Primary Submission Category: Structural factors
Highlighting Policy-to-Practice Gaps in Emergency Response: A Social Network Analysis of the 2023 East Palestine Train Derailment Emergency Response
Authors: Anthony Orsino,
Presenting Author: Anthony Orsino*
Effective emergency response relies on prepared, interdisciplinary networks of organizations that work together to minimize poor disaster and health outcomes in collaboration with affected communities. However, this doesn’t always happen: gaps often emerge between planned emergency response structures and their real-world execution. Such gaps, especially in under-resourced communities, can be antithetical to disaster response best practices. This proposed PhD dissertation work applies social network analysis (SNA) to the organizations involved in the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio train derailment response to understand the unique systemic barriers non-urban and border communities face in collaborative emergency management that may result in policy-to-practice gaps and poor disaster outcomes.
This research has three primary aims: (1) to analyze and compare organizational network models of the planned and observed emergency management systems, identifying key policy-to-practice deviations; (2) to assess the efficiency of the emergency response network over time, capturing shifts in inter-organizational coordination; and (3) to integrate qualitative insights from key informant interviews to contextualize network findings and inform evidence-based recommendations for improving future emergency response strategies in similar settings.
By leveraging SNA, this study will provide empirical evidence on how nonurban emergency management networks function in practice, highlighting structural inefficiencies and opportunities for intervention. Understanding these dynamics is critical for optimizing emergency preparedness and response policies, particularly in non-urban and border communities that face unique logistical and resource constraints.
This presentation will discuss methodological approaches and the empirical basis of this work and spark broader discussions on reducing policy-to-practice gaps for bolstered preparedness in vulnerable communities.