Beyond the established and traditional methods already presented, there are a few other methods, models, and tools worth mentioning in the context, such as Dependency Analysis, Capacity Assessment, RIB, and IDA.
Dependency analysis
Dependency analysis is a method that the Emergency Prepa-redness Authority developed from a commission to analyse critical dependency relationships in society. The method aims, in other words, for an actor to be able to identify and analyse existing dependencies on other actors. This is not a risk and vulnerability analysis, but the method can be
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advantageously used to analyse the actors’ relationships of dependency. It is suited for municipalities, county councils, other authorities, businesses, and individual activities. The knowledge brought forth in a dependency analysis provides a good foundation for such things as discussing how society or the actors’ activities can be safer, as well as improving plans and making them more in-depth prior to crises.
The dependency analysis is divided into three steps:
selection and description, identification and evaluation of external dependencies, and aggregate analysis. In the first step the activities to be analysed – the societal functions – are selected. What the activities must deliver is then described, as is to what extent and to whom.
In the next step, external dependencies are identified.
The actors can either do it themselves via an external resource, or with the help of a ‘dependency wheel’, which was developed as an aid to the work (www.beroendehjulet.
se). The tool is provided by MSB free of charge.
When the selection and description are complete, the external dependencies of each activity are identified and evaluated.
Evaluations and rule set
Staff
Infrastructure
‘Bottom up’ system Capital and
input goods/
input services Information
Focus activity
Värderingar och regelverk
Personal
Infrastruktur Kapital och
insatsvaror/
insatstjänster Information
Fokusverksamhet Personal
Infrastruktur Dependency wheel.
First, the needs of the activity are described, starting with the question: What does the activity need to function? That is, what is required for the activity to Values and rules achieve what was illustrated in the previous description? Needs entailing a dependency on an activity or resource outside of the organisation itself are called external dependencies and are evaluated in the next phase. The starting point for the evaluation is the activity’s capacity of managing a disruption in another activity that it depends on. As a basis the conse-quences, shock absorbers, and stamina are first assessed, star-ting with the following questions:
• Consequences: What happens to our own activity if and activity it depends on isn’t functioning?
• Shock absorber: Are there alternative ways of meeting the needs without the activities we depend on?
• Stamina: How long will the activity manage without the activity it depends on?
Based on the description of consequences, ‘shock absorbers’
and stamina, the strength of the dependency is evaluated according to the following scale:
• Critical dependence: The activity has no shock absorbers and extremely limited stamina.
• Clear dependence: The activity has some shock absorbers and a certain amount of stamina.
Sewage District heating
Electricity supply
Emergency medical care
Municipal
elder care Labour power
Sewage – 0 0 5 5 3
District
heating 0 – 0 5 5 1
Electricity
supply 5 3 – 3 5 3
Emergency
medical care 0 0 0 – 3 1
Municipal
elder care 0 0 0 3 – 1
Labour power 3 3 3 5 5 –
Example of a dependency matrix.
• Weak or uncertain dependence: The activity can have weak-nesses under very specific circumstances, but can in the majority of cases handle the disruption well.
No activity is completely independent from another and no activity is entirely without influence on others. On the other hand, there is a relative difference in the degree of dependency between various activities.
In the third and final step of the analysis, the informa-tion around every activity is collected into an aggregate analysis that provides a comprehensive picture of how the activities studied influence each other, directly and indi-rectly. The first step in the aggregate analysis is structuring the collected material on the dependencies of the activities.
This can be done with the help of a matrix where all the dependencies and their strengths are indicated. All the acti-vities analysed are on both axes of the matrix. The strength of the dependency, as it was estimated in earlier steps, is indicated at the intersection between two activities. The matrix shows all the direct dependencies for each activity.
Tools connected to risk management IDA – indicator, data, analysis
IDA is a web-based statistical database developed by the Swedish Rescue Services Agency and which is now provided free of charge by MSB. It contains statistics on the informa-tion that MSB collects and analyses. The statistics cover the entire country, and all the counties and municipalities. The database is comprised chiefly of available data within the field of disasters.
The database is divided into three parts: indicator, data, and analysis. The indicator portion contains data from national databases and provides information on situation reports and comparisons between municipalities, counties, and the nation. One of the indicators is taken from SKL, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions’
report Transparent Comparisons for Security and Safety, which is presented annually.
The data portion provides users with the opportunity to create their own tables and diagrams based on MSB
statis-tics. There are also links to other disaster databases with statistics on such things as natural disasters, municipal crisis management, and everyday safety. The analysis portion contains summaries, cost-benefit analyses, and evaluations of methods and working methods used by various actors.
RIB – integrated decision support for protection against disasters
RIB is primarily a toolbox and source of information for actors in operational decision making who manage hazar-dous substances in various ways as part of their work. The tool has its starting point in activities affected by the Civil Protection Act – emergency services, the police, the Coast Guard, and customs, for example. It is also usable from a broader perspective, within the field of risk management.
RIB is a link-up of several databases that provide infor-mation on how a disaster can be managed, how preventive work can be planned, what risks a disaster that has occurred entails, what resources are available, and where they are located. RIB contains things like information on over 5,000 hazardous substances and information on resources within emergency services, businesses, and authorities in the form of material, vehicles, and experts who can be made use of.
The resources can be searched by municipality, region, or across the whole of Sweden.
Apart from the main programme, there are a number of calculation tools for operational decision making that touch on hazardous substances and which are addressed to emer-gency services, municipalities, and county administrative boards. There is also a management system that can be used during an operational effort. In the management system, it is possible to record incidents and decisions, strengths, basic tactical attitudes, trends, and decisions in broad outline. It is possible to create a graphic picture of the ongoing effort.
Apart from this there are documents, training packages, and databases as support for work in the field. As part of the program there is also RISKERA, a GIS took for visualising the risk profiles of municipalities, chiefly during large-scale disasters. RIB is provided free of charge by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency to actors currently active in the field.