ABSTRACT
During recent years there has been an increased demand from the public that society should prevent emergencies to occur or at least minimize their negative outcomes. The demand for amore andmore robust society also enhances the need for the society to learn from past experience. Experience and evaluations of instances of emergency response are two possible inputs to an emergency management preparedness process. Other important inputs are risk analyses, exercises as well as experience from everyday work. Ideally the result from an evaluation improves the organisations ability to handle future incidents. Furthermore, experience of a real emergency situation commonly creates awareness and willingness to prepare for future emergencies (Tierney et al. 2001; Boin et al. 2005). It is of central interest to question whether the full potential of an evaluation of an emergency situation is used. Sometimes there is a tendency to plan for the current situation (Carley & Harrald 1997). For example Lagadec (2006 p. 489) mention that it is essential to ‘‘. . . not prepare to fight the last war’’ but for future emergencies. For an overview of possible barriers against learning from experience concerning emergency management, see for example Smith & Elliott (2007).
