Risk in Practice
This chapter examines the four different types of response systems that were identified by degree of adaptation to the problem of seismic risk. Auto-adaptive systems are those that are high on technical infrastructure, high on organizational flexibility, and high on cultural openness to new ideas and strategies of action. Operative adaptive systems are those systems that demonstrate awareness of seismic risk and a moderate degree of professional planning and preparedness to reduce risk of losses. Emergent adaptive systems are those systems that are low on technical structure but show some degree of flexibility in organizational processes and beginning openness to new information and new strategies of action in the cultural dimension. Meanwhile, nonadaptive systems are those systems unable to mobilize effective response operations independently after an extreme event, and virtually all assistance comes from external sources. In practice, initial conditions influenced the formation of response systems following earthquakes in all 12 cases, leading to different types of adaptation. The path dependence that follows from each distinctive set of initial conditions illustrates both the promise and the challenge of shaping communities that are resilient to seismic risk.