• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.78-86
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• 2017

Disasters in South Korea are taking on more diverse and intricate aspects than before, while being affected by the industrial development and deterioration of the cities. Therefore, it is urgently needed for success in disaster countermeasures to secure emergency communications operating system which would make it possible to share various information between the control tower and field personnel quickly and accurately. This study proposes a method of improving the national emergency communications operating system based on the Federal disaster management system, emergency communications system, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) employed in the US, which is the leading country in the field of disaster management. First, the organization of the emergency communications needs to be more systematized than in the past. The organization of the emergency communications of the central and local governments have to be administered according to their different roles and objectives. Furthermore, they must cooperate with each other based on interoperability. Second, emergency communications councils need to be established, composed of representatives related to disasters, and national and regional units need to be formed and operated separately. Third, the SOPs should not only cover both the operational and technical elements, but also assign the roles and responsibilities to the members of the disaster communications system. These improvements will assure the correct functioning of the disaster communications system in the field, which is expected to increase the probability of success in disaster countermeasures.