Search results for "management"

The impact on disaster governance of the intersection of environmental hazards, border conflict and disaster responses in Ladakh, India

2018

Abstract The Indian border region of Ladakh, in Jammu and Kashmir State, has a sensitive Himalayan ecosystem and has experienced natural hazards and disasters of varying scales over the decades. Ladakh is also situated on a fault-line of multiple tensions, including ongoing border disagreements and intermittent conflict with China and Pakistan. The Indian army has thus become a permanent fixture in the region. This paper examines the implications of the intersection of these environmental and security factors for disaster governance in the region. Using Social Domains theory, the paper argues first, that a hazard-centred paradigm of ‘universal’ disaster science emerges from the colonial per…

Subjective Logic-Based In-Network Data Processing for Trust Management in Collocated and Distributed Wireless Sensor Networks

2018

While analyzing an explosive amount of data collected in today’s wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the redundant information in the sensed data needs to be handled. In-network data processing is a technique which can eliminate or reduce such redundancy, leading to minimized resource consumption. On the other hand, trust management techniques establish trust relationships among nodes and detect unreliable nodes. In this paper, we propose two novel in-network data processing schemes for trust management in static WSNs. The first scheme targets at networks, where sensor nodes are closely collocated to report the same event. Considering both spatial and temporal correlations, this scheme generat…

2020

A soldier’s occupational physical task requirements are diverse and varied. However, the type of physical training that most effectively improves soldiers’ occupational task requirements has not been studied previously. The purpose of this study was to determine the important strength characteristics for soldiers during a repeated simulated military task course, and the type of training that may be effective to improve these abilities during a specialized military training period. Forty-two (n = 42) soldiers participated in the study. They were divided into three training groups; a soldier task-specific training group (TSG, n = 17), a strength training group (STG, n = 15), and a control gro…

Cognitive biases in humanitarian sensemaking and decision-making lessons from field research

2016

Time and again, humanitarian decision-makers are confronted with stress and pressure, distorted, lacking and uncertain information, and thus they are working in conditions that are known to introduce or enforce biases. Decision analysis has been designed to overcome such biases, and a network of “digital responders” organized over the Internet has set out to improve judgments by providing better information. However, without any structured support to determine objectives, goals and preferences and detached from the context of operational decision-makers, remote analysts may face the very biases they are trying to help overcome. This article sets out to identify biases that matter for humani…

From Neo-Functional Peace to a Logic of Spillover in EU External Policy: A Response to Visoka and Doyle

2017

In their recently published JCMS article, Gezim Visoka and John Doyle have proposed the concept of ‘neofunctional peace’ as a means to conceptualize the EU's peacemaking practices in the case of the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. This article challenges the ‘neo-functional peace’ on conceptual and empirical grounds. We critically discuss Visoka and Doyle's (2016) reading of neofunctionalism and question parts of their empirical evidence given for the existence of a ‘neo-functional peace’. Going beyond a mere critique of the article by Visoka and Doyle and arguing that the authors may not have fully exploited neofunctionalism's potential for theorizing EU external policy, we stip…

The organization of the defense support system: an economic geography perspective

2017

In the context of restricted budgetary resources and the growing cost of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) activities, a major issue for modern armed forces is to sustain defense platforms. A possible method consists of realizing economies of scale through the concentration of maintenance activities, which involves the spatial reorganization of existing industrial sites dedicated to MRO. This article provides a formalized framework to discuss the optimal organization for the MRO of defense platforms in space. The public planner organizes the maintenance of defense platforms with only two possible spatial configurations. In the dispersed configuration, two industrial production units i…

Sharing R&D investments in breakthrough technologies to control climate change

2017

This paper examines international cooperation on technological development as an alternative to international cooperation on GHG emission reductions. In order to analyze the scope of cooperation, a three-stage technology agreement formation game is solved. First, countries decide whether or not to sign up to the agreement. Then, in the second stage, the signatories (playing together) and the non-signatories (playing individually) select their investment in R&D. In this stage, it is assumed that the signatories not only coordinate their levels of R&D investment but also pool their R&D efforts to fully internalize the spillovers of their investment in innovation. Finally, in the third stage, …

Digital Volunteers in Disaster Response: Accessibility Challenges

2019

The emergence of the Digital Humanitarian Volunteer (DHV) movements when disaster strikes have drawn the attention of researchers and practitioners in the emergency management and humanitarian domain. While there are established players in this rapidly developing field, there are still unresolved challenges, including accessibility of their digital tools and platforms. The purposes of this paper are twofold. First, it describes the background, impact and future potential of the DHV movement, and discusses the importance of universal design for the digital tools and platforms used for crowdsourcing of crisis information. Second, this paper shows how lack of concern for universal design and a…

A Review of Qualitative Comments on a Proposed Master's Degree in Emergency Management

2017

Visualization of Exchanged Information with Dynamic Networks: A Case Study of Fire Emergency Search and Rescue Operation

2017

To perform emergency response activities, complex networks of emergency responders from different emergency organizations work together to rescue affected people and to mitigate the property losses. However, to work efficiently, the emergency responders have to rely completely on the data which gets generated from heterogeneous data sources during search and rescue operation (SAR). From this abundant data, rescue teams share needed information which is hidden in the abundant data with one another to make decisions, obtain situational awareness and also to assign tasks. Moreover, understanding and analyzing the shared information is a complex and very challenging task. Therefore, in this pap…