Call for authors: New disaster management case book series

Scholars and experienced leader practitioners are invited to submit proposals of approximately 1,000 words for an Elsevier book series of cases on disaster and emergency management. Professionals across all sectors are expected to have the expertise to deal effectively and efficiently with a range of complex problems. This includes the ability to adapt and innovate in response to demands they face. This case study book series is designed to support learning about innovation and adaptation in the disaster and emergency management (DEM) field.



Emergency management professionals’ experience is place based, and this often limits the ability to learn from experience due to the infrequency of disasters. Case studies provide a means of learning vicariously from the experience of others, and thus expanding professionals’ experiential knowledge base. Through structured analysis of cases studies, professionals can deepen their understanding about different aspects of disaster and emergency management practice. This case study series is designed to develop an understanding of the characteristics of expert practice in the DEM field, including the ability to proactively and reactively adapt and innovate in response to needs in the operating environment.


The series is comprised of five volumes aligned with the traditional disaster life cycle. In addition to volumes related to mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, the series includes a volume on prevention.


1. Prevention Volume – Innovating and Adapting to Prevent Disasters
Volume Editor: TBA
Prevention is defined as efforts to prevent a hazard from becoming a disaster. In addition to avoiding the risk of hazard occurrence (e.g., stopping disease transmission), prevention activities are often associated with addressing the underlying causes of human vulnerability to hazards (e.g., improving overall health status). Cases in this volume will help to shed light on the different types of hazards where preventative strategies and activities are both appropriate and necessary. Prevention activities are also commonly associated with biological and technological hazards, and human security concerns.


2. Mitigation Volume – Innovating and Adapting to Reduce Disaster Losses
Volume Editor: Dr. Tanveer Islam
Mitigation is defined as efforts to reduce the human and material losses associated with disasters. It is an ongoing phase in which communities continually pursue long-term hazard resistance and reduction through mitigation efforts. While the series will illustrate the characteristics of routine and adaptive expertise pertaining to mitigation practice, it is recognized that structural innovations and adaptations, while having the aim of reducing risk, may actually increase risk. In this regard, the introduction to this volume will examine the construct of maladaptive responses and discuss the limits of structural mitigation. Cases in this volume will illustrate the importance of risk assessment in the development of mitigation strategies through activities such as hazard mapping and multi-hazard mitigation planning. Cases will also illustrate approaches to reduction risk through structural and non-structural means, giving consideration to benefits or limitations of these strategies in different contexts. The contributions of different mitigation activities to disaster risk reduction efforts will be examined and discussed with reference to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.


3. Preparedness Volume – Innovating and Adapting Across Sectors
Volume Editor: Dr. Douglas Patton
Preparedness is a comprehensive emergency management concept that includes elements of planning, training, exercise and evaluation, and public information and education. Key findings about preparedness from the disaster literature, along with how emergency managers can apply these findings are explored through the case studies. The importance of stakeholder engagement and collaboration is emphasized. This volume will address cross cultural issues and its implications for preparedness in an international context (e.g., for humanitarian aid agencies) and illustrate how different sectoral needs (e.g., health care, education, private sector) become a motive for adopting innovation and adaptation as a strategy for preparing for disasters. Example of potential topics for the case studies in this volume include: (a) how the Build Back Better concept informs the need to facilitate learning and preparedness from disaster recovery experiences, (b) developing and evaluating preparedness programs for disaster response workers, (c) preparation for incident management, (d) developing capability to manage pandemic response, (e) developing and applying an engagement strategy to develop all-hazards capability in communities, (f) community preparedness in Indonesia and Taiwan, and (g) learning from disasters (case studies from New Zealand and Taiwan).


4. Response Volume – Innovating and Adapting in Real Time
Volume Editor: Dr. Dave Neal
This volume focuses on the key functions to be performed in the emergency response to a disaster, how these functions are coordinated, and the typical challenges and issues that emerge. Cases in the volume will address both hazard- and response-generated needs. The needs generated by emergent threats (e.g., Ebola crisis), emergent technologies (e.g., social media), and emergent groups (e.g., social innovation teams) that set the stage for innovation and adaption will be explored in this volume.


5. Recovery Volume – Exploiting the Opportunity for Adaptation and Innovation
Volume Editor: Dr. Jane Kushma
This volume explores recovery from a number of perspectives: household, community, and nation. The concept of social vulnerability is used to explain/predict recovery outcomes, and recovery linked to broader themes of sustainability is considered. Tools available to help assess community vulnerability and capacity are highlighted. The particular challenges associated with long-term recovery and disaster case management are explored. Cases in this volume will also illustrate the ways in which communities and governments used the window of opportunity after a disaster to make changes that reduce future risk and vulnerability to hazards and disasters. Cases will be selected to illustrate the diversity of ways in which “build back better” or other changes have been realized in communities following disasters. The reader of these case study volumes will find case studies that reflect the application of “state-of-the practice” essential knowledge, guiding principles, and technical tools along with cases that demonstrate the need for and approaches to innovation and adaptation. The primary selection criterion for cases in each volume is that they are exemplar illustrations of these elements of practice.


Submit proposals by March 1, 2016. Authors will be notified by mid-March about the status of their proposal and sent chapter guidelines. Chapters of 10,000 – 12,500 words will be due August 15, 2016 for consideration for publication in early 2017. All submitted chapters will be peer reviewed, and contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers. The online submission process will ask you to complete the following fields:

1. Name/Affiliation/Contact information for author


2. Brief Biography (maximum 750 characters)


3. Proposed Volume for Case (select all that may apply)


4. Tentative Title of Chapter


5. Brief Abstract (maximum 4,000 characters)


6. Brief description of how your case illustrates state-of-the-practice knowledge, or of the conditions or circumstances that give rise to the need for innovation, and of effective innovative responses. (maximum 2,000 characters)


7. Geographic location of case study


8. Type of problem and need addressed by the case


9. Hazard type(s) associated with the case study


10. Social unit that is the focus of the case (e.g., individuals, organizations, communities)

Please fill out the form completely. Only complete forms will be considered for review.


For additional information, please contact series editors:


Jean Slick: jean.slick@royalroads.ca


Jane Kushma: jkushma@jsu.edu