Crisis and emergency management (CEM) in high-risk sectors such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, and transportation faces growing challenges from operational complexity, interagency coordination gaps, and evolving hazards. While compliance frameworks set essential standards, many organizations still struggle to maintain continuous operational readiness. This paper explores how artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive models, and integrated digital tools can operationalize readiness.
Industry Incident Landscape
The authors cite a report of the Institution of Chemical Engineers’ Safety and Loss Prevention Special Interest Group, “Learning Lessons From Major Incidents.” In the report, root causes of 25 various incidents since Piper Alpha in 1988 were analyzed to identify underlying lessons. The lessons learnt for crisis and emergency management are provided in Table 1 of the complete paper. The table indicates that gaps in crisis and emergency management often lie in lack of compliance, inadequate planning, training and competency issues, and response.
