Classification of Emergency Situations is the central topic of this scientific publication.
Abstract
There is no universally accepted definition or classification of an emergency situation. The adoption of a universally and generally acceptable classification of emergency situations represents one of the important challenges the researchers, competent governmental authorities, and international organizations have to face. The classification of emergencies in this paper has been made on the basis of analyses of different sources, such as course books, articles, internet sites, relevant international and national reports, etc. Based on this, several criteria have been proposed for defining the classification of emergencies. Justification and acceptability of classification of emergency situations constitute an important prerequisite for their valid recording and better quality analysis, as well as for the international cooperation of governments, authorities in charge, members of the scientific community and non-governmental organizations from that field of work. This paper gives a short overview of the classification of emergency situations, with a special focus on the USA, the Russian Federation, China, the Netherlands, Germany and Serbia.
Conclusions
The prerequisite for the classification of emergency situations is an unequivocal determination of the mentioned subject of division. A newly created or analyzed classification of emergency situations should satisfy the conditions of the valid classification relating to the theory and logical requirements. According to this, validity requirements for classification relate to the criteria, on one hand, and to the members of division, on the other hand. Theoretical research of the classification of emergency situations that has been performed by the analysis of various specialized materials published in Serbia and around the world represents an attempt at a modest contribution to the identification of the universally accepted classification of emergency situations. More concretely, during the research, a large number of various definitions and classifications of emergency situations has been processed, despite the authors being aware that some of the translations have not been done in the most professional way, in an appropriate context, etc. Therefore, we are of the opinion that it will be worth elaborating some of the conclusions we have reached. Each emergency and its characteristics has its own causes of occurrence, unique scenario, influence on human beings and the environment, scales, and severity of consequences. It implies that emergency situations can be classified on the basis of numerous features that take into consideration these complex occurrences from different points of view. However, differences between the classifications are a consequence of different definitions of emergency situations as a subject of division. One of the reasons for that is that authors have translated foreign terms literally and without criticism (disaster, catastrophe, emergency) and connected them with our terms, such as emergency situation, catastrophe, crisis, state of emergency. Besides, numerous definitions of emergency situations may have a national or culturological feature which makes the standardization of the mentioned term difficult. As far as the international classification is concerned, the most accepted and most cited is the classification of emergency situations offered by CRED, i.e., the organization for research of epidemiological disasters that has been striving for years to adopt the international definitions and classifications of emergency situations. All this has as a consequence the fact that numerous classifications of emergency situations express specificities of their countries of origin. Although intensive efforts have been made by the international organizations, state bodies and organizations, as well as by individuals to accept their proposed classifications of emergency situations as universal, the mentioned classifications of various authors, organizations and institutions around the world unambiguously testify that this has not yet happened. Therefore, we can say that there is no accepted (adopted) and universal classification of emergency situations. Generally speaking, all emergency situations can be classified into three framework types: natural emergency situations, emergency situations that are related (directly or indirectly) to human beings (they are called anthropogenic, technological, technical-technological, social) and hybrid emergency situations (a combination of acts of natural forces and the influence of human decisions). Therefore, the mentioned classifications have been derived by means of the criterion of cause that has a generic-structural characteristic, i.e., it fulfills logical requirements of classification. The common feature of all emergency situations regardless of the type is related to their consequences. By combining the criteria of cause and consequence, intensity and consequences, etc., valid complex typologies are being obtained. Besides, emergency situations are divided into groups, sub-groups, and incidents, i.e., the so-called “classifying systems.” When making a classification of emergency situations, researchers, organizations, and institutions use various criteria, some of which have a theoretical or pragmatic-teleological importance. Therefore, the understanding of definitions and classifications of emergency situations serves researchers and organizations around the world as a good platform for research, database management, better analysis of them all, and practical implementation of derived conclusions.
How to cite
Reference – Mlađan, D., Cvetković, V. (2013). Classification of Emergency Situations. International scientific conference “Archibald Reiss days” Thematic conference proceedings of international significance., Belgrade, The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, 275-291.
