Abstract
COVID-19 challenged all national emergency management systems worldwide overlapping with other natural hazards. We framed a ‘parallel phases’ Disaster Risk Management (DRM) model to overcome the limitations of the existing models when dealing with these complex multi-hazard risk conditions. We supported the limitations analyzing Italian Red Cross data on past and ongoing emergencies including COVID-19.
From the analysis, we identified four challenges when dealing with multi-hazard DRM including pandemics: (i) the spatial-temporal differences between sudden- and slow-onsets DRM; (ii) a reduction of the coping capacity for all the hazards due to the number of resources deployed to manage the COVID-19 emergency; (iii) the need for the DRM system to adapt and adjust the response to cope with the pandemics; (iii) a reduction of preparedness activities due to the continuous emergency phase imposed by COVID-19. The analysis highlighted the need for a revised Disaster Risk Management framework, in which prevention, response, and recovery operate simultaneously rather than sequentially in complex multi-hazard risk scenarios.
Finally, we outlined three guidelines for advancing multi-hazard DRM: (i) exploiting the low emergency intensity of slow-onset hazards for preparedness actions; (ii) increasing the internal resources and making them available for international support; (iii) implementing multi-hazard seasonal impact-based forecasts to foster the planning of anticipatory actions.