Lesson 4 – the resilience cycle

The philosophy behind Integrated Emergency Management.

We explained earlier in this module that resilience to emergencies involves partners working together to plan for, respond to and recover from the risks we could face. We call this process Integrated Emergency Management, or IEM. It involves five key steps, none of which stand in isolation. They are all linked by continual learning from each response to an emergency.

The steps are:

• Assessment – what are the main risks, and what skills and resources exist to respond?
• Prevention – what can be done to reduce the risks and their impacts?
• Preparation – how we plan, train and exercise together and involve all those who may be needed to respond to the risk
• Response – responding to the situation while co‑ordinating and communicating with all partners, prioritising the most severe and immediate needs of people impacted by the emergency
• Recovery – achieving a return to normality with the affected communities and identifying lessons to develop and improve for future emergencies

A flood, terrorist attack or industrial incident can all lead to similar requirements for shelter and support from a local community. As a result, many aspects of preparation can be general in nature, focusing on mitigating the consequences of an emergency while, from a planning perspective, paying relatively little attention to the actual cause of the disruption. This approach, concentrating on consequences rather than causes, allows a process of generic planning which can be adapted readily to fit a wide range of issues around response and recovery.