A critical review on disaster preparednes and management of the emirati energy sector.

All disasters are said to follow a cyclical pattern referred to as the disaster cycle. The cycle is an overall view of stages within a continual loop of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Disaster preparedness is one of the stages of the disaster management cycle guided in a manner that adequately protects communities. It involves the identification of potential hazards and vulnerabilities through risk assessments, forecast development and warning systems, modelling and training for a number of disaster scenarios of different hazards and at different magnitudes, development of insurance infrastructure and the growth of an intelligent community. The energy sector dominates in the UAE and consists of various assets - electricity, oil and natural gas that are geographically dispersed and connected by systems and networks. The protection of these systems and assets and within the energy sector especially, the safeguarding of oil and gas infrastructure from any and all internal and external threats should become top priority in the UAE. Threats to geopolitical and economic stability that need to be considered and prepared to include tectonic activity, climate change, nuclear energy, terrorism and war. This paper discusses the current level of resilience in the Emirati energy sector and what can be done to improve it. The secondary data was taken from various academic and professional sources whilst the primary data, which constitutes 35 questionnaires with both qualitative and quantitative data, were collected on site at two electricity generating plants, one in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]