Scalable emergency management needs to be systematically organized and flexible in the same time. States of emergency require appropriate understanding and skills in single and inter agency tasks. Yet, disaster and emergency conditions produce unexpected consequences and nonlinear complications that need adaptive capabilities to deal well with such events. Extreme events require a more robust analytical framework, as they are characterized by hundreds of organizations engaged in response operations over a wide geographic area with diverse populations. Organizations cross sector and jurisdiction boundaries and form a distinct operational system that can effectively respond to the needs generated by a complex event (Comfort, 1999). This study used network analysis as a method to analyze and evaluate the performance of inter-organizational systems that have evolved in response to extreme events, acknowledging that each system is composed of sub-networks interacting with one another and shaping the dynamics of the whole system. A statistical analysis calculated with UCINET software (Borgatti, 2003) is applied to interpret the degree of network performance. In addition
to the approach and application of social network analysis, this study also uses the information obtained from interviews and participant observation to create a comprehensive understanding of the response system.
Entry of Organizations By date and Jurisdiction in Domestic Interaction Netwrok
-10 10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150
12/27/2004 12/28/2004 12/29/2004 12/30/2004 12/31/2004 1/1/2005 1/2/2005 1/3/2005 1/4/2005 1/5/2005 1/6/2005 1/7/2005 1/8/2005 1/9/2005 1/10/2005 1/11/2005 1/12/2005 1/13/2005 1/14/2005 1/15/2005 1/16/2005 1/17/2005
Date from December 26,2004 - January 17, 2005
Number of Organizations Entry to the System
Total Local Provincial National
Figure 4.4 Graph shows the entry of organizations into response system by date and level of jurisdiction Source: Extracted from Thai-Rath Newspaper, Thailand, December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005.
In order to better understand how the scalable emergency response operated through national, provincial and local levels, this study focuses its first discussion into the domestic network of tsunami emergency response. The international organizations were excluded from this analysis to provide a measure of the national network. The full list of organizations is listed and the acronyms shown on the organizational map are spelled out in full in the Appendix C.
Table 4.2 Number of Organizations Entering Tsunami Response System in Domestic Interaction Network
Date National Provincial Local Total Date National Provincial Local Total
12/27 24 11 10 45 1/7 6 1 0 7
12/28 25 9 6 40 1/8 3 0 0 3
12/29 9 6 3 18 1/9 2 0 1 3
12/30 7 4 6 17 1/10 5 1 2 8
12/31 32 17 7 56 1/11 0 0 0 0
1/1 11 10 9 30 1/12 3 0 2 5
1/2 5 3 6 14 1/13 3 0 1 4
1/3 9 5 1 15 1/14 1 0 1 2
1/4 7 4 1 12 1/15 0 0 0 0
1/5 4 4 0 8 1/16 1 1 1 3
1/6 0 0 0 0 1/17 1 0 0 1
Source: Extracted from Thai-Rath Newspaper, Thailand, December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005.
Given the size of this domestic operational network of 291 organizations, several sets of organizations were combined into a single category. For example, local military units were combined into one organization, the Thai military. A chart showing the combinations is included in Appendix D. With these combinations, the total number of Thai organizations participating in the domestic emergency response network was reduced to 220. As shown in figure 4.5, the map of domestic organizational interaction lays out the network of the emergency operations conducted. The international domain interaction network will be presented separately to discuss how the international organizations functioned in the emergency operations and how they coordinate and interact among themselves as well as with organizations.
From the interaction matrix, circles represent organizations and lines represent interactions between organizations located in four different areas of the map. The first area on the right hand side of the map shows a scatter plot of organizations that interacted outside a main network. In the network, there are three layers of organizations, an outer layer of national organization circling around the edge, a middle layer of provincial organizations, and the center area shows those from local jurisdictions.
Figure 4.5 Map of Domestic Organizational Interactions in the Thai Tsunami Response 12/27/2004-1/17/2005 Source: Extracted from ThaiRath Newspaper dated December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005
NOTE: (In color, green represents national organizations, black represents provincial organizations and pink represents local organizations)
(Scattered dots far right cannot be identified in black and white, please see acronym in Appendix C)
The map shows, first, at least fifteen distinctive clusters of nodes that serve as hubs for linking with other organizations. The Thai government is the main actor of the network, with 120 initiated interactions and 26 corresponding activities. Of the eleven identifiable hubs, four are anchored by Thai national ministries: Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Public Health; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Thai government managed the emergency response operations and mitigation through the major ministries as assigned by the
Prime Minister. The most significant agency is the Ministry of Interior. By constitution, the Minister of Interior is a commander in chief as the Director of National Civil Defense reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The Minister of Interior by line of authority has absolute power to mobilize all resources around the country through provincial governments. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation operated under the order of the Minister of Interior. The second hub is anchored by the Ministry of Health. The devastation of tsunami caused a lot of death and injuries and personnel from the Ministry of Public Health are authorized to coordinate all medical attentions from several units and distribute supplies to meet public health needs. The outbreak prevention program and psychological consultancy were also conducted by this department. Next, since the time was a Christmas holiday and the southwestern coast of Phuket and PhangNga are the tourist area, 50% of the casualties were foreigners who needed a special attention for search and rescue. In response to this need, many nations contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs directly and through their embassies in Thailand in order to bring in their experts and equipment in search and rescue as well as medical personnel to assist Thai agencies. Last, the Ministry of Finance is authorized to manage all budgets for emergency operations and recovery as well as approve the use of advance financial assistance to the local government agencies to pay the cost of living for the survivors. Many donations from private domestic organizations were also made through them.
Four hubs in the network are anchored by the Thai Navy, Army, Air Force and the Local units of the Thai Military (combined) agencies that had primary responsibility for search and rescue operations and immediate logistical operations. A tenth distinctive node was the Forensic Science Institution (FSI) under the Ministry of Justice. The head of the FSI and her team were the very first medical personnel in the area who tried to set up the center for missing persons and
identification of the dead. Three other significant centers of contact are the provincial governments in the disaster affected region (Phuket, PhangNga, and Krabi provinces).
Interestingly, this map of inter-organizational interactions shows a significant involvement of private sector and nonprofit sector involvement. The final four hubs were anchored by nonprofit foundations. RaCahPraChaNuKroh foundation, supported by the beloved King of Thailand, became the main actor to distribute financial aid for recovery projects as well as receiving all the donations made. YanYao temple played the role of the center for identification of dead bodies. FSI coordinated with the temple and locals to set up the information center and shelter for both operational staff and the homeless. The last two non-profit organizations in the scene were in fact private rescue agencies, RuamKaTunYoo and PorTekTeung. In Thailand, these two agencies have the most experience in search and rescue during an emergency working in an unstable environment. Nonetheless, they are not well trained for tsunami response nor had they trained working with multiple agencies in a large scale area across six provinces. There still were problems and misunderstanding in coordinating operations.
The network does not appear to be strongly interconnected as an overall response system.
The statistics from Freeman’s degree centrality index show the degree of centralization within the whole network to be 24.11%. The Average Distance (among reachable pairs) = 3.390, the Distance-based cohesion = 0.229 (range 0 to 1; larger values indicate greater cohesiveness) and Distance-weighted Fragmentation = 0.771. The distance from one node to another is the length of a shortest path between them. This is the concept of “degree of separation” made familiar to many by a popular play. The density of the network shows a low average of 0.0134 with standard deviation of 0.1148. Dense networks are particularly good for coordination of activity among actors.
Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics: Degree Centrality for Thai Domestic Tsunami Response Network
DEGRE NRMDEGRE SHARE
MEAN 2.913 1.336 0.005
STD DEV 5078 2.329 0.008
SUM 638.000 292.661 1.000
VARIANC 25.787 5.426 0.000
SSQ 7506.00 1579.413 0.018
MCSSQ 5647.35 1188.316 0.014
EUC NORM
86.637 39.742 0.136
MINIMUM 1.000 0.459 0.002
MAXIMU 55.000 25.229 0.086
NETWORK CENTRALIZATION = 24.11%
HETEROGENEITY = 1.84%, NORMALIZED = 1.39%
Source: Extracted from Thai-Rath Newspaper, Thailand December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005.
NOTE: SSQ = sum of square; MSCCQ = mean-centered sum of square; Euc Norm = Euclidean norm;
NrmDegree = Normed Degree
Table 4.4 Betweeness Centrality of Thai Domestic Tsunami Response Network
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS FOR EACH MEASURE
BETWEENNE NBETWEENNESS
EUC NORM 12157.288 51.399
MINIMUM 0.000 0.000
MAXIMUM 10383.357 43.899
NETWORK CENTRALIZATION INDEX = 43.33%
Source: Extracted from Thai-Rath Newspaper, Thailand December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005.
NOTE: SSQ = sum of square; MSCCQ = mean-centered sum of square; Euc Norm = Euclidean norm;
NrmDegree = Normed Degree
Output distance: Geodesic Distance Analysis ---
For each pair of nodes, the algorithm finds the number of edges in the shortest path as follow.
Average distance 3.390
Distance-based cohesion 0.229
Distance-weighted Fragmentation 0.771
Centrality measures identify the most prominent actors that are extensively involved in relationships with other network members. Centrality indicates one type of “importance” of actors in a network: in lay terms, these are the “key” players, while degree of centrality is the sum of all other actors who are directly connected to key players. It signifies activity or popularity. Many ties coming in and going from an actor would increase degree centrality.
Betweenness, in addition to degree of centrality, distance and density, is a measure of the potential for control as an actor who is high in betweenness is able to act as a gatekeeper, controlling the flow of resource between the alters with whom the actor connects.
There is a large variation in actor betweenness from 0 to 10383.357. This measure means that many connections can be made in this network without the aid of any intermediary. The centralization index for the Thai domestic network at 43.33% indicates the importance of the main actor, the Thai Government, in mobilizing response operations. Clearly, there is a structural basis for the Thai government to view themselves as a mover-and-shaker. This role, even though there is not very much betweenness power in the system, is important for group formation and stratification. Interestingly, the Thai domestic network revealed a group of organizations that had the best fit in terms of the interacting with one another in reference to disaster-related issues as shown in table 4.5.
In this group of ten organizations, the first six are governmental organizations. Four of these agencies, Forensic Science Institution, Thai Government, Ministries of Finance and Public Health, were discussed in the previous section (P.50). In addition, the Committee of Compulsory Education functioned as the contact point for assessment of damage and recovery needs for those schools affected from tsunami in the southern area. This committee was also indirectly assigned, by the King’s foundation, to expedite the process of resuming school activities. Second in the
row of six, the Department of Insurance managed the process of making the financial claims and distributing financial support to those who suffered loss of life and damage to properties. The DOI also adapted their loan programs flexible to meet the needs of the survivors.
Table 4.5Group Centrality of Thai Domestic Tsunami Response Network
STARTING FITNESS 34.000
ROUND 0, 3 ITERATIONS 0.000
OBSERVED NUMBER REACHED 139.000 (63.4%) GROUP MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
1. COMMITTEE OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION 2. DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE
3. FORENSIC SCIENCE INSTITUTE 4. GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND 5. MINISTRY OF FINANCE, THAILAND
6. MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH, THAILAND 7. OFFICE OF THE CROWN
8. RADIO STATION, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS 9. PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT, KRABI
10. RAJ CHA PRA CHA NU KROH (RCPCNK) FOUNDATION
Source: Extracted from Thai-Rath Newspaper, Thailand December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005.
An obviously important seventh hub in the Thai domestic network is the Office of the Crown, led by the crown prince, crown princess and their family who are beloved by the Thai people. Respectfully trusted by public, the programs and projects under the offices of the prince and princess were delivered to the affected communities very effectively and with a lot of willingness to coordinate and participate in voluntary activities from public, private, and non-profit organizations. Local residents also volunteered to help facilitate resources through their community networks which helped to expedite the recovery operations.
The eighth organization is, notably, a radio station of the Department of Public Relations that had the responsibility of reporting information about the tsunami and its consequences to the Thai people. A wide range of communication channels managed by the Department of Public
well as emergency personnel. Although many mobile phones or satellite communications were available, local residents still relied on the information they obtained from transistor radios and local radio station, or through their megaphone network which in fact retrieved information from the department broadcast.
The participation of the Krabi provincial government in this group indicates the active role played by this government. The characteristics of Krabi province and the emergency response operations were different from Phuket and PhangNga provinces. The damaged areas in Phuket and PhangNga were within the province and reachable by road. Even though the main road in PhangnNga was washed away for couple hours, a road along Phuket beach was still intact. This road condition made transportation available for every agency and organization to access the area while the most damaged area in Krabi, PP Island, was only accessible by boat.
There was no electricity and telecommunication for five days which made the search and rescue very difficult. All agencies from every unit had to gather together in order to make the trip to the island optimally productive. Krabi provincial government therefore automatically turned out to be a point of contact.
Last, the inclusion of the RajChaPraChaNuKroh (RCPCNK) Foundation underscores the substantive role played by nonprofit organizations in this response system. The RCPCNK foundation is directly supported by the King and the Crown Princess, and provides an important model of humanitarian assistance for the Thai people.
The analysis of subgroups in the network further confirms this observation. The clique analysis in UCINET identified 59 subgroups in the network, as listed in Appendix E. The following list indicates the top 15 cliques in the Thai response system. Clique analysis proposes
that information spreads rapidly through densely knit subgroups because actors are strongly connected to one another and they directly share the information.
Table 4.6 Cliques of Thai Domestic Tsunami Response Network 1. DEPARTMENT OF DISASTER PREVENTION AND MITIGATION; GOVERNMENT OF
THAILAND, MINISTRY OF CULTURE, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
2. COMMITTEE OF VICTIM RELIEF FUND, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
3. COMMITTEE OF NATIONAL DISASTER, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
4. GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
5. GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR, KRABI GOVERNMENT, PHANGNGA GOVERNMENT
6. DEPARTMENT OF FISHERY, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, KRABI GOVERNMENT 7. DEPARTMENT OF WATER TRANSPORTATION, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, THAI
ARMY
8. FORENSIC INVESTIGATION OFFICE, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH
9. FORENSIC SCIENCE INSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL POLICE
10. FORENSIC SCIENCE INSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, NATIONAL POLICE
11. FORENSIC SCIENCE INSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENT
12. FORENSIC SCIENCE INSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, PHANGNGA LOCAL POLICE
13. FORENSIC SCIENCE INSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, PEANPUNGPAYAMYAK FOUDATION
14. GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, KRUNGTHAI BANK, MINISTRY OF FINANCE 15. GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND, KRUNGTHAI BANK, RAJCHAPRACHANUKROH
FOUNDATION
Source: Extracted from Thai-Rath Newspaper, Thailand December 27, 2004 – January 17, 2005.
The cliques show overlapping memberships among the organizations, but the sheer number of cliques indicates that the response system was functioning essentially as a set of separate groups formed around specific problems rather than as a coherent system addressing this extreme event with a common strategy (Comfort and Haase 2005). 15 of the 59 Thai domestic tsunami response network cliques are identified by their acronyms. All 59 cliques are listed in Appendix E. Significant in a review of this list is the participation of the Government of
primary actor in mobilizing response organizations. Also noteworthy is the interaction among the Government of Thailand and national ministries with the disaster-affected provincial governments.
Nonetheless, the response system appears to be loosely connected, although with many organizations participating, but not necessarily interacting efficiently with one another. Group centrality reflects the operation by function. In addition, a more comprehensive look at the network maps on the right side of Figure 4.5 shows several organizations scattered and interacting outside of the network boundary. Those organizations represent public, private and non-profit sources of funding as well as national, provincial and local levels. This pattern reflects the poor connection and coordination among all levels of agencies. Those organizations entered the system by themselves and chose to interact with fewer organizations to accomplish specific tasks. In their interactions, these organizations frequently interacted with lower or higher levels of jurisdiction. Such interactions are functional. Most of those organizations finished their operations and withdrew from the damaged area on schedule. Those operations were more likely to be repeated because of lack of feedback and communication difficulties.
This pattern of interaction also affects the coordination with international organizations discussed in the next section as the network will show the dependency of international organizations on those national agencies to manage activities through its network of operations and to move the tasks along to those in the front-base. The information obtained from the content analysis and interviews shows the significant reflection of how the international organizations interacted in the network.