title: Research and Evaluations of the Health Aspects of Disasters, Part IV: Framework for Societal Structures: the Societal Systems.
abstract: For the purposes of research and/or evaluation, a community/society is organized into 13 Societal Systems under the umbrella of an overall Coordination and Control System. This organization facilitates descriptions of a community/society or a component of a community for assessment at any designated time across the Temporal Phases of a disaster. Such assessments provide a picture of the functional status of one or more Systems that comprise a community. Since no system operates in isolation from the other systems, information of the concomitant status of several Societal Systems is crucial to gaining a complete understanding of compromised functions, as well as the effects and side effects of any intervention directed at restoring the functional state of the affected community or risk-reduction interventions of a community-at-risk. The 13 Societal Systems include: (1) Public Health; (2) Medical Care; (3) Water and Sanitation; (4) Shelter and Clothing; (5) Food and Nutrition; (6) Energy Supply; (7) Public Works and Engineering; (8) Social Structures; (9) Logistics and Transportation; (10) Security; (11) Communications; (12) Economy; and (13) Education. Many functions and sub-functions of the Systems overlap, or share some common sub-functions with other systems. For the purposes of research/evaluation, it is necessary to assign functions and sub-functions to only one of the Societal Systems.
authors.affiliation: 1Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Physiology,School of Medicine and Public Health,University of Wisconsin,Madison,WisconsinUSA; Emeritus Editor-in-Chief, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.
authors.forename: Marvin L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Birnbaum
authors.affiliation: 2Nursing Section Editor, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine; Executive Secretary,World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine,Madison,WisconsinUSA.
authors.forename: Elaine K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Daily
authors.affiliation: 3Assistant Professor,Division of General Surgery,Department of Surgery,School of Medicine and Public Health,University of Wisconsin,Madison,WisconsinUSA.
authors.forename: Ann P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D012106:Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012952:Societies / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: CCC Coordination and Control Center; CMR crude mortality rate; DRP Disaster Response Plan; FMT foreign medical team; IASC UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee; NGO nongovernmental organization; UN United Nations; WHO World Health Organization; assessments; control; coordination; dependencies; disaster; event; framework; societal systems