United Arab Emirates Public Awareness Raising - Case Study Example

Literature Review Emergency managers deal with the processes of strategic management important in the protection of significant assets from risks of hazards that result in occurrences such as catastrophes and disasters. In the United Arab Emirates the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) is the organization that is concerned with disaster management at the federal level. This body was convened in 2007 owing to the numerous disasters that rock the UAE such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis and tropical storms. The UAE has had a history of disasters and this makes it a potentially dangerous place to the public since a disaster can strike any time (Abudhabi Government 2012). The UAE is an Arabic Islamic country that is located close to the end of the Arabian plate and is also near the Zagros fault zone that experiences a lot of seismic activity. This consequently makes the UAE an unsafe country contrary to the assumptions of many. Many people living or visiting the UAE are not aware of the vulnerability state of this country to disasters. As a result they may be oblivious of the danger that they may be exposing themselves to whenever a disaster occurs (Guba 19). The solution to this state of affairs is information distribution to the public. Emergency managers in UAE should do everything possible to raise the awareness of the public about disasters in the country because it is place prone to disasters. It is important that energy awareness be raised to the highest level possible and with all the resources and effort that can be allocated to that exercise (Keeney 158). History reveals that there have been many shocking disasters in the UAE which have caused deaths, injuries and massive loss of property. It is therefore important that people be warned of the possibility of disasters anytime whenever they are in the UAE. Examples of disasters in UAE history include the Al Qurayah floods of 1995 that resulted from heavy rainfall, the Masafi earthquake of 2002, Al Tawaian landslides of 2006 that closed the Tawaian Dibba highways for more than six months, the Tropical Gonu storm of 2007, Sharm flood of 2009 and a number of Tsunamis (Dubai Dreams 2012). To add to the natural disasters listed above there are several man made hazards that have been experienced in the UAE (Joubish 79). Dubai being one of the emirates making up the UAE it has in the recent past undergone a lot of transformation brought about by rapid construction and urban development. These developments bring to the surface many issues about planning and certain adjustments as regards natural hazards. There are many challenges that result from the rapid transformation of the UAE population from one that was rural and sparse to one that resides in modern commercial centers (Patton 210). Increased vulnerability of the UAE to disasters also results from the fact that its population is growing rapidly and urbanizing at a high rate yet there are no proper hazard planning policies and regulations in engineering for the resistance of seismic activity. In this day and time it is imprudent to have huge numbers of people dying and a lot of property being lost to disasters yet there is advanced technology to help deal with these things. Technology can help in prediction of disasters and also in information dissemination within the shortest time. In this case satellite image technology and the media are of great help (Creswell 67). In Dubai the police also have a department involved in disaster management. It is known as the Crisis and Disasters Management Department and it was created in 2007 as part of the public department of operations in the police. In cooperation with NCEMA the Crisis and disasters management department should do extra work to put the level of awareness to the highest possible level in the UAE (Hinton 17). These two bodies should cooperate to control all the emergency management activities and programs in the UAE. In case of emergencies they should coordinate resources from every sector before an emergency and after it happens. They should take charge of the activities in the emergency management phases thus mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery (Haddow 67). Emergency managers in the UAE should have the goal of creating a public that is informed and is aware of all the steps that are necessary for prevention and response to a broad range of emergency disaster incidents (Jeffrey 145). These steps should be taken to protect life, environment, and property and to inform emergency response personnel in a prompt manner. Since everybody should be involved in emergency preparedness the knowledge of the public should be increased to a level that they can display safe behavior and attitudes. The emergency managers should ensure that they provide materials with information and resources in order to keep people informed on different topics among them prevention of fire and safety, prevention of injuries, awareness of hazardous materials, preparedness for severe storms and floods among many others (Lucien 23). There are several methods which the UAE emergency managers should exploit for them to reach the public. These methods will include various designed programs that are targeted at particular audiences like school going children, the disabled and senior citizens. Other methods include services and programs aimed at the general public via publications, brochures and flyers and kits, campaigns as teaching resources (Eleana 112). Public awareness and information should be disseminated through television, radio, community public educators, news papers, journal, periodicals, audio visual libraries, staff of the bodies concerned, posting information on the internet, outdoor posters, and bulletin boards. They should also use ways such as speaking engagements where public lectures are delivered to community groups, media talk shows, open houses, schools and agencies, public events such as shows and displays in festivals, stimulated emergency exercises and training courses. An emergency management week is important because it can be used effectively for the promotion of emergency management programs (Lindell et al 56) United Arab Emirates and especially Dubai has become an international business hub with so many visitors flocking there for tourism and others for business purposes. The safety of both the citizens and the visitors is important (Ameinfo.com 2008). The Emirates and particularly Dubai rely heavily on tourism and trade for the growth of the economy. The safety of people and infrastructure in this case must be placed before many other things. Because of this emergency disaster awareness to the public should be made a very important activity that is worthy to be prioritized (Alexander 104). Research methodology The study will feature both primary and secondary research. Primary research will involve the collection of data from the field through a number of methods while secondary research will involve the use of secondary sources for data collection (Guba, and Lincoln 72).  Participants Participants in the research will be the people in the United Arab Emirates. The staff in the police department involved in disaster management and those in the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority in UAE will be major participants. They will be expected to shed light on what they do as far as disaster management in the country is concerned. Any non governmental organizations involved in disaster preparedness, awareness and management will also be welcome to produce participants in the study (Patton 56). Procedure The study will involve both qualitative and quantitative methods of collection of data. Information on the case studied will be obtained through qualitative means and then quantitative methods will be used to get empirical support for the hypothesis. As earlier stated, collection of data will involve the use of primary and secondary sources (Thompson 119). Primary research will be carried out through interviews with particular people and the issuance of questionnaires. Questionnaires will be issued to fifty people in the National Crisis Emergency Management Authority and another fifty in the police department concerned with disaster management in Dubai. Upon filling the questionnaires these people will be expected to hand them back within 1 month (Joubish 71).  Questionnaires will be sent by email to the recipients while interviews will be done through phone calls. Secondary research will involve review of literature belong to other people. Books, journals and the internet will form the bulk of secondary sources of data collection. These will be used to provide information on what other researchers and authors have discovered about the issue of emergency awareness in the UAE and elsewhere (Creswell 34). Data Analysis Analysis of data will be done by use of both qualitative and quantitative methods since the research involves these two methods. Measures of central tendency will be employed in the analysis of quantitative data while critical analysis of information will be used to analyze qualitative information. It is expected that data analysis will provide the researcher with credible information that will either qualify or disqualify the research hypothesis. The research is expected to reveal many more ways through which the emergency managers can increase and enhance awareness about disasters in the UAE (Creswell 23). Works Cited Alexander, David. Principles of Emergency planning and Management. Harpenden: Terra Publishing, 2002. Creswell, John. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications 1998. Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications 2003. Dubai Dreams (2012) (Online) Available at: http://www.dubaidreams.net/569/about/natural- disasters-in-du Retrieved 7 April 2012. Eleana Asimakopoulou, Nik Bessis, Advanced ICTs for disaster management and threat detection; Idea Group Inc. 2010 Guba, Edwin. and Lincoln, Yegon. Fourth Generation Evaluation. Newbury Park, California: Herrman, C. S. “Fundamentals of Methodology”, a series of papers On the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN), online. 2009. Haddow, George D.; Jane A Bullock. Introduction to emergency management. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann 2003. Patton, Michael.  Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd edition) Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. 2002 Joubish, Farooq Dr. Educational Research Department of Education, Federal Urdu University, Karachi, Pakistan 2009 Keeney, James.  In Case of Emergency. Sydney: Design Masters Press, 2007. Abu dhabi government 2012 (online) Available at: Read More