Emergency management and incident response activities require carefully managed resources (personnel, teams, facilities, equipment and/or supplies) to meet incident needs. Utilization of the standardized resource management concepts such as typing, inventorying, organizing and tracking will facilitate the dispatch, deployment and recovery of resources before, during and after an incident.
Resource management should be flexible and scalable in order to support any incident and be adaptable to changes. Efficient and effective deployment of resources requires that resource management concepts and principles be used in all phases of emergency management and incident response.
The resource management process can be separated into two parts: resource management as an element of preparedness and resource management during an incident. The preparedness activities (resource typing, credentialing and inventorying) are conducted on a continual basis to help ensure that resources are ready to be mobilized when called to an incident. Resource management during an incident is a finite process, as shown in the below figure, with a distinct beginning and ending specific to the needs of the particular incident.