Source: China Essay Download Center [ 09-06-03 09:10:00 ] Author: Zhang Hong Editor: studa090420
Abstract Emergency response plans are the basis for responding to emergencies. Through the analysis of individual cases as well as the analysis of the existing emergency plans at all levels in China, it is found that there are many defects in China's emergency plans. The plan system is still incomplete and lacks the necessary plans; the content of the plans is simple and lacks operability; there is a lack of cooperation and coordination between departments; and the procedures for making and revising the plans are lacking. It is recommended to learn from the experience of Britain, the United States and Canada to improve the content of China's emergency plans, improve the procedure of making emergency plans and emphasize the revision of emergency plans.
Keywords emergency response plan; defects; improve
Body
Emergency response plan is an emergency management, command and rescue plan to cope with natural disasters, accidental catastrophes, public **** health incidents and other emergencies. Emergency plan is the foundation and important link of emergency response work. According to the provisions of Article 17 of the Emergency Response Law, the state establishes and improves the emergency plan system for emergencies. China's emergency plan system has been initially formed. However, the content of the emergency plan still exists in the defects, the development and revision procedures of the plan also need to be improved.
A case study - January 2008 blizzard disaster weather and the relevant plans to start the operation
Since January 10, 2008, China's central and eastern regions since the founding of the country occurred since the widest range, the greatest intensity, the longest duration, the occurrence of the most serious disasters of low temperatures, rain, snow and freezing Weather, on China's highways, railroads and air transportation, power supply and transmission, industrial and agricultural production and people's lives have been seriously affected. 17 provinces (districts, municipalities, corps) affected to varying degrees, of which Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui and other 6 provinces (autonomous regions) were the most seriously affected. The south wide range of low temperature, rain, snow and ice is rare in history, but also on China's emergency response work has formed a great challenge, the relevant departments have to carry out emergency activities.
Electricity, since January 12, 2008, Central China, East China Power Grid, a number of lines tripped, the safe and stable operation of the power grid has a serious impact. 23 January, the State Grid launched the "State Grid Corporation to deal with large-scale power outage emergency plan", the South China Power Grid has also started the emergency response plan, all efforts to repair the damaged power grid facilities.
In terms of communication, on January 22, the Ministry of Information Industry issued an emergency notice, requesting the relevant communication departments to pay close attention to the situation and trend of rain and snow, and to start the emergency plan for communication protection in a timely manner according to the needs, so as to guarantee the smooth flow of communication. By the end of January, all telecommunication and postal operation departments have fully activated the emergency plan to build a communication guarantee line against disasters. China Mobile has started the highest level of emergency communications program; China Netcom comprehensively start the emergency plan; the State Post Bureau requires all levels of postal production command and scheduling departments to closely monitor the operation of postal vehicles 24 hours.
In terms of meteorology, with the development of the disaster, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) organized and held a special meeting with the State Council's Emergency Response Office on January 24th, as well as the departments of Railway, Transportation, Electricity, Civil Aviation, Safety Supervision and Civil Affairs, deploying the corresponding emergency response linkage work arrangements. 25th January morning, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) initiated the Major Meteorological Disasters Early Warning and Emergency Preparedness Plan, a Level III emergency response order. 27th 27th In the morning of January 27, it was upgraded to level Ⅱ emergency response order. Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Guangdong and other provinces (regions) also launched a major meteorological disaster warning emergency plan.
Railway transport, due to the Beijing-Guangzhou line in the southern part of the area of local power supply disruption and freezing weather on the railroad equipment, Beijing-Guangzhou line in the southern part of the late part of the passenger trains. 24 January, the railroad department emergency start plan, strengthen the scheduling and command, and make every effort to organize the late train to catch up with the point.
Road transportation, by the low temperature, rain, snow, freezing weather has been affected by the various parts of the road spring emergency plan.
Civil affairs, January 30, the Ministry of Civil Affairs in time to start the "National Emergency Plan for Natural Disaster Relief", the first time to send a working group rushed to the front line of the disaster area, to help and guide to do a good job of disaster relief work.
It can be seen that, after the occurrence of the January 2008 low-temperature rain, snow and ice disaster, all regions and relevant departments promptly activated the relevant emergency response plan, in accordance with the requirements of the plan in the areas of prediction and warning, emergency response, restoration and reconstruction, information dissemination and emergency response security, and actively implemented the various disaster relief measures, to maintain the order of traffic and public security in the disaster area, and to organize the restoration of the function of the municipal infrastructure of electricity, communications, etc., and to carry out the livelihood assistance work for the affected people. The government is also working on the relief work for the affected people and trying to minimize the loss of people's lives and properties.
Responding to the snowstorm involves all aspects of the work, the General Office of the State Council has issued a series of notices to do a good job of rain and snow weather transportation security, to ensure the production and supply of coal, and to strengthen the power demand measurement management, all levels of the relevant departments in accordance with the requirements of the relevant plan linkage mechanism, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Public Security, in conjunction with the relevant areas of the establishment of the cross-regional coordination mechanism of the protection of road transport. The Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Public Security, together with the relevant regions, have established a coordination mechanism for the protection of railroad transportation. The financial and civil affairs departments have allocated timely relief funds and properly resettled the affected people. The armed police and the People's Liberation Army have actively cooperated with local governments and relevant departments to organize manpower, materials and equipment, and give full play to the role of the commando.
Through this one case, it is obvious to see that the emergency plan in the process of emergency response to play the role of the utility is not ideal, emergency response to a large extent, or rely on temporary coordination work to ensure. This prompts us to analyze the problems of our country's emergency plan, and then look for ways to improve the emergency plan.
Second, China's emergency planning problems
As of the end of 2006, the national emergency planning system has taken shape, has developed various types of plans about more than 1.35 million, the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), 97.9% of the municipalities (local) and 92.8% of the county (city) have developed a general plan. The central enterprise plan development rate of 100%, high-risk industries, the vast majority of enterprises above designated size have developed emergency plans. [1] Through the analysis of China's existing emergency plans at all levels and types of emergency plans, found that China's emergency plans have the following obvious problems:
1. The plan system is still incomplete, the lack of necessary plans.
Although China from the central to local has developed more than 1.35 million pieces of emergency plans, but in fact the system of emergency plans is not yet complete. In the State Council departmental emergency plan system, the emergency plan about the railroad sector *** there are 8: railroad flood emergency plan; railroad destructive earthquake emergency plan; railroad geological disaster emergency plan; railroad traffic casualty accident emergency plan; railroad fire accident emergency plan; railroad hazardous chemical transportation accident emergency plan; railroad network and information security accident emergency plan; railroad emergency public **** Emergency Response Plan for Health Incidents in Railways. The low temperature, rain, snow and freezing weather in January 2008 clearly exposed the fact that the railroad sector lacks emergency plans for disaster weather. This happened because the departments making the plans did not foresee the possible emergencies, or did not pay enough attention to the seriousness of the possible emergencies. And the deeper reason is that we lack a scientific risk assessment system, and not closely integrated risk assessment and the formulation of the plan.
2. The content of the plan is simple and lacks operability.
China's emergency plans are generally "programmatic" and "declarative" documents. By analyzing the contents of various types of emergency plans at all levels in China, it can be clearly seen that the contents of the emergency plan generally include the following parts: general provisions; organization and command system and responsibilities; early warning and prevention mechanism; emergency response; post-disposal; safeguard measures; bylaws, etc. The content of the plan is simple, and the length is relatively small. The content of the plan is simple, short, more principle-based statements, no scenario description, not easy to operate. To test whether a plan is feasible, the most important thing is to see whether it has good operability. If a plan is difficult to operate or the operation process is not smooth, it is difficult to play a due role, but also can not achieve the purpose of the development of the plan.
3. Lack of cooperation and coordination.
Looking at the content of the various types of emergency plans at all levels in China, we can find a serious lack of cooperation and coordination between departments. To the occurrence of emergencies after the communication security, for example, due to the occurrence of emergencies after the need for all aspects of the contact, so the occurrence of emergencies after the communication security is quite important. Moreover, in general, if an earthquake, nuclear accident or meteorological disaster occurs, the communication equipment will be damaged at the same time. Regarding communication security, the National Earthquake Emergency Response Plan states: "Telecommunications operating companies will restore damaged communication facilities as soon as possible to ensure smooth communication for earthquake relief. Departments with their own communication systems will restore damaged communication facilities in their own departments as soon as possible to assist in guaranteeing the smooth flow of communication for earthquake relief." The National Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Plan reads, "...... (2) Communication needs at the accident site during the emergency response shall be guaranteed by the nuclear emergency organization of the province in which the nuclear power plant is located and by the operating unit of the nuclear power plant. (3) In the event of a nuclear accident and other radiological emergencies at nuclear facilities other than the nuclear power plant, national and locally established means of communication will be utilized as much as possible for liaison. (4) When the communication capacity for emergency response is insufficient, temporary emergency measures shall be taken to solve the problem in accordance with the requests made by the parties concerned. If necessary, the national disaster relief communication security system will be utilized." It can be seen that these expressions in the plan itself is very principle, and can not see the cooperation between the departments.
In practice, after an emergency occurs, it still relies on the traditional meeting to discuss the response program, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce the efficiency of responding to emergencies. As in January 2008, low temperature, rain, snow, freezing weather, the China Meteorological Administration organization held the State Council Emergency Response Office, as well as railways, transportation, electricity, civil aviation, safety supervision, civil affairs and other departments to participate in the thematic meeting, the deployment of the corresponding emergency corresponding linkage work arrangements. However, this working mechanism in the China Meteorological Administration "major meteorological disaster warning emergency plan" is not reflected.
4. The development of the plan needs to be improved.
First, the procedure for making emergency plans needs to be improved. The Emergency Response Law requires the state to establish and improve the emergency response plan system, but the development of the plan for the program is not clearly defined. In practice, the formulation of emergency plans follows a top-down approach. Generally, after the State Council departments formulate emergency plans, the corresponding departments of provincial governments formulate departmental plans at the provincial level, followed by the corresponding departments at the municipal level and the corresponding departments at the grassroots level. When lower-level authorities formulate emergency plans, in most cases they copy the plans formulated by higher-level authorities, without reflecting the specificities of their own level and region. For the enterprise units of the plan development procedures, the relevant administrative organs issued by the preparation of norms or guidelines of a kind of documents are involved, but in general is relatively simple, principle.
Secondly, there is a lack of joint planning. China has all kinds of emergency plans at all levels, almost all of them are a level of government or a department, enterprises and institutions to develop their own, fewer than a few related departments to jointly develop the case of the plan. In January 2008, low temperature, rain, snow, freezing weather, for example, if the telecommunications, electricity, railroads, highways, meteorology, civil affairs, finance and other relevant departments jointly formulated the emergency response to the disaster weather plan, may be the emergency activities will be carried out in a more efficient and orderly manner.
5. The revision process of the plan is lacking.
Article 17(4) of the Emergency Response Law stipulates that the emergency response organization should revise the emergency response plan in accordance with the actual needs and changes in circumstances. However, there are no specific regulations on the conditions and procedures for revising emergency plans. The Opinions on Strengthening Enterprise Emergency Management Work issued by the General Administration of Safety Supervision and other six ministries and commissions stipulates in principle: "Each enterprise shall, in accordance with the changes in relevant laws, regulations and standards, the emergency response plan drills, and the actual situation of the enterprise's operating conditions, equipment conditions, product varieties, personnel, technology, external environment and other constantly changing conditions, promptly evaluate and supplement the plan. Revise and improve the plan." Many emergency plans contain only one sentence of very principled provisions. Due to the lack of revision procedures, coupled with the revision of the plan has not yet attracted the attention of many authorities, the practice of the plan has been formulated for the revision of the situation is relatively rare.
Third, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada's emergency preparedness and its significance
The United Kingdom in 2004 formulated the Domestic Emergencies Act (Civil Contingencies Act 2004). At present, the Act has been formed as a general outline, with the "emergency preparedness" and "emergency response and recovery" two documents as a specific guide, local regulations and departmental regulations combined with the combination of block, vertical and horizontal of the more complete legal system. There are three types of emergency plans***: general plan (geneHc plan); special plan (specific plan) and single-agency, multi-agency and multi-level plan (single- agency, multi-agency and multi-level plan). - level plan). [2] Emergency management in the United States is categorized into four phases: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. In accordance with the requirements of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued the National Response Plan (NRP) in December 2004.The 2006 Post-Katrina "The Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 is one of the primary legal bases for emergency response. Federal government ministries, state governments, and various administrative agencies often develop emergency plans for particular areas or specialized matters under the provisions of separate laws. At the state and local government level, numerous emergency plans have also been developed. Some states have also issued emergency plan development guidelines and local government model emergency plans. [3]
The Canadian government has always emphasized crisis management. Canada's Emergency Management and Civil Defense Act (Emergency Management and avil Protection Act) came into force in 1990 and has been amended several times. The Emergency Management and avil Protection Act contains principle provisions for emergency preparedness. The Act requires that provincial and municipal governments should have an emergency plan that regulates matters related to emergency response. These matters include the necessary equipment, procedures and manner in which provincial or municipal government staff and others will respond to emergencies during a critical incident. The Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness (CCEP) released a template Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan in 2000.
The United Kingdom, the United States and Canada are countries that attach great importance to crisis management, and their legal systems are relatively well-developed. As the core of emergency response activities, emergency preparedness is naturally emphasized by these countries. The three countries in the formulation of emergency response plan and its content there are many **** the same point, it is worthwhile to learn from us.
First, the legalization of the plan-making process. Britain, the United States and Canada's legal provisions on emergency management are clear in the formulation of emergency plans procedures. Taking the UK as an example, the procedure for making an emergency plan generally includes five steps: describing the danger; determining the purpose; determining the tasks and response measures; building the organization; and determining the obligations. For each step, there are detailed requirements on what the emergency planner should do. In particular, it should be noted that all these countries attach importance to the crisis risk assessment process, with some countries taking the crisis risk assessment process as the first step in the formulation of the emergency plan, while others regard the risk assessment as an independent process, but also as a prerequisite for the emergency plan formulation process. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Domestic Emergencies Act makes all levels of government responsible for assessing disasters and threats. Based on the likelihood and impact of the event, the risk assessment results are categorized into four levels: low risk, moderate risk, high risk and very high risk. Disposers will decide whether or not to develop a plan based on the results of the risk assessment.
Secondly, the contents of the contingency plan are as detailed and logical as possible. The emergency response plans of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada are rich in detail, long, and highly operational. The contents of the emergency response plan generally include the following key parts: a brief description of the purpose of the plan, the development process, etc.; emergency management agencies, emergency response teams, emergency response activities in the relevant organizations and their obligations, the contact information of these agencies and their key staff; emergency response activities, including the activation of the plan, the implementation of emergency rescue activities, etc.; post-disaster recovery and reconstruction; the revision of the plan and the exercise.
Third, pay attention to the organization of emergency response activities, and clarify their respective rights and obligations. Emergency response organization is the main body and soul of emergency response activities, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada attach great importance to emergency response organization. Emergency organizational structure often includes the existing institutional system of management bodies and emergency management team. The status of each type of organization in emergency response activities and their obligations will be stated very clearly and in detail in the plan. In addition, the plan lists in detail the key staff of the emergency response organization and their contact details. For example, the U.S. National Emergency Response Plan (NERP) requires the plan to specify the roles and responsibilities of the federal government, state governments, local governments, tribes, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and citizens in emergency management. The Emergency Preparedness Guide issued by the California State Office of Crisis Management requires that the activities of the various departments responding to an emergency in an emergency be clearly identified, including management, public information, military, budget/administration, and so on.
Fourth, pay attention to cooperation and coordination. Cooperation mainly refers to the cooperation between various departments and emergency response subjects, as well as cooperation between the government and the private sector, non-governmental organizations. Cooperation is reflected both in the process of making emergency plans and in the activation of emergency plans, emergency response activities, and post-disaster recovery and reconstruction phases. For example, the Emergency Preparedness Guidelines issued by the California State Office of Crisis Management explicitly require that the preparedness plan be written to ensure that cooperation among agencies is prioritized to ensure priority allocation of resources and maximize resource utilization. The so-called coordination refers to the coordination between the preplans. On the one hand, attention is paid to the coordination between the plans formulated by different agencies at the same level, and on the other hand, to the coordination of plans between different levels of government and agencies. For example, the law in the United Kingdom requires that the overall pre-proposal of each agency should be coordinated with the pre-proposals formulated by other cooperating agencies.
The U.S. National Emergency Response Plan (NERP) calls for an emphasis on coordination and cooperation among federal emergency management activities, and the relationship of the plans to other types of plans; improving emergency management liaison between different levels of government, and between the government and the private sector; and fostering mutual assistance between federal and state and local governments, as well as tribes.
Fifth, emphasize the revision of emergency plans. The United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada all have provisions for revising emergency plans. These countries regard the emergency plan as a living document, and believe that the reorganization of institutions, new risk assessment information, the adoption of new laws, the experience of exercises and the occurrence of disasters may lead to the revision of the emergency plan. The law generally requires the developer of an emergency plan to review the plan on a regular or irregular basis. For example, in the United Kingdom, the relevant regulations require that information such as contact information in the plan should be corrected every three months, and the plan should be re-examined at regular intervals; if the plan is revised, it should be published in a timely manner.
Fourth, improve China's emergency preparedness recommendations
The development of emergency preparedness is of great significance. In the development of the plan in the process of emergency activities, some of the shortcomings will be exposed, such as poor communication, emergency relief materials are not enough, the emergency relief team is not enough personnel; can also be found not yet realized the danger of the situation; but also to improve the development of the main body of the plan and its staff's awareness of the risks.
1. Improve the content of the emergency plan.
China's existing emergency plan exists a *** general problem is that the content is simple, lack of operability, and poor relevance. Article 18 of the Emergency Response Law provides that the emergency response plan should be based on the provisions of this law and other relevant laws and regulations, for the nature of emergencies, characteristics and possible social hazards, specific provisions of the emergency management of emergency response management organization and command system and responsibilities and the prevention of emergencies and early warning mechanism, disposal procedures, emergency safeguard measures, as well as the aftermath of the restoration and reconstruction measures and other content.
As mentioned earlier, the emergency response plans of Britain, the United States and Canada are rich in detail and long in length, with strong operability and relevance. Drawing on the experience of these countries, improve the content of China's emergency plan, should be from the following aspects: First, the emergency plan should have a general description of the risk. For example, the development of a region's overall plan, should be the existence of all the risks in the region for the overall description; the development of departmental plans should be the departmental plan for the risk of an emergency for a general description. Second, the content of the emergency response plan should have a scenario description, rather than simply listing the necessary content. This requires that experience be fully drawn upon and imagination be given full play to in the formulation of the emergency plan to envision a number of scenarios that are likely to occur. Third, pay attention to the coordination between the contents of emergency plans formulated by different subjects. Generally speaking, the response to emergencies cannot be accomplished by a single department alone, and requires the cooperation of many departments. Therefore, the content of the emergency plan should reflect the coordination between the content of the emergency plan formulated with other relevant departments, including the coordination between departmental plans, special plans and the overall plan, the coordination between the overall plan formulated by the upper and lower levels of government, the coordination between departmental plans and special plans formulated by upper and lower levels of government departments, as well as the coordination between plans formulated by the same level of departments or units. Fourthly, it specifies the emergency management agencies, emergency response teams, relevant organizations in emergency response activities and their obligations, and in particular, the contact details of these agencies and their main staff should be listed. Fifth, detailed provisions for the revision and exercise of the plan. Emergency plan should specify the conditions and procedures for the revision of the plan, emergency plan drills and other content. Through the exercise to make the emergency plan to obtain vitality, through the revision of the plan to obtain the timeliness.
2. Improve the development of emergency plans for the program.
Drawing on foreign emergency plan development procedures, I believe that China's emergency plan development procedures should include the following basic steps:[4]
First, the establishment of the plan preparation team. This is an important part of the emergency planning work, to realize the basic principles of emergency management has a very important role, at the same time, for the various emergency departments to provide a very important collaboration and communication opportunities, is conducive to unify the views and opinions of the emergency parties. Members of the planning team should generally include: the chief executive or his representative, emergency management departments, fire, public security, environmental protection, health, municipal, hospitals, medical emergency, health epidemiology, post and telecommunications, transportation management and other relevant departments; radio, television and other news media; legal advisers, the relevant enterprises, as well as representatives of the higher level of government or emergency response agencies and technical experts. Prepared by the members of the group to determine the preparation of the plan shall determine the preparation of the plan, a clear division of labor to ensure that the preparation of the plan in a scientific and orderly manner.
Second, risk analysis and emergency response capacity assessment. Risk analysis is the basis for the preparation of emergency plans. The results of the risk analysis not only helps to determine the focus of emergency response work, provides a basis for prioritizing the preparation of the plan, but also for emergency preparedness and emergency response to provide the necessary information and data. Risk analysis includes hazard identification, vulnerability analysis and risk assessment.
The purpose of hazard identification is to identify possible significant risk factors, analyze the region's geography, meteorology and other natural conditions, as well as the specifics of industry and transportation, commerce and trade, public **** facilities, etc., and summarize the history of the region has been the occurrence of major accidents, to identify the possible occurrence of natural disasters and major accidents and other emergencies.
The vulnerability analysis is to identify the areas or units that are most vulnerable to shock damage in the event of a hazardous accident, and the segments that are most likely to experience fluctuations or radical changes. The results of the vulnerability analysis should provide the following information: the area severely affected by the accident or disaster, and the influencing factors in the area (e.g., topography, transportation, wind direction, etc.); the number and type of people expected to be located in the vulnerable zone (e.g., residents, employees, sensitive populations - hospitals, schools, nursing homes, child care centers); the potential for property damage, including infrastructure and transportation routes; possible environmental impacts; areas, units and populations most in need of protection can be flagged.
Risk assessment is an evaluation of the likelihood of damage (or injury) and the actual level of damage (or injury) that could result from the occurrence of a sudden public *** event, based on the results of a vulnerability analysis. Often it may be chosen to analyze the most severe scenarios (top events). Risk analysis can provide information on the likelihood of accidents and environmental anomalies, or the likelihood of multiple emergencies occurring at the same time; the type of harm caused to people (acute, delayed, or chronic) and the associated at-risk populations; the type of damage caused to property (temporary, repairable, or permanent); and the type of damage caused to the environment (recoverable or permanent).
Emergency response capacity assessment is based on the results of the risk analysis, the assessment of existing emergency resources and emergency response capacity, including the assessment of urban and corporate emergency response resources, to clarify the needs and deficiencies of emergency response. Emergency response resources include emergency response personnel, emergency response facilities (preparedness), equipment and materials, etc.; emergency response capacity includes the operational status of institutions and mechanisms and the skills, experience and training of personnel. The evaluation of emergency response capacity should also pay attention to the discovery of defects and deficiencies in the emergency response system. When preparing the plan, the most realistic and effective emergency response strategy should be selected on the basis of evaluating the emergency response resources and capabilities that are compatible with the potential hazards.
Third, the preparation of emergency response plans. The preparation of the emergency response plan must be based on the results of the analysis of the risk of major accidents, with reference to the emergency response resource needs and the current situation, as well as the relevant laws and regulations requirements. In addition, the preparation of the plan should fully collect and refer to the existing emergency plans, including the emergency plans of the higher departments, the overall plan of the region, etc., in order to minimize the workload and avoid the duplication of emergency plans and cross, and to ensure the coordination and consistency with other related emergency plans.
Fourth, the emergency plan review. In order to ensure that the emergency plan of the scientific, rationality and conformity with the actual situation, the emergency plan must be evaluated, including the organization of the internal evaluation and expert evaluation, if necessary, to ask the higher level of emergency response agencies to review.
Fifth, the approval and release of the emergency plan. Emergency plan after the evaluation and adoption, should be reported to the relevant departments for approval, after the approval of the official release and record. In general, all levels of government departments of the special plan, should be approved by the people's government at the same level agreed to by the people's government at the same level of emergency management committee for release. The departmental and special plans should be reported to the administrative department for record. The emergency plans of enterprises and institutions shall be approved by the leaders of the units and issued by themselves, and shall be reported to the administrative department for the record. For example, a provincial people's government departments, units and central enterprises and institutions in Shaanxi, the people's government of each district, the province's regional higher education institutions to develop a destructive earthquake emergency plan, must be reported in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Earthquake Bureau for the record; the destructive earthquake emergency plan developed by the municipalities must be approved by the people's government of their own level, reported to the provincial seismological bureau for the record.
3. Emphasize the revision of the emergency plan.
The importance of emergency plan revision is no less than the development of the plan. As the objective situation often changes, only timely revision of the plan, in order to more effectively respond to emergencies. Article 17 of the Emergency Response Law stipulates that the emergency response organization should revise the emergency response plan in accordance with the actual needs and changes in circumstances. However, the conditions and procedures for the revision of emergency plans are not further specified.
In general, the following situations should be revised: First, new risks have been identified or there are circumstances that indicate that a plan has become obsolete. Second, there are lessons learned from the emergency. The occurrence of a critical incident often reveals risks that were not previously noted, or suggests that better emergency procedures are needed, or that certain organizations should be included in the plan. Third, lessons learned from emergency response exercises. Lessons learned from emergency drills are similar to those of critical incidents. The difference is that they are human-controlled, specifically designed to test the procedures of the emergency plan, and can be repeated until a reasonable arrangement is in place. Fourth, there are changes in the organization and its procedures and technical systems. Fifth, there is a change in key staff. The emergency plan, or its bylaws, must continually reflect changes in key staff, including names, job titles, and contact information. Sixth, the relevant provisions of the law has been amended, or the enactment of new legal provisions, the need to amend the emergency plan.
According to foreign experience, the emergency plan should be revised regularly at least once a year, and should also be revised in a timely manner if there are emergencies, emergency drills, or changes in organization during the year. The revision of the emergency plan should be the responsibility of the main body that formulated it in the first place. After the plan is revised, it should be published in a timely manner.
Notes
[1] "China's Response to Public Emergency **** Events in 2006," in China Emergency Management, No. 7, 2007.
[2]Regarding the content of the UK's emergency planning system, the main reference is to the UK's Domestic Emergencies Act (2004), Draft Regulations for the Implementation of the Domestic Emergencies Act (2005), Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Disposal and Recovery, and other legal and regulatory documents.
[3] For the contents of the U.S. Emergency Preparedness Program, the main references are the Homeland Security Act (2002), the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (2006), the Emergency Preparedness Guidelines issued by the California Office of Crisis Management, the Model City Preparedness Program, and other sources.
[4] See Liu Tiemin, "Emergency Planning and Management for Public ****ing Emergencies," in China Emergency Management, No. 10, 2007.