Modelling the complexity of the network of interactions in flood emergency management: The Lorca flash flood case

There is growing awareness that fast response to emergency situation requires effective coordination among several institutional and non-institutional actors. The most common approaches, based on innovating technologies for information collection and management, are not sufficient to cope with the increasing complexity of emergency management. This work demonstrates that effective cooperation claims for a shift from information management to interaction management. Therefore, methods and tools are required in order to better understand the complexity of the interactions taking place during an emergency, and to analyse the actual roles and responsibilities of the different actors. This paper details the design and implementation of an integrated approach aiming to unravel the complexity of the interaction network based on Storytelling, the Problem Structuring Method, and Social Network Analysis. The potential of the integrated approach has been investigated in the Lorca (Spain) flood risk management case study. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.