Published: October 2010 | Category: Natural hazard risk management , Research programme , Research & reports | Audience: General
This research develops an assessment tool and provides initial findings of whether RCAs are meeting their obligations under the Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002, which states that the road network, among the other lifelines utilities, should be able to 'function to the fullest possible extent during and after an emergency'.
A self-assessment benchmarking tool was developed and implemented in order to allow road controlling authorities (RCAs) to evaluate themselves and develop plans for improving their emergency response and recovery planning arrangements.
Based on our study of the CDEM Act 2002, we conceptualised a multi-criteria assessment, which included three main expectations in terms of meeting the CDEM Act 2002 requirements.
The self-assessment tool was applied to a case study, which gathered 26 valid responses from participant RCAs.
The results revealed that most of the participant RCAs met the requirements of the CDEM Act 2002. These results were presented to the roading industry and their feedback was that the benchmarking framework and the self-assessment tool should be incorporated into RCA practice.
It is recommended that subsequent work be conducted in terms of developing auditing schemes that verify whether the RCAs have evidence that supports their self-assessment.
Keywords: benchmarking, CDEM Act 2002, emergency management, road controlling authorities
