To outline a framework for preparedness planning at the organizational level.The study is based on a content analysis of research literature as well as an analysis of interviews with six preparedness planners working in Swedish local authorities.The study setting included Swedish local authorities of different sizes.The participants are preparedness planners responsible for coordinating crisis management work in Swedish local authorities. The study includes preparedness planners with different backgrounds, education, experiences, and gender.A presentation of 19 factors of preparedness planning identified in the literature and a discussion around how preparedness planners perceive those factors.The main outcome measures are knowledge about how both researcher and practitioner understand and argue around different factors of preparedness planning.The result of this study is a framework for preparedness planning. As preparedness planning ought to be a learning process, the presented framework builds on four areas connected to learning: prerequisites for preparedness planning, who should be involved, what is to be learned, and how should the work be shaped.The analysis of factors identified in the literature and also in the interviews with preparedness planners illustrates that the four areas connected to learning are required for developing a preparedness planning process.

This review article analyzes factors affecting emergency response to hazardous events on highways and their bridges, with focus on man-made and natural scenarios: heavy vehicle collision with a bridge, earthquake, heavy snowfall, and flooding. For each disaster scenario, selected historical events were compiled to determine influential factors and success criteria for efficient emergency response, both related to organizational and technical measures. This study constituted a part of a resilience management process, recently developed and demonstrated within the European Union (EU)-funded H2020 project IMPROVER and can be a useful approach in aiding operators of transportation infrastructure to improve their resilience to emergency incidents.

Climate change is increasing the risk for extreme weather events such as heatwaves, including in northern countries like Sweden, which until recent years has had limited experiences of coping with extreme heat. Based on predictions that Sweden will be more frequently exposed to heatwaves in the future, it is imperative to increase the societal resilience and adaptation measures. This paper presents a qualitative interview study involving 19 participants and their experiences of caring for vulnerable people during the heatwave in 2018. The participants represent four different organizations (working directly or indirectly with vulnerable people) in two municipalities in Sweden, including preschools, homes for the elderly, homecare services, and care homes for people with functional impairments, which were all impacted during the heatwave. This study contributes new empirical insights about the heatwave in 2018 and, in particular, similarities and differences in both experiences and adaptation measures across the four organizations. The findings show how both staff and vulnerable people suffered from the consequences of heat which increased vulnerability, how some organizations lacked enough (qualified) staff to secure routines, and that few evaluations and formal changes were done after the heatwave.