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Supporting and communicating with citizens is a vital part of societal crisis management. Training exercises may offer an opportunity to develop capabilities among managers in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to examine this potential in an analysis of how citizens were portrayed and perceived by participants in a major crisis management exercise.

Observation, document analysis and short interviews during the exercise were used as data collection methods. Data were subjected to thematic analysis to capture core themes in relation to the research aim.

Patterns in how citizens’ reactions were portrayed in the exercise were identified to form a citizen behaviour typology. Observations during the exercise also demonstrated some of the challenges in incorporating the citizen perspective. However, findings regarding the perception of the citizen perspective also demonstrate the ability of exercise participants to meet and respond to public behaviours with respect and seriousness.

Variation is an important condition for learning in exercises, and the identified typology is suggested as a starting point for achieving this in incorporation of the citizen perspective in training scenarios. The results of the study are discussed in terms of a learning framework with the aim of explicitly developing crisis managers’ ability to interact and communicate with citizens in crisis situations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical understanding of experiences of crisis management among municipal leaders.

A total of 16 chief officers and three politicians from three different municipalities were interviewed concerning experiences of dealing with a severe storm. Data were analyzed by a grounded theory approach.

Data analysis generated a model. Central to the model is an evaluation sphere, which reflects tension between everyday circumstances and crisis needs, between assessments of legislation and practices as a support or hindrance, and assessments of human vulnerability versus coping resources. Manager characteristics, the societal context within which the event occurred, and crisis characteristics all influence this evaluation sphere. Particular stressors include the fact that the leaders themselves were personally affected by the storm, the difficult decisions and assessments that had to be made, the uncertainty of the situation and the timing, soon after the tsunami. Crisis management, decisions and actions can be seen as formed from the evaluation sphere and the influencing factors.

The paper has a small sample and limited representativeness. Generalizability of the model should be tested in other crisis events.

The model can be used as a tool to design exercises and as a guideline for authorities, in providing preparedness and crisis support.

The paper provides a theoretical model highlighting the complex evaluations underlying managers' decisions and actions in real‐ life situations.

Investigates what people are prepared to do in the way of disaster preparation, and examines how these assessments may be related to personal factors and attitudes. Draws on a theoretical model of the area, developed in a previous study using a qualitative grounded theory approach. Surveys 925 persons representative of the Swedish population between the ages of 16 and 74. Data were collected in a postal questionnaire. Shows that the preparations for disasters which had been carried out by the greatest number were installation of smoke detectors, participating in practice at school or work, and learning first aid. The least performed preparations included joining a voluntary organization or training programme, stocking up with tinned food at home, taking extra insurance, and learning how to deal with psychological crisis reactions. Finds considerable subgroup differences; and that the two key dimensions of the model ‐ sense of personal meaningfulness and societal commitment ‐ account for the differences. Suggests actions to be taken by the Swedish authorities.

The purpose of this paper is to develop artificial neural networks (ANNs) allowing us to simulate the local thermal insulation of clothing protecting against cold on a basis of the characteristics of materials and design solutions used.

For this purpose, laboratory tests of thermal insulation of clothing protecting against cold as well as thermal resistance of textile systems used in the clothing were performed. These tests were conducted with a use of thermal manikin and so-called skin model, respectively. On a basis of results gathered, 12 ANNs were developed that correspond to each thermal manikin’s segment besides hands and feet which are not covered by protective clothing.

In order to obtain high level of simulations, optimization measures for the developed ANNs were introduced. Finally, conducted validation indicated a very high correlation (above 0.95) between theoretical and experimental results, as well as a low error of the simulations (max 8 percent).

The literature reports addressing the problem of modeling thermal insulation of clothing focus mainly on the impact of the degree of fit and the velocity of air movement on thermal insulation properties, whereas reports dedicated to modeling the impact of the construction of clothing protecting against cold as well as of diverse material systems used within one design of clothing on its thermal insulation are scarce.