| Engineers and planners have for long grappled with the dilemma of when to use quantitative as opposed to qualitative methodologies to tackle complex problems such as crisis and incident management, which form a significant branch of urban/transportation planning. Wile significant strides have been made in this area, there still are some failings in the management of such situations as evidenced in the aftermath of disasters such as the Bhopal Gas tragedy, and the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Given the enormity of these situations in terms of their effect on the continued survival of the organization, it is prudent for an organization to make efforts to address this area of strategic importance in a more comprehensive manner. The focus of this research is to take a critical look at the crisis/incident management processes from the perspective of the urban/transportation planner by making use of systems thinking and systems intervention. Systems thinking and systems methodologies have made significant inroads in multi-jurisdictional and multi-objective problem settings. A battery of methodologies has been identified and used in this research, to tackle a number of cases in the domain of urban and transportation planning. Post-crisis analysis of these cases in a systemic manner revealed the areas of neglect and deficiency in the original analysis of these situations. In doing so, this research demonstrates how systemic principles and thinking can be incorporated in crisis management and planning. Lessons learned from the application of systems intervention to the case studies are harnessed in developing a framework for the inclusion of systems thinking and intervention in conventional transportation planning process. The outcome of this research is aimed to help organizations and planners alike, to handle complex problems in a systemic manner. |
