Strengths and challenges of tabletop exercises for climate resilience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5902/1983465995066Keywords:
Climate resilience, Tabletop exercises, Extreme weather eventsAbstract
Background: Extreme weather events driven by climate change increasingly threaten society. Tabletop Exercises (TTX) emerge as vital participatory tools for response coordination and climate adaptation.
Purpose: A lack of structured analysis persists regarding their application to climate risks. This study maps participant profiles, methodologies, take-aways and technological innovations to provide a systematic panorama of TTX effectiveness.
Design/Methodology: Drawing on Resilience Engineering, which studies success under variability, this study views TTX as a means to elicit strengths and brittleness, thereby boosting adaptive capacity. A systematic review was conducted using the PRISMA protocol across Scopus and Web of Science. Ten peer-reviewed papers met the eligibility criteria for final analysis.
Results & Discussion: TTX proved versatile across multiple sectors, fostering situational awareness, collaborative decision-making, and social learning. While digital platforms and simulation models represent significant technological innovations, governance gaps remain, particularly in unified command activation and the inclusion of lay populations.
Conclusion: TTX are cost-effective instruments to develop critical capacities and integrate actors in the management of extreme weather events. In addition to improving immediate performance, they provide insights applicable to long-term climate resilience strategies. However, challenges persist regarding social inclusion and response coordination, indicating the need for more inclusive and robust practices.
Originality/value: This review advances the literature by reframing TTX as mechanisms for revealing systemic brittleness and supporting social learning, rather than solely training tools, while identifying persistent governance and social gaps relevant to policy and practice.
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