Search results for "emergency management"
showing 10 items of 93 documents
Expert views on current and future use of social media among crisis and emergency management organizations: Incentives and barriers
2016
Universal design of ICT for emergency management: A systematic literature review and research agenda
2018
The primary objectives of this article are to give a systematic overview of the current state of the emerging research field of Universal Design of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Emergency Management, and to highlight high-impact research opportunities to ensure that the increasing introduction of ICT in Emergency Management can contribute to removing barriers instead of adding more barriers, in particular for the elderly and people with disabilities. A systematic review on various literature with respect to Universal Design, ICT and Emergency Management between 2008 to 2018 was employed in this study, and reviewed systematically using a predefined framework. The ultimat…
Modeling the escalation/de-escalation of response operation levels in disaster response networks using hierarchical Colored Petri Nets (CPN) approach
2018
In emergency situations, the first responders need to act promptly to situations, while the disaster management authorities' response might not be at the same speed. Delays by disaster management authorities had a direct impact on response operations led response teams to the shift away from command and control structures to net-centric ones. This paper is part of a study to examine patterns of emerging organizational relations and coordination structures in disaster response operations. Understanding coordination patterns in disaster chaos can help to integrate those patterns in the planning and execution in the modern disaster management operations. We use dynamic modeling methods to anal…
Designing for Networked Community Resilience
2016
Abstract Communities have been described to be at the heart of the preparedness for and the response to disasters. The increasing connectedness has made communities more vulnerable for their dependence on a complex network of critical infrastructures. At the same time, this very connectedness has the potential to enable communities to self-organise, engage, and connect with other communities to improve their resilience. While the pathway to more resilience is promising and has many advocates, the response to crises and disasters, time and again reveals the challenges related to (i) ad-hoc switching from preparedness to response; (ii) ad-hoc connecting professional responders, communities, v…
Publish-subscribe smartphone sensing platform for the acute phase of a disaster: A framework for emergency management support
2014
The advanced sensors embedded in modern smartphones opens up for novel research opportunities, as for instance manifested in the field of mobile phone sensing. Most notable is perhaps research activities within human activity recognition and context-aware applications. Along a similar vein, the SmartRescue project targets monitoring of both hazard developments as well as tracking of people in a disaster, taking advantage of smartphone sensing, processing and communication capabilities. The goal is to help crisis managers and the public in early hazard detection, hazard prediction, and in the forming of risk minimizing evacuation plans when disaster strikes. In this paper we propose a novel …
Understanding Decision Support in Large-Scale Disasters: Challenges in Humanitarian Logistics Distribution
2017
Disasters are characterized by conflicting, uncertain, or lacking data. Nevertheless, humanitarian responders need to make rapid decisions. This is particularly true for the immediate response to a sudden onset disaster. Since most humanitarian decision support systems (DSS) make important assumptions on data availability and quality that are often not fulfilled in practice, decision-makers are largely left to their experience. In this paper, we identify three major challenges for an operational DSS to support distribution planning: (i) deep uncertainty; (ii) reflecting field conditions and constraints; and (iii) rapid humanitarian logistics modeling. We review the relevant theories and pro…
Communication Gaps in Disaster Management: Perceptions by Experts from Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations
2011
The complexity of current disasters creates a challenge for crisis communication. This paper aims at identifying gaps in communication in disaster management experienced in practice in order to facilitate learning from those situations. The research was conducted using a qualitative online open-ended questionnaire. It shows that despite the developments in the discipline, communication as an integral part of decision making in disaster management needs to be further developed. The paper provides a practical-oriented overview of the communication constraints in complex crisis situations, which has not been provided so far. This research is part of an international project developing performa…
Universal Design of ICT for Emergency Management
2018
The primary objectives of this article are to give a systematic overview of the current state of the emerging research field of Universal Design of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Emergency Management, and to highlight high-impact research opportunities to ensure that the increasing introduction of ICT in Emergency Management can contribute to removing barriers instead of adding more barriers, in particular for the elderly and people with disabilities. A systematic review on various literature with respect to Universal Design, ICT and Emergency Management between 2008 to 2018 was employed in this study, and reviewed systematically using a predefined framework. The ultimat…
Near Real-Time Decision Support for Disaster Management: Hurricane Sandy
2014
Assessing vulnerability is fundamental for efficient risk management and emergency response. Integrating analyses from preparedness and risk reduction to inform the response phase requires that structural information about demographics or industry is combined with specific local information that highlights hotspots or emerging risks in near real-time. Owing to its availability on social media or other platforms, this local information is today often collected and processed remotely with the aim to inform responders and the public via reports, maps and apps published online. This paper addresses and discusses the challenges of remote near-real time vulnerability assessments by using an indic…
Big Data in Emergency Management: Exploitation Techniques for Social and Mobile Data
2020
The Internet of Things, crowdsourcing, social media, public authorities, and other sources generate bigger and bigger data sets. Big and open data offers many benefits for emergency management, but also pose new challenges. This chapter will review the sources of big data and their characteristics. We then discuss potential benefits of big data for emergency management along with the technological and societal challenges it poses. We review central technologies for big-data storage and processing in general, before presenting the Spark big-data engine in more detail. Finally, we review ethical and societal threats that big data pose.