Elements of standard operating procedures and flexibility issues in emergency management: A Japan-Taiwan comparison

Planning and flexibility are necessary elements of emergency management. However, balancing these two elements is not easy and requires empirical information to improve the means of maximizing the effectiveness of both elements. Defining standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a key tool for planning emergency responses. The determinants of elaborate SOPs and the benefits and side effects of exercising them were surveyed among Japanese and Taiwanese municipal governments, which are primarily responsible for dealing with natural and manmade hazards. Japanese municipalities can define a large part of SOPs themselves and are loosely linked to the upper-level government structure during emergency responses. Their Taiwanese counterparts use a nationally standardized template of SOPs and act as a part of a nationally unified emergency management system. The experiences of different types of emergency events have increased the elaboration levels within the basic set of SOPs among Japanese municipalities, validating the use of SOPs to adopt the multi-hazard approach. The additional time-related set of SOPs was typically used by municipalities that experienced floods or landslides. The benefits of using SOPs were widely recognized at both study sites. Although SOPs did not hamper optimal emergency responses in most situations, among the surveyed emergency management officials in Japan (41%) and Taiwan (61%), there was concern over the negative effect of defining detailed SOPs on the flexibility of contingent responses.