Stop going around in circles: towards a reconceptualisation of disaster risk management phases

The way that disasters are managed, or indeed mis-managed, is often represented diagrammatically as a “disaster cycle”. The cyclical aspects of the disaster (risk) management concept, comprised of numerous operational phases, have, in recent years, been criticised for conceptualising and representing disasters in an overly simplistic way that typically starts with a disaster “event” – and subsequently leads onto yet another disaster. Such cyclical thinking has been proven to not be very useful for the complexities associated with understanding disasters and their risks. This paper aims to present an alternative conceptualisation of the Disaster Risk Management phases, in a way that can better factor in the underlying root causes that create differential levels of vulnerability.

This is a conceptual paper developed, through a review of the literature and discussions between the authors, as a counterpoint to the pervasive “disaster cycle”.

The “Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Helix” is presented as an alternative way of conceptualising the DRM phases. The helictical conceptualisation of DRM phases presented in this paper is intentionally presented to start a discussion (rather than as an end point) on how best to move away from the constraints of the “disaster cycle”.

It is envisaged that the helictical conceptualisation of DRM can be suitably malleable to include important factors such as temporal considerations and the underlying root causes that create differential levels of vulnerability. It is, thus, the intention that the DRM Helix can provide a catalyst for exciting discussions and future adaptations of the diagram that can better capture the dynamic (non-cyclical) nature of disasters and their root causes.