Management of Complex and Uncertain Projects in the Context of Natural Disasters: The Case of the Integrated Risk Management Project

Abstract

The significant impact of climate change has caused extreme phenomena, where the increase in temperature has caused devastating effects, from the death of corals in the oceans, to the melting of glaciers, to fires in large forest areas. Preventing and mitigating the effects of natural disasters becomes a priority. Projects of this nature have unique characteristics, such as a high degree of uncertainty, complexity, lack of data and measurable financial return, which makes their management challenging. The identification of complex and uncertain project methodology in the context of natural disasters was carried out through qualitative methodology applied to the single case study method. The objective of this article was to identify which management characteristics of complex and uncertain projects contribute to the development of innovations to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. As main results obtained, it was shown that the formal structure must be based on the areas of knowledge: integration, scope, costs, quality, human resources, communication, risks, acquisition, and interested parties and best practices in managing complex and uncertain projects identified.