Glossary Term

Emergency management

The organization and management of resources and responsibilities for addressing all aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response, and initial recovery steps. A crisis or emergency is a threatening condition that requires urgent action. Effective emergency action can avoid the escalation of an event into a disaster. Emergency management involves plans and institutional arrangements to engage and guide the efforts of government, non-government, voluntary, and private agencies in comprehensive and coordinated ways to respond to the entire spectrum of emergency needs. The expression disaster management is sometimes used instead of emergency management.