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Showing papers on "Emergency management published in 2015"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors highlights the critical role of social capital and networks in disaster survival and recovery and lays out recent literature and evidence on the topic, concluding with concrete policy recommendations for disaster managers, government decision makers, and no...
Abstract: Despite the ubiquity of disaster and the increasing toll in human lives and financial costs, much research and policy remain focused on physical infrastructure–centered approaches to such events. Governmental organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security, United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Agency for International Development, and United Kingdom’s Department for International Development continue to spend heavily on hardening levees, raising existing homes, and repairing damaged facilities despite evidence that social, not physical, infrastructure drives resilience. This article highlights the critical role of social capital and networks in disaster survival and recovery and lays out recent literature and evidence on the topic. We look at definitions of social capital, measurement and proxies, types of social capital, and mechanisms and application. The article concludes with concrete policy recommendations for disaster managers, government decision makers, and no...

1,096 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
28 Feb 2015
TL;DR: This paper investigates several crises-including natural hazards and human-induced disasters-in a systematic manner and with a consistent methodology, leading to insights about the prevalence of different information types and sources across a variety of crisis situations.
Abstract: The use of social media to communicate timely information during crisis situations has become a common practice in recent years. In particular, the one-to-many nature of Twitter has created an opportunity for stakeholders to disseminate crisis-relevant messages, and to access vast amounts of information they may not otherwise have. Our goal is to understand what affected populations, response agencies and other stakeholders can expect-and not expect-from these data in various types of disaster situations. Anecdotal evidence suggests that different types of crises elicit different reactions from Twitter users, but we have yet to see whether this is in fact the case. In this paper, we investigate several crises-including natural hazards and human-induced disasters-in a systematic manner and with a consistent methodology. This leads to insights about the prevalence of different information types and sources across a variety of crisis situations.

422 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: During emergency events, individuals are exposed to large quantities of information without being aware of their validity or risk of misinformation, but users are usually swift to correct them, thus making the social media "self-regulating".

335 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of informal volunteers in emergency and disaster management is reviewed and it is argued that there is an overemphasis on volunteering within, and for, state and formal organizations.
Abstract: Despite highly specialised and capable emergency management systems, ordinary citizens are usually first on the scene in an emergency or disaster, and remain long after official services have ceased. Citizens often play vital roles in helping those affected to respond and recover, and can provide invaluable assistance to official agencies. However, in most developed countries, emergency and disaster management relies largely on a workforce of professionals and, to varying degrees, volunteers affiliated with official agencies. Those who work outside of such systems have tended to be viewed as a nuisance or liability, and their efforts are often undervalued. Given increasing disaster risk worldwide due to population growth, urban development and climate change, it is likely that 'informal' volunteers will provide much of the additional surge capacity required to respond to more frequent emergencies and disasters in the future. This paper considers the role of informal volunteers in emergency and disaster management. Definitions of volunteerism are reviewed and it is argued that there is an overemphasis on volunteering within, and for, state and formal organisations. We offer a broader definition of 'informal volunteerism' that recognises the many ways ordinary citizens volunteer their time, knowledge, skills and resources to help others in times of crisis. Two broad types of informal volunteerism are identified - emergent and extending - and the implications for emergency and disaster management are considered. Particular attention is given to increasing 'digital volunteerism' due to the greater accessibility of sophisticated but simple information and communication technologies. Culture and legal liability are identified as key barriers to greater participation of informal volunteers. We argue that more adaptive and inclusive models of emergency and disaster management are needed to harness the capacities and resilience that exist within and across communities.

314 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The geographic approach proposed here provides a reliable quantitative indicator of the usefulness of messages from social media by leveraging the existing knowledge about natural hazards such as floods, thus being valuable for disaster management in both crisis response and preventive monitoring.
Abstract: In recent years, social media emerged as a potential resource to improve the management of crisis situations such as disasters triggered by natural hazards. Although there is a growing research body concerned with the analysis of the usage of social media during disasters, most previous work has concentrated on using social media as a stand-alone information source, whereas its combination with other information sources holds a still underexplored potential. This article presents an approach to enhance the identification of relevant messages from social media that relies upon the relations between georeferenced social media messages as Volunteered Geographic Information and geographic features of flood phenomena as derived from authoritative data sensor data, hydrological data and digital elevation models. We apply this approach to examine the micro-blogging text messages of the Twitter platform tweets produced during the River Elbe Flood of June 2013 in Germany. This is performed by means of a statistical analysis aimed at identifying general spatial patterns in the occurrence of flood-related tweets that may be associated with proximity to and severity of flood events. The results show that messages near up to 10 km to severely flooded areas have a much higher probability of being related to floods. In this manner, we conclude that the geographic approach proposed here provides a reliable quantitative indicator of the usefulness of messages from social media by leveraging the existing knowledge about natural hazards such as floods, thus being valuable for disaster management in both crisis response and preventive monitoring.

301 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper makes an initial effort in coding social media messages into different themes within different disaster phases during a time-critical crisis by manually examining more than 10,000 tweets generated during a natural disaster and referencing the findings from the relevant literature and official government procedures involving different disaster stages.
Abstract: Social media data have emerged as a new source for detecting and monitoring disaster events. A number of recent studies have suggested that social media data streams can be used to mine actionable data for emergency response and relief operation. However, no effort has been made to classify social media data into stages of disaster management (mitigation, preparedness, emergency response, and recovery), which has been used as a common reference for disaster researchers and emergency managers for decades to organize information and streamline priorities and activities during the course of a disaster. This paper makes an initial effort in coding social media messages into different themes within different disaster phases during a time-critical crisis by manually examining more than 10,000 tweets generated during a natural disaster and referencing the findings from the relevant literature and official government procedures involving different disaster stages. Moreover, a classifier based on logistic regression is trained and used for automatically mining and classifying the social media messages into various topic categories during various disaster phases. The classification results are necessary and useful for emergency managers to identify the transition between phases of disaster management, the timing of which is usually unknown and varies across disaster events, so that they can take action quickly and efficiently in the impacted communities. Information generated from the classification can also be used by the social science research communities to study various aspects of preparedness, response, impact and recovery.

205 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus mainly on operational and tactical drone application in disaster management using a time-scaled separation of the application, like pre-disaster activity, activity immediately after the occurrence of a disaster and the activity after the primary disaster elimination.
Abstract: Introduction: Besides the military and commercial applications of drones, there is no doubt in their efficiency in case of supporting emergency management. This paper evaluates some experiences and describes some initiatives using drones to support disaster management. Method: This paper focuses mainly on operational and tactical drone application in disaster management using a time-scaled separation of the application, like pre-disaster activity, activity immediately after the occurrence of a disaster and the activity after the primary disaster elimination. Paper faces to 5 disasters, like nuclear accidents, dangerous material releases, floods, earthquakes and forest fires. Author gathered international examples and used own experiences in this field. Results and discussion: An earthquake is a rapid escalating disaster, where, many times, there is no other way for a rapid damage assessment than aerial reconnaissance. For special rescue teams, the drone application can help much in a rapid location selection, where enough place remained to survive for victims. Floods are typical for a slow onset disaster. In contrast, managing floods is a very complex and difficult task. It requires continuous monitoring of dykes, flooded and threatened areas. Drone can help managers largely keeping an area under observation. Forest fires are disasters, where the tactical application of drone is already well developed. Drone can be used for fire detection, intervention monitoring and also for post-fire monitoring. In case of nuclear accident or hazardous material leakage drone is also a very effective or can be the only one tool for supporting disaster management.

192 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) is responsible for flood management in Malaysia and as an engineering-based organization, DID's approach is largely focused on structural measures in controlling floods and lacks a holistic approach towards flood management.
Abstract: Malaysia lies in a geographically stable region, relatively free from natural disasters, but is affected by flooding, landslides, haze and other man-made disasters. Disaster management in Malaysia is traditionally based almost entirely on a government-centric top-down approach. Because Malaysia’s main risk comes from flooding, national disaster mitigation institutions largely target monsoon flooding. However, this mechanism is less than effective and should be re-modeled into something more pro-active. The Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) is responsible for flood management. However, as an engineering-based organization, DID’s approach is largely focused on structural measures in controlling floods and lacks a holistic approach towards flood management. There is also a need for greater stakeholder participation, especially from NGOs at all levels in the disaster cycle. Malaysia should build capacity for NGOs, local communities and disaster victims. Disaster management mechanisms should also adopt more non-structural measures, bring in state-of-the-art technology and cooperate internationally with other countries for addressing transboundary disasters.

153 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors have used Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach to interpret the interdependency among the selected CSFs and MICMAC (Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un Classement (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification)) analysis is also used to illustrate the relative driving and dependence power among selected factors.
Abstract: With increasing frequency and intensity of disasters and large number of people being affected by them, the subject needs more attention and a planned approach. And in order to reduce the adverse impact of disasters and to improve the disaster relief practices, academicians and practitioners are emphasizing on a number of diverse factors of humanitarian supply chain by segmenting them into different clusters. This research is intended to address the critical success factors (CSFs) of humanitarian supply chain which emerges during disaster preparedness and immediate response phase. Through a review of literature and expert consultation, 12 critical success factors leading to responsive humanitarian supply chains have been identified. In this paper, the authors have used Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach to interpret the interdependency among the selected CSFs. In addition, MICMAC (Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un Classement (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification)) analysis is also used to illustrate the relative driving and dependence power among the selected factors. This paper argues that, Government policies and Organizational structure is the most dominating factor which has the highest driving power and the minimum dependence power as it drive others factors and forms the base of interpretive structure model. The outcome of this research presents the insight of humanitarian supply chain practices and discussion from both a researcher and managerial perspective is also summarized.

145 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The effectiveness of the model in both decision making and navigation is discussed by demonstrating the model's indoor spatial analysis capabilities and how it improves destination travel times.

143 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: A survey on multihop ad hoc network paradigms for disaster scenarios highlights their applicability to important tasks in disaster relief operations and discusses the open challenges and the future research directions for each different ad hoc paradigm.
Abstract: Disastrous events are one of the most challenging applications of multihop ad hoc networks due to possible damages of existing telecommunication infrastructure. The deployed cellular communication infrastructure might be partially or completely destroyed after a natural disaster. Multihop ad hoc communication is an interesting alternative to deal with the lack of communications in disaster scenarios. They have evolved since their origin, leading to different ad hoc paradigms such as MANETs, VANETs, DTNs, or WSNs. This paper presents a survey on multihop ad hoc network paradigms for disaster scenarios. It highlights their applicability to important tasks in disaster relief operations. More specifically, the paper reviews the main work found in the literature, which employed ad hoc networks in disaster scenarios. In addition, it discusses the open challenges and the future research directions for each different ad hoc paradigm.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An integrated multi-objective optimization model that combines resource allocation with emergency distribution is developed, where a time space network is used to incorporate the frequent information and decision updates in a rolling horizon approach as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In this paper, we characterize the humanitarian objectives of emergency resource allocation and distribution in disaster response operations. We formulate the humanitarian principles as three objective functions, i.e., lifesaving utility, delay cost and fairness. An integrated multi-objective optimization model that combines resource allocation with emergency distribution is developed, where a time space network is used to incorporate the frequent information and decision updates in a rolling horizon approach. The proposed model is shown to be a convex quadratic network flow problem, for which we design an efficient Variational Inequality algorithm. Computational results are reported to illustrate the performance of the proposed model and algorithm.

Journal ArticleDOI
18 Feb 2015-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: It is found that differences in users’ network centrality effectively translate into moderate awareness advantage (up to 26 hours); and that geo-location of users within or outside of the hurricane-affected area plays a significant role in determining the scale of such an advantage.
Abstract: Information flow during catastrophic events is a critical aspect of disaster management. Modern communication platforms, in particular online social networks, provide an opportunity to study such flow and derive early-warning sensors, thus improving emergency preparedness and response. Performance of the social networks sensor method, based on topological and behavioral properties derived from the “friendship paradox”, is studied here for over 50 million Twitter messages posted before, during, and after Hurricane Sandy. We find that differences in users’ network centrality effectively translate into moderate awareness advantage (up to 26 hours); and that geo-location of users within or outside of the hurricane-affected area plays a significant role in determining the scale of such an advantage. Emotional response appears to be universal regardless of the position in the network topology, and displays characteristic, easily detectable patterns, opening a possibility to implement a simple “sentiment sensing” technique that can detect and locate disasters.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This investigation of VGI for disaster management provides broader insight into key challenges and impacts of V GI on geospatial data practices and the wider field of geographical science.
Abstract: The immediacy of locational information requirements and importance of data currency for natural disaster events highlights the value of volunteered geographic information (VGI) in all stages of disaster management, including prevention, preparation, response, and recovery. The practice of private citizens generating online geospatial data presents new opportunities for the creation and dissemination of disaster-related geographic data from a dense network of intelligent observers. VGI technologies enable rapid sharing of diverse geographic information for disaster management at a fraction of the resource costs associated with traditional data collection and dissemination, but they also present new challenges. These include a lack of data quality assurance and issues surrounding data management, liability, security, and the digital divide. There is a growing need for researchers to explore and understand the implications of these data and data practices for disaster management. In this article, we review the current state of knowledge in this emerging field and present recommendations for future research. Significantly, we note further research is warranted in the pre-event phases of disaster management, where VGI may present an opportunity to connect and engage individuals in disaster preparation and strengthen community resilience to potential disaster events. Our investigation of VGI for disaster management provides broader insight into key challenges and impacts of VGI on geospatial data practices and the wider field of geographical science.

Journal ArticleDOI
02 Jul 2015-Sensors
TL;DR: A UAV deployment exercise was jointly organized with the Regional Civil Protection authority, mainly aimed at assessing the operational procedures to deploy UAVs for mapping purposes and the usability of the acquired data in an emergency response context.
Abstract: Exploiting the decrease of costs related to UAV technology, the humanitarian community started piloting the use of similar systems in humanitarian crises several years ago in different application fields, i.e., disaster mapping and information gathering, community capacity building, logistics and even transportation of goods. Part of the author’s group, composed of researchers in the field of applied geomatics, has been piloting the use of UAVs since 2006, with a specific focus on disaster management application. In the framework of such activities, a UAV deployment exercise was jointly organized with the Regional Civil Protection authority, mainly aimed at assessing the operational procedures to deploy UAVs for mapping purposes and the usability of the acquired data in an emergency response context. In the paper the technical features of the UAV platforms will be described, comparing the main advantages/disadvantages of fixed-wing versus rotor platforms. The main phases of the adopted operational procedure will be discussed and assessed especially in terms of time required to carry out each step, highlighting potential bottlenecks and in view of the national regulation framework, which is rapidly evolving. Different methodologies for the processing of the acquired data will be described and discussed, evaluating the fitness for emergency response applications.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Feb 2015
TL;DR: The research advances in evolutionary algorithms applied to disaster relief operations are surveyed, and representative works on EAs for solving the problems are summarized to give readers a general overview of the state-of-the-arts and facilitate them to find suitable methods in practical applications.
Abstract: Graphical abstractDisplay Omitted HighlightsWe provide an overview of evolutionary algorithms for disaster relief operations.We show major strengths and shortcomings of the state-of-the-arts.We discuss potential directions for future research. Effective planning and scheduling of relief operations play a key role in saving lives and reducing damage in disasters. These emergency operations involve a variety of challenging optimization problems, for which evolutionary computation methods are well suited. In this paper we survey the research advances in evolutionary algorithms (EAs) applied to disaster relief operations. The operational problems are classified into five typical categories, and representative works on EAs for solving the problems are summarized, in order to give readers a general overview of the state-of-the-arts and facilitate them to find suitable methods in practical applications. Several state-of-art methods are compared on a set of real-world emergency transportation problem instances, and some lessons are drawn from the experimental analysis. Finally, the strengths, limitations and future directions in the area are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Assessing the application of behavioral theories and models to disaster and emergency preparedness across the world raised issues regarding their utility in countries, particularly in Asisa and the Middle East, where cultural characteristics are very different to those prevailing in the Western countries in which theories have been developed and tested.
Abstract: Background: Preparedness for disasters and emergencies at individual, community and organizational levels could be more effective tools in mitigating (the growing incidence) of disaster risk and ameliorating their impacts. That is, to play more significant roles in disaster risk reduction (DRR). Preparedness efforts focus on changing human behaviors in ways that reduce people’s risk and increase their ability to cope with hazard consequences. While preparedness initiatives have used behavioral theories to facilitate DRR, many theories have been used and little is known about which behavioral theories are more commonly used, where they have been used, and why they have been preferred over alternative behavioral theories. Given that theories differ with respect to the variables used and the relationship between them, a systematic analysis is an essential first step to answering questions about the relative utility of theories and providing a more robust evidence base for preparedness components of DRR strategies. The goal of this systematic review was to search and summarize evidence by assessing the application of behavioral theories to disaster and emergency health preparedness across the world. Methods: The protocol was prepared in which the study objectives, questions, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and sensitive search strategies were developed and pilot-tested at the beginning of the study. Using selected keywords, articles were searched mainly in PubMed, Scopus, Mosby’s Index (Nursing Index) and Safetylit databases. Articles were assessed based on their titles, abstracts, and their full texts. The data were extracted from selected articles and results were presented using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results: In total, 2040 titles, 450 abstracts and 62 full texts of articles were assessed for eligibility criteria, whilst five articles were archived from other sources, and then finally, 33 articles were selected. The Health Belief Model (HBM), Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Cognitive Theories were most commonly applied to influenza (H1N1 and H5N1), floods, and earthquake hazards. Studies were predominantly conducted in USA (13 studies). In Asia, where the annual number of disasters and victims exceeds those in other continents, only three studies were identified. Overall, the main constructs of HBM (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers), EPPM (higher threat and higher efficacy), TPB (attitude and subjective norm), and the majority of the constructs utilized in Social Cognitive Theories were associated with preparedness for diverse hazards. However, while all the theories described above describe the relationships between constituent variables, with the exception of research on Social Cognitive Theories, few studies of other theories and models used path analysis to identify the interdependence relationships between the constructs described in the respective theories/models. Similarly, few identified how other mediating variables could influence disaster and emergency preparedness. Conclusions: The existing evidence on the application of behavioral theories and models to disaster and emergency preparedness is chiefly from developed countries. This raises issues regarding their utility in countries, particularly in Asisa and the Middle East, where cultural characteristics are very different to those prevailing in the Western countries in which theories have been developed and tested. The theories and models discussed here have been applied predominantly to disease outbreaks and natural hazards, and information on their utility as guides to preparedness for man-made hazards is lacking. Hence, future studies related to behavioral theories and models addressing preparedness need to target developing countries where disaster risk and the consequent need for preparedness is high. A need for additional work on demonstrating the relationships of variables and constructs, including more clearly articulating roles for mediating effects was also identified in this analysis.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper proposes a network architecture based on the integration of satellite and LTE networks for both infrastructure-based and infrastructure-less scenarios to provide field operators and people in distress with transparent accessibility, coverage guarantees and broadband performance when terrestrial infrastructures are lacking, and to expand their coverage, capacity and resilience otherwise.
Abstract: Wireless communications are critical for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) professionals during the emergency operations that follow natural or man-made disasters, scenarios in which both commercial and dedicated terrestrial networks often fail to provide the necessary support. The reason is threefold: they simply get destroyed by the disaster, they cannot sustain the sudden surge of network demand or they fail to deliver the necessary bandwidth and/or other QoS guarantees. Because LTE is expected to become the main wireless technology for broadband communication, a lot of studies have been devoted to assess its compliance for PPDR purposes and to find suitable architectural solutions able to meet mission-critical requirements. This approach is surely worthy, but it is based on the assumption that infrastructure-based terrestrial systems are reliable. As a consequence, in worstcase emergency scenarios appropriate guarantees can be provided only in the hypothesis of huge investment costs. Recent developments in satellite technologies are bringing the availability of non-terrestrial high performance channels, with better properties when comparing to LTE for what regards availability and reliability. On this basis, the paper proposes a network architecture based on the integration of satellite and LTE networks for both infrastructure-based and infrastructure-less scenarios. The proposal aims to provide field operators and people in distress with transparent accessibility, coverage guarantees and broadband performance when terrestrial infrastructures are lacking, and to expand their coverage, capacity and resilience otherwise.

BookDOI
24 Apr 2015
TL;DR: The culture of (de-)constructing disasters as mentioned in this paper has been identified as a major cause of vulnerability to disaster risk, and the cultural sense of disaster risk has been studied extensively in the literature.
Abstract: Introduction The Editors 1 The Culture of (De-)Constructing Disasters. 1.1 Framing Disasters in the 'Global Village': Cultures of Rationality in Risk, Security, and News Kenneth Hewitt 1.2 Conversations in Catastrophe: Neoliberalism and the cultural construction of disaster risk Anthony Oliver-Smith 1.3 Design by Disasters: Seismic Architecture and Cultural Adaptation to Earthquakes Greg Bankoff 1.4 'Learning from History'? Chances, Problems and Limits of Learning from Historical Natural Disasters Gerrit Schenk 1.5 Disasters, Climate Change and the Significance of 'Culture' Terry Cannon 2 Cultural Linkages to Vulnerability. 2.1 Cultures and contra-cultures: Social divisions and behavioural origins of vulnerabilities to disaster risk James Lewis 2.2 The cultural sense of disasters. Practices and singularities in the context of HIV/AIDS Klaus Geiselhart, Fabian Schlatter, Benedikt Orlowski, and Fred Kruger 2.3 Religion and Belief Systems: Drivers of Vulnerability, Entry Points for Resilience Building? E. Lisa F. Schipper 2.4 The deep roots of nightmares Andrew Crabtree 3 Unequal Risks: Staging and Reducing Disaster Risk 3.1 Celebrity Culture, Entertainment Values ...and Disaster David Alexander 3.2 Disaster Management Culture in Bangladesh: The Enrolment of Local Knowledge by Decision Makers Brian Cook 3.3 Culture's Role in Disaster Risk Reduction: Combining Knowledge Systems on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Ilan Kelman, JC Gaillard, Jessica Mercer, Kate Crowley, Sarah Marsh, and Julie Morin 3.4 Culture, Gender and Disaster: From Vulnerability to Capacities JC Gaillard, Maureen Fordham, Kristinne Sanz 3.5 A Culture of Resilience and Preparedness - the Last Mile case study Tsunami Risk - Padang City, Indonesia Joern Birkmann Neysa Setiadi and Georg Fiedler 3.6 Participative Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment and the Example of the Tao People (Taiwan) Martin Voss and Leberecht Funk

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors aim to develop a framework that explains both the failure and success of crisis coordination by exploring the relevant literature, reformulating what coordination is and distilling from research the factors that cause failures and success.
Abstract: In virtually every assessment of responses to large-scale crises and disasters, coordination is identified as a critical failure factor. After the crisis, official committees and political opponents often characterize the early phases of the response as a ‘failure to coordinate.’ Not surprisingly, improved coordination quickly emerges as the prescribed solution. Coordination, then, is apparently both the problem and the solution. But the proposed solutions rarely solve the problem: coordination continues to mar most crises and disasters. In the absence of a shared body of knowledge on coordination, it is hard to formulate a normative framework that allows for systematic assessment of coordination in times of crisis. As coordination is widely perceived as an important function of crisis and disaster management, this absence undermines a fair and balanced assessment of crisis management performance. This paper seeks to address that void. We aim to develop a framework that explains both the failure and success of crisis coordination. We do this by exploring the relevant literature, reformulating what coordination is and distilling from research the factors that cause failure and success.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A novel model to explain the number of tweets by mass, material, access, and motivation (MMAM) is developed and it is found that community socioeconomic factors are more important than population size and damage levels in predicting disaster-related tweets.
Abstract: Social media data are increasingly being used in disaster management for information dissemination, establishment of situational awareness of the “big picture” of the disaster impact and emerged incidences over time, and public peer-to-peer backchannel communications Before we can fully trust the situational awareness established from social media data, we need to ask whether there are biases in data generation: Can we simply associate more tweets with more severe disaster impacts and therefore higher needs for relief and assistance in that area? If we rely on social media for real-time information dissemination, who can we reach and who has been left out? Due to the uneven access to social media and heterogeneous motivations in social media usage, situational awareness based on social media data may not reveal the true picture In this study, we examine the spatial heterogeneity in the generation of tweets after a major disaster We developed a novel model to explain the number of tweets by mass, material, access, and motivation (MMAM) Empirical analysis of tweets about Hurricane Sandy in New York City largely confirmed the MMAM model We also found that community socioeconomic factors are more important than population size and damage levels in predicting disaster-related tweets

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey questionnaire was designed, tested and refined to incorporate the views of the managers involved in the relief operations of the disaster that occurred in the Uttarakhand (a Northern state in India) on June 14, 2013 to empirically verify the barriers to coordination.
Abstract: In the wake of disaster, several organizations work for the welfare of the disaster victims, although lack of coordination among them hampers the performance of relief operations. This study sets out to explore and prioritize the coordination barriers in the humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM), particularly in the Indian context to enhance the performance of relief operations. The study is divided into three phases. Initially, barriers to coordination were identified through an extensive literature review, allied to brainstorming sessions with experts. These were then grouped into 5 categories, i.e. management barriers, technological barriers, cultural barriers, people barriers and organizational barriers. Secondly, a survey questionnaire was designed, tested and refined to incorporate the views of the managers involved in the relief operations of the disaster that occurred in the Uttarakhand (a Northern state in India) on June 14, 2013 in order to empirically verify the barriers to coordination. Finally, barriers were prioritized on the basis of their severity using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) which considers the uncertainty of the data and impreciseness rather than crisp value. The results indicate that lack of top management commitment, improper organizational structure to create and share knowledge and lack of policy for coordination are the major barriers. These are the areas that need to be handled first in order to remove coordination barriers. The findings of the study throw some new light on the coordination issues in HSCM and provide a more effective, efficient, robust and systematic way to overcome coordination barriers.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored factors that affect community resilience from a community perspective and found that connected communities with pre-existing community infrastructure (e.g. community and tribal organisations, local leaders) found it easier to adapt after the earthquakes.
Abstract: Internationally, enhancing community resilience is considered key to disaster management. Factors that affect community resilience from a community perspective are explored across six communities. The research occurred following a series of devastating earthquakes in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Results show that connected communities with pre-existing community infrastructure (e.g. community and tribal organisations, local leaders) found it easier to adapt after the earthquakes. Existing hardship was exacerbated by disaster. The research sheds light on how to foster resilient communities and the importance of doing this because resilient communities cope better with, and recover faster from, crises. However, communities need to be sufficiently resourced to carry out their vital role.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Disaster mental health is a continuous and integrated cyclical process of planning, organising, coordinating and implementing measures to prevent and to manage disaster effectively, so it is time to integrate public health principles into disaster mental health.
Abstract: Disaster mental health is based on the principles of 'preventive medicine' This principle has necessitated a paradigm shift from relief centered post-disaster management to a holistic, multi-dimensional integrated community approach of health promotion, disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation. This has ignited the paradigm shift from curative to preventive aspects of disaster management. This can be understood on the basis of six 'R's such as Readiness (Preparedness), Response (Immediate action), Relief (Sustained rescue work), Rehabilitation (Long term remedial measures using community resources), Recovery (Returning to normalcy) and Resilience (Fostering). Prevalence of mental health problems in disaster affected population is found to be higher by two to three times than that of the general population. Along with the diagnosable mental disorders, affected community also harbours large number of sub-syndromal symptoms. Majority of the acute phase reactions and disorders are self-limiting, whereas long-term phase disorders require assistance from mental health professionals. Role of psychotropic medication is very limited in preventing mental health morbidity. The role of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in mitigating the mental health morbidity appears to be promising. Role of Psychological First Aid (PFA) and debriefing is not well-established. Disaster management is a continuous and integrated cyclical process of planning, organising, coordinating and implementing measures to prevent and to manage disaster effectively. Thus, now it is time to integrate public health principles into disaster mental health.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
23 Mar 2015
TL;DR: This paper presents service architecture for emergency alert, using Fog computing, a smart phone based service that provides a quick way of notifying the relevant emergency dealing department, utilizing the services of Fog for offloading as well as pre-processing purposes.
Abstract: Timeliness is one the most important factors in emergency management. Emergency notification mechanism has to be hassle free and quick, in order to have efficient response for any disaster, health-fix, act of terrorism, etc. In this paper, we present service architecture for emergency alert, using Fog computing. Fog computing brings cloud resources close to the underlying devices and IoTs, which makes it ideal for latency sensitive services. Furthermore, Fog is used for offloading resource constrained devices. Our smart phone based service, known as Emergency Help Alert Mobile Cloud (E-HAMC) provides a quick way of notifying the relevant emergency dealing department, utilizing the services of Fog for offloading as well as pre-processing purposes. The service sends the location of incident and contacts the appropriate emergency dealing department automatically through already stored contact numbers. The emergency related information is then synchronized automatically from Fog to the Cloud, allowing further analysis and improvement in safety of the people and creates extended portfolio of services for the concerned authorities as well as the users. Performance in most certain scenarios is also evaluated and presented in this study, which shows the applicability of our system and its future prospects.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a bonding and bridging strategy for interorganizational collaboration is analyzed to determine how these patterns of organizational relations might enhance the level of organizational resilience in each hierarchical and horizontal emergency management network.
Abstract: Disaster scholars have investigated the nature of organizational resilience, but extant research has not examined various network strategies within hierarchical and horizontal collaboration structures. The question of how the structural arrangements for collaboration within emergency management networks influence disaster resilience remains unanswered. This study begins to fill this lacuna by analyzing a bonding and bridging strategy for interorganizational collaboration to determine how these patterns of organizational relations might enhance the level of organizational resilience in each hierarchical and horizontal emergency management network. Bonding strategies highlight the importance of trust and information redundancy to emergency preparedness and response. Bridging strategies capture the tendency for local actors to seek partners to obtain crucial information and resources across the region. The results support the study hypothesis that bridging strategies in hierarchical emergency management networks have a positive effect on the level of organizational resilience. Neither type of network strategy influenced resilience in horizontal network structures. The findings confirm that the coordinating role of the national and provincial governments is critical to the building of a resilient community in terms of interorganizational collaboration, and demonstrate the steering role of the national and provincial governments with regard to resilience.

Reference EntryDOI
03 Sep 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, emergency and disaster planning involves a coordinated, co-operative process of preparing to match urgent needs with available resources, which is referred to as emergency planning, and is an exploratory process that provides generic procedures for managing unforeseen impacts.
Abstract: Emergency and disaster planning involves a coordinated, co-operative process of preparing to match urgent needs with available resources. The phases are research, writing, dissemination, testing, and updating. Hence, an emergency plan needs to be a living document that is periodically adapted to changing circumstances and that provides a guide to the protocols, procedures, and division of responsibilities in emergency response. Emergency planning is an exploratory process that provides generic procedures for managing unforeseen impacts and should use carefully constructed scenarios to anticipate the needs that will be generated by foreseeable hazards when they strike. Plans need to be developed for specific sectors, such as education, health, industry, and commerce. They also need to exist in a nested hierarchy that extends from the local emergency response (the most fundamental level), through the regional tiers of government, to the national and international levels. Failure to plan can be construed as negligence because it would involve failing to anticipate needs that cannot be responded to adequately by improvisation during an emergency. Plans are needed, not only for responding to the impacts of disaster, but also to maintain business continuity while managing the crisis, and to guide recovery and reconstruction effectively. Dealing with disaster is a social process that requires public support for planning initiatives and participation by a wide variety of responders, technical experts and citizens. It needs to be sustainable in the light of challenges posed by non-renewable resource utilization, climate change, population growth, and imbalances of wealth. Although, at its most basic level, emergency planning is little more than codified common sense, the increasing complexity of modern disasters has required substantial professionalization of the field. This is especially true in light of the increasing role in emergency response of information and communications technology. Disaster planners and coordinators are resource managers, and in the future, they will need to cope with complex and sophisticated transfers of human and material resources. In a globalizing world that is subject to accelerating physical, social, and economic change, the challenge of managing emergencies well depends on effective planning and foresight, and the ability to connect disparate elements of the emergency response into coherent strategies.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a performative approach that highlights the instability, contingency, and ambiguity within attempts to govern uncertainties is proposed. But it does not address the specificities of how resilience knowledge is performed and what it does in diverse contexts.
Abstract: This article critically examines the performative politics of resilience in the context of the current UK Civil Contingencies (UKCC) agenda. It places resilience within a wider politics of (in)security that seeks to govern risk by folding uncertainty into everyday practices that plan for, pre-empt, and imagine extreme events. Moving beyond existing diagnoses of resilience based either on ecological adaptation or neoliberal governmentality, we develop a performative approach that highlights the instability, contingency, and ambiguity within attempts to govern uncertainties. This performative politics of resilience is investigated via two case studies that explore 1) critical national infrastructure protection and 2) humanitarian emergency preparedness. By drawing attention to the particularities of how resilient knowledge is performed and what it does in diverse contexts, we repoliticize resilience as an ongoing, incomplete, and potentially self-undermining discourse.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The aim is to identify causes for knowledge fragmentation at different phases in the disaster management continuum, and to strengthen both individual and institutional learning, as well as to determine social and functional changes required to address pressing issues of disaster risk reduction, including climate change adaptation, in a competent manner.
Abstract: Within the context of disaster risk reduction, including climate change adaptation, significant thematic discourse has been dedicated to the difficulty of implementing research-based knowledge in policy and practise. Not only has the discussion focused on the causes of this issue, but many recommendations for enhancing the use of information and knowledge have also been made. The authors first frame the knowledge challenges and, second, introduce a systematic means to identify the factors hindering the use of information and knowledge. The approach proposed allows determining core barriers in the co-production, exchange, and use of knowledge. Subsequently, we illustrate where further advancement is needed in the field of knowledge development, means of transmission and use for disaster risk reduction. We suggest a method that analyses cases considering the success or failure of information flows from and to different stakeholder groups. The aim is to identify causes for knowledge fragmentation at different phases in the disaster management continuum, and, subsequently, to strengthen both individual and institutional learning, as well as to determine social and functional changes required to address pressing issues of disaster risk reduction, including climate change adaptation, in a competent manner.

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TL;DR: In this paper, a model to assist decision makers in the logistics of a flood emergency is presented, which attempts to optimize inventory levels for emergency supplies as well as vehicles availability, in order to deliver enough supplies to satisfy demands with a given probability.
Abstract: This article presents a model to assist decision makers in the logistics of a flood emergency. The model attempts to optimize inventory levels for emergency supplies as well as vehicles’ availability, in order to deliver enough supplies to satisfy demands with a given probability. A spatio-temporal stochastic process represents the flood occurrence. The model is approximately solved with sample average approximation. The article presents a method to quantify the impact of the various intervening logistics parameters. An example is provided and a sensitivity analysis is performed. The studied example shows large differences between the impacts of logistics parameters such as number of products, number of periods, inventory capacity and degree of demand fulfillment on the logistics cost and time. This methodology emerges as a valuable tool to help decision makers to allocate resources both before and after a flood occurs, with the aim of minimizing the undesirable effects of such events.