Project Development and Management in Complex Environments

The ground for risk and disaster management is a dynamic and intransparent environment: Managers and decision makers must work on basis of incompleteinformation, fast changing conditions, and with moving priorities. We haven’t fully understood global climate change yet and still struggle to mitigateregional hazards like earthquakes and flooding. Critical technology to cope with those threats underlies cycles of development that are faster than administrative planning andgovernmental decision making can be. At the same time social media and online journalism multiply the pressure that lasts on those who are responsible to protect thepopulation and assist when disasters strike. Such challenges are profound - but not unique.The behaviour of complex systems has been researched in various fields such as physics and mechanics, psychology and health sciences, sociology and ecology, biology andgeography. Some patterns and principles are evident amongst all those areas. Knowledgeof those fundamental structures, system behaviour, and emerging phenomenons is a precious good for today’s planners and managers.This talk is to introduce basic principles for management in complex systems, especiallyfor risk and disaster management. A focus will be on a) Resilience as concept for riskmanagement and b) Planning in fast changing and dynamic environments. Benedict Gross holds a masters degree in Disaster Management and Risk Governance(University of Bonn, Germany) and a MSc in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Investigation (University of Liverpool, UK). He is member of the global CEM® commission of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and a Certified Emergency Manager himself.