Understanding capability : how the concept is used in emergency management

Preparedness planning is part of the disaster management process in many countries and it includes building capabilities to improve the effectiveness of response to various scenarios. Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom all use risk and vulnerability analyses together with capability assessments as part of their preparations for disasters. Whereas the definitions of risk and vulnerability are thoroughly covered in the literature it seems difficult to find deeper discussions in the scientific literature on what capability really is.

The aim with this paper is to compare Sweden's, the Netherlands' and the United Kingdom's definitions of capability and their capability assessment methods. A deeper understanding for the concept can serve as a starting point for future discussions about capability and capability assessments.

To achieve a deeper understanding of how the concept of capability is used in the various countries a study of their respective legislations and guidelines in the context of interest is carried out. Moreover, to complement the document review interviews are also conducted with actors from Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The countries approaches to capability assessments differ in various ways. For example, they have different definitions of capability, the legal requirements for capability assessments differ and the countries also differ regarding what phase of the emergency management process the capability assessment relates to.