The world is experiencing a persistent increase of societal threats, hazards and melee such as natural disaster like earthquakes, terrorist attacks, cyber insecurity and bullying, catastrophic events, diseases and pandemics (Christian & Donald, 2010) . Governments have different response units responsible for addressing these hazards when they occur. However, the response bodies need to be systematically coordinated and synchronized so that they are able to work together to enhance efficiency in mitigating these threats. The response bodies need to be coordinated by a single organization regardless of the type of agency, jurisdiction that they operate in or level organization to enhance preparedness, unity and sharing of resources while dealing with threats of any type, size or complexity (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2013) . The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is responsible for coordinating all response units and provides a framework for threat management nationwide. It enables organizations and agencies to work together in a coordinated, integrated and efficient manner regardless of their jurisdiction that they come from. the NIMS makes the coordination possible by use of common protocols and terminologies which guides the responders to work together and harmonize their duties to mitigate the threats in a more efficient manner (Stenner & Judd, 2006) .
The world is increasingly becoming vulnerable to threats while resources for fighting these vulnerabilities are becoming scarce every single day. Some jurisdictions are not able to entirely mitigate the hazards they face and would need support from other areas (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2013) . Texas for example is persistently becoming a desert with increased occurrence of natural hazards such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and rainstorms. The population dynamics of mortality and morbidity is on the increase as well. Properties both private and public are being swept away, wasted and rendered null and void (Christian & Donald, 2010) . Internal migration is increasing since some areas have become inhabitable. Therefore, this situation is greater than Texas to deal with as one jurisdiction. In such situations, the NIMS coordinates all threat responders nationwide to pool resources, integrate their activities and act in an efficient, effective and collaborative manner to mitigate the effects. Thus, one importance of the NIMS is the capacity to bring all nationwide responders together to mitigate the effects of catastrophic events that is far much greater than one jurisdiction to deal with (Michael, 2008) . The body enables congruency of activities and removes any possible ambiguity and clashes of different agencies. The need for the NIMS was necessitated by the occurrence of hurricanes in 2004 in Florida and 2005 in Katrina. During the mitigation process, many organizations were involved, however, there were systematic problems of coordination, integration, uniformity and consistency of services (Stenner & Judd, 2006) . The operations were marred with a lot of clashes, ambiguity and incongruency. This is the main problem that necessitated the need for the NIMS.
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The core objective of the NIMS is to provide an architectural framework for disaster management. NIMS uses an Incident Command System (ICS) which stipulated the principles, terminologies, tenet and process that are tied to management of incidents nationwide regardless of the complexity. To prepare the guidelines for management of incidents, the NIMS has established the NIMS Integration Center (NIC) which is responsible for identifying, assessing, easing the establishment of the national level standards which facilitates compliance and implementation of operations (Stenner & Judd, 2006) . The national level standard is acknowledged, approved and is put into practice by all levels of government including private and non-governmental organizations. Therefore, the NIMS ensures that there is flexibility in coordination of local, tribal, federal and state response operations, private and non-governmental organizations to suit the needs of the nation (Stenner & Judd, 2006) . The doctrines by NIMS provides the ways by which organizations can coordinate its operations and integrate their activities with other organizations through communication mechanisms that facilitates the mutual understanding of actions to be taken which may include the process of planning, implementation and controlling efficient and effective operations, response protocols information systems, decision making and incident scene management procedures (Christian & Donald, 2010) . This implies that the standards of judgment and protocols involved in operations meet a given criteria by all response teams and the measures put to mitigate the hazards are sufficient and coordinated (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2011) . The key advantages derived from the NIMS in control and management of threats are discussed below.
NIMS helps organizations to achieve high interoperability which is the capacity of systems and organization to interact and function with others through compliance with technical specifications (Christian & Donald, 2010) . The technical specifics are set in the NIMS standards of disaster management and defines the protocols of working together which applies to all levels of incident management. Through interoperability, different organizations are able to communicate and establish the ability to effectively and successfully manage incidences which is critical (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2011) . Organizations can also share data, findings and information regarding the current trends of incidences in various jurisdictions across the country. Sharing of knowledge and resources is very important in the managing of incidences that are persistently increasing in complexity and size such as the increasing drought and desertification in Texas. NIMS enhances interoperability of methods and approaches which is important for collective compatibility for effective incident management. It enables synchronization of processes (Christian & Donald, 2010) .
The NIMS also enhances accountability by ensuring that all response bodies adhere to set laws and standards that regulates their operation in incident management. Every responding body is required to understand the mission of the NIMS and define their role in incident management. Through coordination and synchronization, every response unit clearly understands their role without conflicting with other units (Stenner & Judd, 2006) . They therefore become accountable for their actions in the event that they failed to meet their obligation. As a result, responding units enhance their preparedness by planning their exercise to perform and meet their obligations (Michael, 2008) .
The NIMS also facilitates risk-based preparedness. The NIMS requires that all response units at all levels to understand the risks associated with their likelihood of occurrence to enhance their planning and preparedness towards mitigating such emergencies. The NIMS standards requires that all units to do an assessment of all risks, defining its likelihood of occurrence and the extent of consequence it can cause to the society and investments (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2013) . This stretches from the small events whose occurrences are high to the very catastrophic events whose occurrences are less anticipated but would pose great threat to the society if they occur (Stenner & Judd, 2006) . The balance between the occurrence and the consequences will enact processes and protocols which facilitates prior planning thus preparedness. Notably, the variations in potential occurrence of events would differ from locality to locality nationwide which enables the NIMS to coordinate logistic issues and transport in readiness for such occurrences across the entire nation (Michael, 2008) . The survey is important to enable flexibility of plans due to the variation. Planning done for areas that are more vulnerable to catastrophic events are done with enough consideration and uniqueness as opposed to fairy normal localities. Therefore, the NIMS facilitates the preparedness of response units by enabling early planning, financing and resource pooling to enable effective response (Christian & Donald, 2010) .
Besides, the NIMS enhances resource sharing and compatibility. Previously mentioned, some areas such as Texas are experiencing more damaging effects. Mitigation of such consequences can only be possible if response units come together to share resources and equipment (Christian & Donald, 2010) . Some events are more complex and cannot be dealt with by one jurisdiction because their resources can be depleted. The larger and complex an incidence is, the more need it becomes to share resources. The NIMS makes it possible for units to share resource through interoperability and enhanced resource compatibility. Sharing of resources helps to maintain adequacy and can sustain a long-term response (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2011) .
In addition, the NIMS enables both horizontal and vertical integration of response units. Horizontal integration is where various response units come together, integrate and coordinate their activities on their own. They are able to mutually agree on terms and protocols of operation when planning, preparing and operating (Christian & Donald, 2010) . Further, they can help one another by allowing for borrowing of resources and ideas. The NIMS enables all response units in one operation to understand one another including their strengths and weaknesses which helps define capability and uniqueness of each unit. Horizontal integration enables the units to achieve high level of interoperability (Michael, 2008) . On the other hand, vertical integration is the bringing together of all response units at different government levels. The response units could be working under tribal, federal, state or local authority but are able to come together and harmonize their activities and work together. Effective interoperability enables the units to work coherently having mutual agreement and understanding. The standards by the NIMS are flexible both for vertical and horizontal relationship which does not interfere with the uniqueness of the individual units but rather integrates operations effectively to enhance unified response especially for catastrophic events which are complex to deal with (Christian & Donald, 2010) .
Effective response to incidences is achieved when all response unites at various levels are integrated in their roles, obligations and responsibilities. The NIMS focuses on sharping the ability of response units to come together, share resources, ideas and be able to work together in an operation. The mission of the NIMS is to coordinate the risk management areas such as prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery. The NIMS provides a nationwide incidence management framework which enables all state units manned by different authorities, be it private, governmental and non-governmental to plan, prepare and respond to various incidences thus mitigating their effects (Michael, 2008) . This enables the society to recover from the loss and help reduce loss of life and property. The need of National Management Systems is paramount regarding the incidence at Katrina in 2005 and Florida in 2004 where response units failed to arrest the situation because of the systematic problems that were involved (Stenner & Judd, 2006) .
References
Christian, E. C., & Donald, D. W. (2010). National Incident Management System: Principles and Practice. New York: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Michael, C. (2008). National Incident Management System. Washington DC: U.S Department of Homeland Security.
Stenner, R. D., & Judd, K. S. (2006). National Incident Management System (NIMS) Standard Review Panel Workshop Summary Report. U.S Department of Energy .
U.S Department of Homeland Security. (2011). National Preparedness System . Washington DC: U.S Department of Homeland Security.
U.S Department of Homeland Security. (2013). National Response Framework. Washington DC: U.S Department of Homeland Security.
