Emergent disaster response during the June 2007 floods in Kingston upon Hull, UK

Abstract

There is a growing body of research that suggests much of the behaviour that occurs during a disaster response effort is emergent, meaning it is produced as a result of complex non-linear factors at work both within and between the affected communities, responding organisations, and the environment. This paper uses the pluvial floods of June 2007 in Kingston upon Hull as a case study to investigate to what extent emergence was apparent during the disaster response effort, as well as identifying certain systemic features that facilitate or inhibit this emergence. Results show that emergent behaviours corresponding to each of the types identified in the literature (emergent groups, networks an..