Disaster Training Exercises: An Educationally-Based Hierarchy

The literature of disaster planning and management makes frequent reference to disaster drills and exercises as a fundamental training tool. Such exercises have been variously described as ranging from full-scale, all-day events involving many agencies and resources to table-top simulations using models and prepared scenarios. Because of this large gamut of disaster training activities, often it is difficult for trainers to select the most appropriate model. The purpose of this paper is to place various types of disaster training exercises in a hierarchial order based on fundamental educational principles.