Facilities management and earthquake risk reduction: The TURNkey project

Abstract

Reducing vulnerability and improving resilience of the existing built environment to disaster events is a complex multidisciplinary challenge in which facilities managers need to contribute an understanding of the impact that a disaster event could have on both their hard and soft facilities. Facilities managers also need to identify potential operational, physical and corporate adaptations/mitigations that can support continued business function during and after a disaster event. This paper describes work in progress to develop an earthquake forecasting, early warning and rapid response system that business and critical infrastructure organisations can use as part disaster risk reduction and business continuity planning. Focusing on theory and methods, the paper considers the different aspects of resilience from a facilities management perspective and presents findings from a participatory action research programme that developed a series of use-cases to explore the potential impact of earthquake forecasting, early warning and rapid response on an organisation’s vulnerability and resilience to an earthquake; and identifying physical, operational and organisational mitigation interventions that can reduce an organisation’s disaster risk. The paper concludes the need for facilities managers to understand the different aspects of resilience and to apply the most appropriate to their hard and soft facilities management systems.

Perspective Chapter: Advances in Modern Cereal Storage Systems

“…The "turnkey" concept represents a comprehensive approach where a contractor or a project team takes full responsibility for the entire lifecycle of the storage facility, from design and construction to commissioning and handover [48,49]. This approach is increasingly applied in the advancement of cereal storage systems to provide clients with a seamless and hassle-free experience.…”

Improving organisational resilience: the TURNkey project

“…The TURNkey project explored the relationships between vulnerability, resilience, adaptive capacity and risk through the development and testing of a prototype earthquake forecasting, early warning and consequence response platform to assist decision makers (businesses, critical infrastructure providers and civil protection agencies) better understand their business risks and develop mitigation interventions to manage the risks [9]. Whilst the practical implications of the TURNkey project have been reported elsewhere [10,11], this paper examines the practical challenge of integrating a system like the TURNkey Platform into disaster management, emergency management and business continuity planning from a facilities management perspective. In particular, the paper presents a usecase approach to identifying end-user needs and expectations of the TURNkey FWCR (Forecasting, Warning and Consequence Response) platform, and presents a hypothetical case study of the integration of the TURNkey FWCR platform into a typical hospital's disaster/emergency management and business continuity plans.…”