Scenario practice is a preparedness practice in which participants collectively imagine likely disasters and cascading effects in order to identify capacities, gaps, and possible response paths before a crisis hits [@madrprograms2024; @madrprep2019].
Within emergent disaster response, the term matters because grassroots preparedness often begins without extensive formal planning resources. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief’s Popular Education Program explicitly includes brainstorming potential disasters and cascading effects, while its preparation materials frame readiness as something communities can build together before institutions arrive or fail [@madrprograms2024; @madrprep2019].
Scenario practice is not prediction in a narrow technical sense. It is a collective rehearsal of possible relations among hazards, needs, barriers, and existing capacities.
Related terms
- Disaster Subculture - preserved local memory that can inform scenario work
- Local Needs Assessment - a practice that scenario work often anticipates and prepares for
- Skill-Sharing - the training form through which scenario insights can become practical capacity