Exploring the Emergency Planning Requirements: A Qualitative Research Study at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
This study aimed to explore emergency planning requirements for managing disasters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The study adopted interpretivism; an inductive approach; a descriptive survey; and qualitative methods to address its aim. The techniques used included a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The study sample consisted of 13 experts from the KSA General Directorate of Civil Defense (GDCD). The data were analyzed by using content analysis. The study findings revealed that the emergency planning requirements are administrative requirements, including regulations and legislation; technical requirements, which include equipment; human resources, including staff and responders; identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks; determining the tasks and responsibilities of the relevant agencies and stakeholders; qualified leadership; determining the chain of command at national and local levels; coordination and cooperation among stakeholders; knowledge gained from local or international experiences; updated database; the availability of sufficient financial resources; completed infrastructure; and improved training and practice. The study also found that although emergency planning requirements are more or less in place, there is a need for further improvement and development; specifically, there is a need for better understanding, knowledge, and awareness. Consequently, it strongly recommends that all emergency planning requirements developed from this study should be implemented simultaneously and as an integrated whole. By doing so, it could help decision-makers and emergency planners at government emergency agencies to improve, develop, and reinforce emergency planning, specifically in reducing disaster risks.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abosuliman, S., Kumar, A. & Alam, F. (2013). Disaster preparedness and management in Saudi Arabia: an empirical investigation. International Journal of Social, Human Science, and Engineering, 7(12), pp 295- 299.
Abosuliman, S., Kumar, A. & Alam, F. (2014). Flood disaster planning and management in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - a survey. Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 7-9 January 2014, Bali, Indonesia, pp 2380-2387.
Acharya, A., & Prakash, A. (2019). When the river talks to its people: Local knowledge-based flood forecasting in Gandak River basin, India. Environmental Development, 31, pp 55-67.
Alharbi, M. (2013). The Cause of Flood Disaster in Saudi Arabia. In Proceedings of the First Saudi International Conference on Crisis and Disaster Management, September 2013, Riyadh, KSA.
Alrehaili, N. R. (2021 a). A systematic review of the emergency planning for flash floods response in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 36(4), pp 82-88.
Alrehaili, N. R. (2021 b). An Investigation into Emergency Planning Requirements and Challenges of Disaster Management in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Disaster Management, 4(3), pp 1-10.
Alshamsi, H. R. (2017). Managing Major Emergencies: Recommendations to develop effective contingency planning in the United Arab Emirates. Doctoral Thesis, University of Salford, United Kingdom.
Barakat, R., El Morshedy, H., & Farghaly, A. (2014). Human schistosomiasis in the Middle East and North Africa region. In Neglected Tropical Diseases-Middle East and North Africa. Springer, pp 23-57.
Barriendos, M., Ruiz-Bellet, J. L., Tuset, J., Mazón, J., Balasch, J. C., Pino, D., & Ayala, J. L. (2014). The" Prediflood" database of historical floods in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula) AD 1035–2013, and its potential applications in flood analysis. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18(12), pp 4807-4823.
Bin Ottai, N.H. (2017). Capacity Assessment Framework to Enhance Disaster Resilience within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Doctoral Thesis, University of Salford, United Kingdom.
Bowling, A. (2014). Research Methods in Health: Investigating Health and Health Services. UK, McGraw-Hill Education.
Box, P., Thomalla, F., & Van den Honert, R. (2013). Flood risk in Australia: Whose responsibility is it, anyway?. Water, 5(4), pp 1580-1597.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods. 5th Edition. Oxford university press.
Chan, N. W., Tan, M. L., Ghani, A. A., & Zakaria, N. A. (2019, April). Sustainable urban drainage is a viable measure of coping with heat and floods due to climate change. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 257, No. 1, p 012013). IOP Publishing.
Cope, D. (2014). Methods and meaning: credibility and trustworthiness in qualitative research. Oncology Nursing Forum. Vol 41, Number 1, Jan 2014. DOI: 10.1188/14.ONF.89-91.
Crespo, R. D. J., Wu, J., Myer, M., Yee, S., & Fulford, R. t(2019). Flood protection ecosystem services in the coast of Puerto Rico: Associations between extreme weather, flood hazard mitigation, and gastrointestinal illness. Science of the total environment, 676, pp 343-355.
Kagioglou, M., Cooper, R.F.D., Aouad, G. & Sexton, M. (2000). Rethinking Construction: The Generic Guide to the Design and Construction Process Protocol. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management. 7(2), pp 141-153.
Gaitan, S., Calderoni, L., Palmieri, P., Ten Veldhuis, M. C., Maio, D., & Van Riemsdijk, M. B. (2014). From sensing to action: Quick and reliable access to information in cities vulnerable to heavy rain. IEEE Sensors Journal, 14(12), pp 4175-4184.
General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD). (2022). Civil Defence Legislation and Its Regulations. Available from: https://www.998.gov.sa/Ar/CivilDefenceLists/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 19th November 2022].
Hartmann, T., & Spit, T. (2016). Legitimizing differentiated flood protection levels–Consequences of the European flood risk management plan. Environmental Science & Policy, 55, pp 361-367.
Hossain, M. K., & Meng, Q. (2020). A fine-scale spatial analytics of the assessment and mapping of buildings and populations at different risk levels of urban flood. Land use policy. 99, 104829.
Kalof, L., & Dan, A. (2008). Essentials of Social Research. McGraw-Hill Education, UK.
King, A. L. (2012). The Influence of Risk Perception on Pharmaceutical Surge Capacity. Doctoral dissertation, Walden University.
Ledraa, T.A. & Al-Ghamdi, A.M. (2020). Planning and Management Issues and Challenges of Flash Flooding Disasters in Saudi Arabia: The Case of Riyadh City. Journal of Architecture and Planning, 32, pp 155-171.
Lumbroso, D., & Vinet, F. (2012). Tools to improve the production of emergency plans for floods: Are they being used by the people that need them? Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 20(3), 149-165.
McEwen, L., & Jones, O. (2012). Building local/lay flood knowledge into community flood resilience planning after the July 2007 floods, in Gloucestershire, UK. Hydrology Research, 43(5), pp 675-688.
Momani, N.M. & Fadil, A.S. (2010). Changing Public Policy Due to City of Jeddah Flood Disaster. Journal of Social Sciences, 6(3), 424-428.
Neuman, L. W. (2000). Social research methods: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
Rahman, M. T., Aldosary, A. S., Nahiduzzaman, K. M., & Reza, I. (2016). Vulnerability of flash flooding in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Natural Hazards, 84, pp 1807-1830.
Reddick, C. (2011). Information technology and emergency management: preparedness and planning in US states. Disasters, 35(1), pp 45-61.
Rong, L., & Jia, X. (2008, October). A systematic study on emergency policy documents for quick response. In 2008 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 856-861.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research Methods for Business Students. 7th edition, Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
Török, I. (2018). Qualitative assessment of social vulnerability to flood hazards in Romania. Sustainability, 10(10), p 3780.
Williams, A., & Archer, D. (2002). The use of historical flood information in the English Midlands to improve risk assessment. Hydrological sciences journal, 47(1), pp 57-76.
Youssef, A.M., Sefry, S.A., Pradhan, B. & Alfadail, E.A. (2016). Analysis of Causes of Flash Flood in Jeddah City (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) in 2009 and 2011 Using Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data and GIS. Geomatics, Natural Hazards, and Risk, 7(3), pp 1018-1042.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.