A tool to assess learning processes based on the cooperation principle

Abstract

A strategy for cooperation in emergency management has been developed and politically agreed upon by the Rogaland County Council, Norway. The region comprised by the strategy consists of many different actors within societal safety and emergency management. The strategy aims at strengthening the existing cooperation, establishing professional centres and further developing competencies in their emergency response efforts within the region. The region has more than twenty road tunnels either in the planning phase, under construction or in operation. The emergency services have established a new organisation of their cooperation to ensure coordination, learning and supervision. This relates both to exercises and real event operations. An important tool in this respect is a recently developed handbook for cooperative exercises. The book is used in planning, execution and follow-up of all cooperation exercises. In this paper we present our newly developed evaluation model for following up the cooperation exercise guidelines, with special attention to events in road tunnels. We employ a learning model that extends the notion of learning from observed changes to also include confirmation and comprehension of cooperation activities.