This type of control can be taken as a form of feedback control.
When a plan is implemented, the type of control is changed,
from control through feedforward to control through feedback
(Brehmer, 2000). And when this happens, the initiation of diffe-
rent measures must be matched to the effect on the course of
events. It is here that the use of resources and the initiation, co-
ordination and execution of measures becomes dynamic, which is
very apparent during the execution of emergency response ope-
rations.
The bottom line is that only through initiation, coordination
and execution of measures at an incident site can the course of
events be affected, and it is during the execution of response ope-
rations that control problems become most evident.
Control and decision domains
In order to effectively decide on measures and the use of resour-
ces, and for the system as a whole to work towards gaining and
maintaining control, the complete command system must be cha-
racterised by a tactical approach. The basis for this is that the
purpose of a command system is to allocate and control the use
of resources in relation to the assistance need. In the case of inci-
dents and accidents this concerns, among other things, resources
being allocated in such a way that control of a destructive sequen-
ce as a physical phenomenon is achieved as quickly as possible. All
decision makers in the command system must in different ways
act and work towards the optimal use of resources. Here this con-
cerns allocating resources in time and space on the basis of their
capacity in relation to the destructive sequence over a period, and
that then becomes a question of degree of resolution of resources,
depending on the decision domain. Different decision domains,
then, handle resources in different ways – system command in a
more overall way and task command in more detail.
For example, a tactical approach within task command can
mean that a BA officer is tactical in his or her choice of met-
hod for tackling the situation. The standard operating procedu-
re perhaps says that the BA firefighter should search through a
flat in an anticlockwise direction. However, in this situation it is
thought that there might be a person in a bed room to the left of
the entry door, and a firefighter is therefore instructed to search
in a clockwise direction. Such tactical decisions must be taken for
each situation – there is no solution that can generally be consi-
dered as ‘best’.