operations lack
participation from various sectors and civil society in the province. Hence, the strategy
driven activities are only limited to the organizations and agencies under the centers. In
addition, the province has its own area strategy which includes a civil volunteer network
to support flood operations, called “1:20 Strategy”
(6)
The research found that the main problem of the formal network was
information for decision making and operations, which was caused by limitations in
communications, coordination, information and intelligence management. In addition, the
research found inefficient operational resource management, resulted in resources
scarcity, inadequate supply and procurement, and poor utilization. It also found that
stakeholders affect the work of the centers such as policy and working guidelines from
the government agencies, stakeholders supported victims without informing the
province, the conflicts of policies and orders from central government, political parties
and province, and unethical behavior in providing information. However, to drive the
work of the organizations and agencies under the centers and to solve such problems,
the research found that these problems were solved by the informal collaboration
among the staffs, personal relationships, and their values of public consciousness and
the strong leadership of the governor.
For the appropriate model of Governing by Emergency Network for Catastrophic
Floods, the following adjustments are recommended: 1) Adjust the structure of flood
management mechanism to be an Emergency Operation Center at all levels, called the
Incident Command Center; 2) Set up an Emergency Support Function Systems (ESFs)
at the provincial level. The structure of both Incident Command Center and ESFs need
involvement and participation from various parts of society as well as civil society. In
addition, the flexibility of the structure responding to each event needs to be recognized.
3) Set up strategies with decision making processes that involve participation from all
sectors with collaborated thinking, planning, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
in order to guide and drive interoperability among agencies and giving priority to the
exercises. Strategies and tactics should be formulated to respond to the situation with
participatory decision making process during disaster impact phase. 4) Apply the Joint
Information System (JIS) and information technologies to increase emergency network
working performance, provide a stockpile of necessary operational resources, and
implement Damage Assessment and Need Analysis (DANA) during the incident, develop
SOPs to be a framework for working collaboration among organizations and set up the
1:20 Strategy to be the strategic indicator to measure working performance integration.
5) Develop capacity building of network integrator and related organizations to improve
interoperability among agencies by developing and exercising the flood prevention and
mitigation plans and business continuity plans of each organization and develop an
emergency management joint program for public and various sectors within the province.
The recommended model can be implemented based on the crucial conditions
of the continuing driven mechanism of informal relationships and the DDPM provincial
office as the network integrator must understand and recognize the importance of
network development and work in the incident site along with others. Exercises and
drills must be held regularly and seriously. Furthermore, the acceptance of the
leadership of the incident commander, sufficient resource management to support the
operation, and the flexibility of law and regulations on the budget are also important
conditions to drive this model.