Disaster Prevention and Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the transfer of knowledge between preparedness activities and emergency response at the municipal level to improve emergency response.

Design/methodology/approach – A case study was carried out in the municipality of Ljungby using prewritten questions to analyse the collected empirical material. This material consisted of both municipality documents and interviews. The investigation involved municipal units that participate in emergency preparedness activities and those involved in the emergency response to a violent storm Gudrun that took place in 2005.

Findings – The findings show that the people in charge of the immediate response to the storm did not effectively use the analytic preparations created by those responsible for planning and preparations. Indeed to a great extent they used general response patterns and functions discovered from their own earlier experiences. These findings led to the development of a preliminary draft of requirements for a well-functioning knowledge transfer from emergency preparedness work to response.

Research limitations/implications – The paper demonstrates a need for municipalities to develop methods to increase transfer of knowledge of preparedness plans and analyses to improve response.

Originality/value – The paper shows that there is a potential to improve the preparedness process to reduce the gap between preparedness planning and its use in emergency response. The paper suggests a preliminary proposal for developing preparedness activities (in particular risk and vulnerability analyses) more suitable for emergency response.