Impact of Disasters and Disaster Risk Management in Singapore: A Case Study of Singapore’s Experience in Fighting the SARS Epidemic

Allen Yu-Hung Lai () and Seck L. Tan
Additional contact information
Allen Yu-Hung Lai: ESSEC Business School – Asia Pacific
Seck L. Tan: National University of Singapore

Chapter Chapter 15 in Resilience and Recovery in Asian Disasters, 2015, pp 309-336 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Singapore is vulnerable to both natural and man-made disasters alongside its remarkable economic growth. One of the most significant disasters in recent history was the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. The SARS outbreak was eventually contained through a series of risk mitigating measures introduced by the Singapore government. This would not be possible without the engagement and responsiveness of the general public. This chapter begins with a description of Singapore’s historical disaster profiles, the policy and legal framework in the all-hazard management approach. We use a case study to highlight the disaster impacts and insights drawn from Singapore’s risk management experience with specific references to the SARS epidemic. The implications from the SARS focus on four areas: staying vigilant at the community level, remaining flexible in a national command structure, the demand for surge capacity, and collaborative governance at regional level. This chapter concludes with a presence of the flexible command structure on both the way and the extent it was utilized.

Keywords: Gross Domestic Product; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; Disaster Management; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; Disaster Risk Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:rischp:978-4-431-55022-8_15

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9784431550228

DOI: 10.1007/978-4-431-55022-8_15

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Risk, Governance and Society from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().