Setting the scene for your 'event'
The regular occurrence of both man made and natural emergencies/disasters makes it imperative that we should prepare and plan for such events.
In our endeavours to ensure such plans are in place we need to consider legislation as a tool of emergency management, which may provide both the government and the emergency services with the necessary authority to ensure that plans and preparations are in place. Such legislation may provide a mechanism for prevention and preparedness strategies as well as response and recovery strategies.
Due to the complexities of emergencies/disasters the degree of emergency/disaster preparedness may vary, in many cases from State to State. This variation is more prevalent internationally, especially in the case of many developing countries which have limited or no legislation in place, thus resulting in the lack of optimum emergency/disaster preparedness.
In researching the legislation relevant to your selected event’s pre-impact phase, you will need to consider the legislation that was in place prior to the event and in place at the time of the event’s occurrence. Depending on when your event occurred, you may find that that legislation may now have been superseded and/or amended. This is extremely important as you will require this information in the next subject. However, for this topic, you need to make every effort to find the legislation that was relevant to the time your event occurred.
You should also take the opportunity to look at the history of that legislation in relation to the event, as this may provide you with some insight into what effect the legislation had on the pre-event emergency/disaster preparedness arrangements.
Forum activity 2.1
 Refer back to the contents of your Project Definition as listed in Topic 1 and check that your scope clearly sets the parameters for the time spanned by the pre-impact phase of your event.
I would like you to post a brief message on the subject forum providing the answers to the following questions:
What is your selected emergency event?
What are the pre-impact phase parameters that you have set for your event?
What did you use to identify the commencement of the pre-impact phase of your event - was it set by using a significant date or event, or did you use some other benchmark?
It is important that this information is clearly spelled out in your reports/assignments so the readers and the marker is clear as to the scope of your event.
You can take this opportunity to look at other students’ forum postings, and possibly provide comment or discussion regarding their choice of parameters relating to setting the timeframe for the pre-impact phase. Remember, comments and discussion should be constructive. If you identify flaws in someone’s thought process, don’t simply point out the negatives, but also provide positive input – be constructive with your comments. The forum takes the place of a classroom discussion and as such, we encourage interaction, but we require it to be constructive not destructive.
What is your opinion of these theories so far?
To give you an example of what you might develop, I have attached here an example data document containing tables in MS Word format that you might care to use and adapt to your own needs. You could likewise construct a similar set of tables using Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet, database or information systems.
Click on this thumbnail image on the left to show an example set of tables in MS Word format for managing your event’s information and data. This is your starting point.
You will add information to this data file as you complete each of the first three topics. So, what you need to do is open this data document by clicking on the image – and then complete the appropriate section of the document and then rename it and save it to the hard drive on your computer.
When you see the above data document thumbnail image in following topics you will need go to YOUR saved EMGdata.doc on your hard drive and add the appropriate sections. Do not forget to save it!
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