ABSTRACT
Emergency management exists because of uncertainty in our society and between society and nature. This uncertainty may confer benefits (for example in the form of creative or entrepreneurial opportunities) but it also imposes costs in the form of hazards or risks. It is the latter that emergency management is concerned with. Emergency managers face increasing uncertainty in the hazards they are concerned with as global environmental change emerges and as this interfaces with global socio-economic change; as technologies become more complex and intertwined with social and political priorities and values; as society (it is argued) becomes more litigious; and as the impacts or consequences of events appear to become more complex and less bounded. How to improve their performance in this environment is one of the major challenges for emergency managers as they come under ever-increasing critical scrutiny from media, politicians and the community at large.
