Table of contents

Table of contents 2
1.0 Proposed Research Question: 2
1.1 Rationale for study 3
1.2 Research aims or objectives 3
2.0 Introduction 4
3.0 Industry Context 5
4.0 Proposed literary review 6
4.1 The current DFB arrangements for dealing with flooding 7
4.2 Business Continuity Management 7
4.3 Business Impact Analysis: 8
4.4 Enhancing Organisational Response Capacity 9
4.5 Building resilient communities 11
4.6 New Dimensions Programme 11
4.7 2007 Flooding & HVP’s 12
4.7.1 Qualitative assessment of HVPs in 2007 flooding: 12
4.7.2 Quantitative assessment of HVPs in 2007 flooding 13
5.0 Research Design and Methodology 13
6.0 Time Scale 14
7.0 Potential problems 14
8.0 Intended Outcomes 15
9.0 Bibliography 15
Appendix A. Letter to the Office of the Chief Fire Officer. 17

1.0 Proposed Research Question:

A review of the current arrangements for dealing with major flooding incidents in Dublin, and suggested improvements that enhance both organisational response capacity and community resilience for such events.
1.1 Rationale for study
Recent events have exposed vulnerabilities around the Dublin Fire Brigade’s (DFB’s) ability to maintain business continuity whilst conducting major flooding incident operations. Enhanced preparedness, better public and community engagement, and specialised asset acquisition will be examined as methods of increasing organisational resilience, whilst keeping the most vulnerable people within the affected communities safer.
A report by the Dublin Assistant City Manager into the recent 2011 flooding incident highlights these challenges. It states that, ‘it was not possible to respond to all requests for assistance’ (Lyons, 2011 p 10) and that ‘at the height of the emergency all available personnel and pumping fire appliances were deployed’ (ibid).
A U.K government department report