As a society we are at a tipping point; no longer do we live in a relatively well-ordered information age, but a new hyper-networked complex age, where interactions are nonlinear, and minor changes can produce disproportionately major consequences. Our ability to predict, and hence effectively plan for future events, is greatly challenged by this complexity and the resultant uncertainty. There is an urgent need for new ways of thinking, communicating and responding to this exponential change in society that is fuelled by technological developments and critical challenges such as population growth, climate change and environmental stress. One underdeveloped concept of key interest is network enabled agility. This concept does not attempt to reduce problem difficulty, but rather dramatically increases the capability of geographically dispersed emergency networks to collaborate peer to peer through a high level of shared awareness.

This research will build on existing knowledge and experience from cutting edge strategic thinking on network enabled agility to develop an innovative, future proof model for communities to not only adapt, but to thrive in uncertainty. This multidisciplinary research will test the applicability of the model on real life situations using selected Emergency Management (EM) case studies. The research will assess individual and shared awareness, quality of decisions, quality of information and levels of enterprise synchronisation of complex EM operations.  The aim of the model is to provide an evidenced based value chain that can guide strategy and capability development now and in the future.