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Project ID: 12-2-01-47

Year: 2012

Date Started: 08/01/2012

Ending Date:  07/31/2015

Title: Relational Risk Assessment and Management: Investigating Local Capacity in Wildfire Response Networks

Project Proposal Abstract: Failures in effective communication and coordination within the network of responding organizations and agencies during a wildfire can lead to problematic or dangerous outcomes. Although risk assessment and management concepts are usually understood with regards to biophysical attributes in the wildfire context, these concepts can be extended to understanding risk for problematic communication and coordination embedded within social and organizational relationships. In this research, we propose leveraging existing network and social coordination theory to investigate how pre-fire relationships and capacities affect both preparedness before a wildfire and inter-agency communication and coordination during a wildfire. This research will not only advance the science of incident management but also provide the empirical foundation for the development of a new set of concepts and rapid assessment tools that we call: Relational Risk Assessment and Management (RRAM). While existing social theory and research from other disaster contexts offers a starting point in the development of RRAM, there is much left to understand about the factors that facilitate effective inter-agency coordination during wildfires. For RRAM to be empirically-based, theoretically-sound, and contextually-grounded in the realities of fire management, applied social science is needed. We propose to utilize a quasi-experimental mixed-methods research design and advanced statistical and social network analysis techniques to address the following questions: 1)How do key characteristics of responder networks contribute to greater preparedness and more effective fire response? 2)How do these network characteristics interact with incident complexity to heighten or minimize relational risk? 3)What are best practices of relational risk management for IMTs given different risk profiles?

Principal Investigator: Branda L. Nowell

Agency/Organization: North Carolina State University-Raleigh

Branch or Dept: School of Public & International Affairs

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Budget Contact	Julie Brasfield	North Carolina State University-Raleigh	Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources
Co-Principal Investigator	Sarah M. McCaffrey	Forest Service	NRS-Northern Research Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Toddi A. Steelman	North Carolina State University-Raleigh	Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources
Grants and Agreements Contact	Matt R. Ronning	North Carolina State University-Raleigh	Research Administration
Lead Reviewer	Vita X. Wright	Forest Service	RMRS-Human Factors & Risk Management RD&A

Project Locations

Consortium

Alaska

Appalachian

California

Great Basin

Great Plains

Lake States

Oak Woodlands

Northern Rockies

Northwest

Pacific

South

Southern Rockies

Southwest

Tallgrass

Level	State	Agency	Unit
NATIONAL		N/A

Project Deliverables

There is no final report available for this project.
There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

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