Understanding coordination in emergency response

This paper describes and discusses analysis of an emergency management exercise. In the exercise scenario, different emergency management organizations jointly try to cope with a forest fire and related incidents. The Extended Control Model is utilized for examination of the establishment of en emergent emergency response organization. Ambiguity in how functions are to be handled in a large event, indicating vulnerabilities in face of larger crises; functions moving across roles during the evolving event; and recognizable phases of a response are uncovered. This is assessed by utilizing episodic analysis of the communication between different functions and roles in the participating emergency management organizations. The results indicate requirements for future information and communication technologies, and occurrences that can be explored in future studies.