Showing papers on "Emergency management published in 2018"

Drone networks: Communications, coordination, and sensing

Abstract: Small drones are being utilized in monitoring, transport, safety and disaster management, and other domains. Envisioning that drones form autonomous networks incorporated into the air traffic, we describe a high-level architecture for the design of a collaborative aerial system consisting of drones with on-board sensors and embedded processing, coordination, and networking capabilities. We implement a multi-drone system consisting of quadcopters and demonstrate its potential in disaster assistance, search and rescue, and aerial monitoring. Furthermore, we illustrate design challenges and present potential solutions based on the lessons learned so far.

Big Data in Natural Disaster Management: A Review

Abstract: Undoubtedly, the age of big data has opened new options for natural disaster management, primarily because of the varied possibilities it provides in visualizing, analyzing, and predicting natural disasters. From this perspective, big data has radically changed the ways through which human societies adopt natural disaster management strategies to reduce human suffering and economic losses. In a world that is now heavily dependent on information technology, the prime objective of computer experts and policy makers is to make the best of big data by sourcing information from varied formats and storing it in ways that it can be effectively used during different stages of natural disaster management. This paper aimed at making a systematic review of the literature in analyzing the role of big data in natural disaster management and highlighting the present status of the technology in providing meaningful and effective solutions in natural disaster management. The paper has presented the findings of several researchers on varied scientific and technological perspectives that have a bearing on the efficacy of big data in facilitating natural disaster management. In this context, this paper reviews the major big data sources, the associated achievements in different disaster management phases, and emerging technological topics associated with leveraging this new ecosystem of Big Data to monitor and detect natural hazards, mitigate their effects, assist in relief efforts, and contribute to the recovery and reconstruction processes.

A drone fleet model for last-mile distribution in disaster relief operations

Abstract: Humanitarian assistance operates under conditions characterized by the collapse of health facilities, the disruption of health systems and the breakdown of already on-going treatments in case of emergency. In addition to these circumstances, aid agencies in developing countries are often confronted with poor or non-existent infrastructure that is further disrupted in case of disasters, i.e., destroyed roads and debris-covered areas which hinder medical teams in reaching remote locations. As the supply via trucks and helicopters is not applicable in this situation, alternative means of transport have to be considered. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are receiving increased attention by humanitarian organizations as they can help overcoming last-mile distribution problems, i.e., inaccessibility to cut-off regions. This paper considers drone applications in last-mile distribution in humanitarian logistics and presents an optimization model for the delivery of multiple packages of light-weight relief items (e.g. vaccine, water purification tablets, etc.) via drones to a certain number of remote locations within a disaster prone area. The objective of the model is to minimize the total travelling distance (or time/cost) of the drone under payload and energy constraints while recharging stations are installed to allow the extension of the operating distance of the drone. The implementation of different priority policies is discussed. The model is solved as a mixed integer linear program and illustrated numerically with different scenarios.

Combining machine-learning topic models and spatiotemporal analysis of social media data for disaster footprint and damage assessment

Abstract: Current disaster management procedures to cope with human and economic losses and to manage a disaster’s aftermath suffer from a number of shortcomings like high temporal lags or limited temporal a...

Mining Twitter Data for Improved Understanding of Disaster Resilience

Abstract: Coastal communities faced with multiple hazards have shown uneven responses and behaviors. These responses and behaviors could be better understood by analyzing real-time social media data through categorizing them into the three phases of the emergency management: preparedness, response, and recovery. This study analyzes the spatial–temporal patterns of Twitter activities during Hurricane Sandy, which struck the U.S. Northeast on 29 October 2012. The study area includes 126 counties affected by Hurricane Sandy. The objectives are threefold: (1) to derive a set of common indexes from Twitter data so that they can be used for emergency management and resilience analysis; (2) to examine whether there are significant geographical and social disparities in disaster-related Twitter use; and (3) to test whether Twitter data can improve postdisaster damage estimation. Three corresponding hypotheses were tested. Results show that common indexes derived from Twitter data, including ratio, normalized ratio, and sen...

Social Media in Disaster Communication

Abstract: This chapter surveys the rapid rise of social media in a range of disaster experiences, reviewing topics of citizen reporting, community-oriented computing, distributed problem solving, and digital volunteerism as forms of socio-technical innovation, as well as topics of situational awareness and veracity as opportunities and challenges that arise from the social media data deluge. The chapter also reviews the research that examines the inclusion of social media technology and data in existing emergency management work. In reflecting on the decade-old field of research, the authors warn of the danger of inadvertently collapsing all “crisis” experiences together without distinction, which tends to happen because social media platforms cross-cut all emergency situations. In an attempt to isolate what social media newly contributes, the tendency is to fail to consider how non-technological factors strongly influence the use of social media itself on collective socio-behavioral scales.

Flood hazards: household vulnerability and resilience in disaster-prone districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan

Abstract: Pakistan is alarmingly exposed and vulnerable to flood disasters as a result of rapid urbanization that has not taken into account the threats posed by climate change. The devastating impacts of floods and other natural disasters put extra pressure on the country’s budget and has driven the country’s leadership to adopt a proactive approach instead of traditional, aid-based, approach, one that encourages the inclusion of disaster risk reduction measures within local disaster management policies. This research elaborates household vulnerability and resilience to flood disaster within two districts within Pakistan. It uses a dataset of 600 households collected through face-to-face interviews from two districts within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that were severely affected by the 2010 flood and data from the Directorate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority. In a second step, we assigned weights to the selected variables for vulnerability (exposure, susceptibility and adaptive capacity) and resilience (with social, physical, economic, and institutional components) and used a subjective method (based on expert judgment) to weight these. The survey findings revealed that both study areas were highly vulnerable and had low resilience to flood disasters. The study findings indicated that community households in the flood-prone areas of Nowshera district were more vulnerable and less resilient than those in Charsadda, with a higher composite vulnerability index scoring and a lower composite resilience index score. This study shows that provincial and local disaster management authorities can play a vital role in reducing vulnerability and that more efforts are required to strengthen social, physical, economic, and institutional resilience through capacity-building training, preparedness, and awareness building about preventing and mitigating flood damage.

Location and Emergency Inventory Pre-Positioning for Disaster Response Operations: Min-Max Robust Model and a Case Study of Yushu Earthquake

Abstract: Pre-positioning emergency inventory in selected facilities is commonly adopted to prepare for potential disaster threat. In this paper, we simultaneously optimize the decisions of facility location, emergency inventory pre-positioning, and relief delivery operations within a single- commodity disaster relief network. A min-max robust model is proposed to capture the un-certainties in both the left- and right-hand-side parameters in the constraints. The former corresponds to the proportions of the pre-positioned inventories usable after a disaster attack, while the latter represents the demands of the inventories and the road capacities in the disaster-affected areas. We study how to solve the robust model effciently and analyze a special case that minimizes the deprivation cost. The application of the model is illustrated by a case study of the 2010 earthquake attack at Yushu County in Qinghai Province of PR China. The advantage of the min-max robust model is demonstrated through comparison with the deterministic model and the two-stage stochastic model for the same problem. Experiment variants also show that the robust model outperforms the other two approaches for instances with significantly larger scales. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Public health emergency preparedness: a framework to promote resilience

Abstract: Emergencies and disasters impact population health. Despite the importance of upstream readiness, a persistent challenge for public health practitioners is defining what it means to be prepared. There is a knowledge gap in that existing frameworks lack consideration for complexity relevant to health systems and the emergency context. The objective of this study is to describe the essential elements of a resilient public health system and how the elements interact as a complex adaptive system. This study used a qualitative design employing the Structured Interview Matrix facilitation technique in six focus groups across Canada. Focus group participants were practitioners from public health and related sectors. Data collection generated qualitative data on the essential elements, and interactions between elements, for a resilient public health system. Data analysis employed qualitative content analysis and the lens of complexity theory to account for the complex nature of public health emergency preparedness (PHEP). The unit of study was the local/regional public health agency. Ethics and values were considered in the development of the framework. A total of 130 participants attended the six focus groups. Urban, urban-rural and rural regions from across Canada participated and focus group size ranged from 15 to 33 across the six sites. Eleven elements emerged from the data; these included one cross-cutting element (Governance and leadership) and 10 distinct but interlinked elements. The essential elements define a conceptual framework for PHEP. The framework was refined to ensure practice and policy relevance for local/regional public health agencies; the framework has ethics and values at its core. This framework describes the complexity of the system yet moves beyond description to use tenets of complexity to support building resilience. This applied public health framework for local/regional public health agencies is empirically-derived and theoretically-informed and represents a complex adaptive systems approach to upstream readiness for PHEP.

Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness for chemical, biological, and radiological terrorism and other hazards

Abstract: The new edition of this AJN Book of the Year continues to provide nurses with the most comprehensive, current, and reliable information available so they can develop the skills to efficiently and effectively respond to disasters or public health emergencies. Meticulously researched and reviewed by the world's foremost experts in preparedness for terrorism, natural disasters, and other unanticipated health emergencies, the text has been revised and updated with significant new content, including 10 new chapters and a digital adjunct teacher's guide with exercises and critical thinking questions. This new edition has strengthened its pediatric focus with updated and expanded chapters on caring for children's physical, mental, and behavioural health following a disaster. New chapters address climate change, global complex human emergencies, caring for patients with HIV/AIDS following a disaster, information technology and disaster response, and hospital and emergency department preparedness. The text provides a vast amount of evidence-based information on disaster planning and response for natural and environmental disasters and those caused by chemical, biological, and radiological elements, as well as disaster recovery. It also addresses leadership, management, and policy issues in disaster nursing and deepens our understanding of the importance of protecting mental health throughout the disaster life cycle. Each chapter is clearly formatted and includes Key Messages and Learning Objectives. Appendices present diagnosis and treatment regimens, creating personal disaster plans, a damage assessment guide, a glossary of terms, and more. Consistent with the Federal Disaster Response Framework, the book promotes competency-based expert nursing care during disasters and positive health outcomes for small and large populations.

Disaster Management Using D2D Communication With Power Transfer and Clustering Techniques

Abstract: Device-to-device (D2D) communications as an underlay to cellular networks can not only increase the system capacity and energy efficiency but also enable national security and public safety services. A key requirement for these services is to provide alternative access to cellular networks when they are partially or fully damaged due to a natural disaster event. In this paper, we employ energy harvesting (EH) at the relay with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer to prolong the lifetime of energy constrained network. In particular, we consider a user equipment relay that harvests energy from radio frequency signal via base station and use harvested energy for D2D communications. We integrate clustering technique with D2D communications into cellular networks such that communication services can be maintained when the cellular infrastructure becomes partially dysfunctional. Simulation results show that our proposed EH-based D2D clustering model performs efficiently in terms of coverage, energy efficiency, and cluster formation to extend the communication area. Moreover, a novel concept of power transfer in D2D clustering with user equipment relay and cluster head is proposed to provide a new framework to handle critical and emergency situations. The proposed approach is shown to provide significant energy saving for both mobile users and clustering heads to survive in emergency and disaster situations.

Social media applications and emergency management: A literature review and research agenda

Abstract: Social media applications have proven to be a dependable communication channel even when traditional methods fail. Their application to emergency management offers new benefits to the domain. For instance, analysis of information as the event unfolds may increase situational awareness, news and alerts may reach larger audiences in less time and decision makers may monitor public activities as well as coordinate with stakeholders. With such benefits, it seems the adoption of social media applications to emergency management should be automatic. However, their implementation introduces risks as well. To better understand the benefits and challenges, a review and analysis of the literature regarding the application of social media to emergency management was conducted. Identified research gaps were mapped into social and technological challenges. These challenges were then analyzed to set research directions for practitioners and researchers.

Financing Flood Losses: A Discussion of the National Flood Insurance Program

Abstract: The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), housed in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been providing flood insurance to households and businesses for almost 50 years. To inform the policy discussion leading up to reauthorization, this article analyzes five aspects of the NFIP: (1) risk modeling and risk communication, (2) the roles of the public and private sector, (3) take†up rates, (4) incentives for risk reduction, and (5) rate setting and the financing of catastrophic flood events. Suggestions for reform are discussed.

The resilient retail entrepreneur: dynamic capabilities for facing natural disasters

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formative dimensions of organizational resilience – namely dynamic capabilities (DCs) and social capital – displayed by retail entrepreneurs in the face of natural disasters (i.e. the 2012 Emilia earthquake). The paper evaluates social capital and the various types of DCs that support small entrepreneurs’ resilience during three temporal units of analysis: before the earthquake, during the emergency period, and during the recovery process.,The study was performed by applying a qualitative approach based on two focus groups and a double set of semi-structured interviews administered to a sample of eight small retail entrepreneurs hit by the 2012 Emilia earthquake. Content analysis was then applied.,The findings show that DCs and social capital are instrumental to enhancing organizational resilience; moreover the contribution of each category of DCs (reconfiguration, leveraging, sensing and interpreting, learning and knowledge integration) and social capital to entrepreneurs’ resilience changes according to the temporal phase of the natural disaster under analysis.,This study will provide small retailer entrepreneurs and public authorities with useful insights on how DCs and social capital can practically support recovery paths at different times in the occurrence of a natural disaster.,This study contributes to the scientific debate on organizational resilience in disaster management, studying it through the lens of DCs and social capital, and analyzing the role of different types of DCs in developing entrepreneurs’ resilience during the various periods of a natural disaster. Moreover, it contributes by applying the concepts of resilience and DCs to a poorly investigated entrepreneurial context such as the retail one.

A Novel Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for Emergency Transportation Problems During Post-Disaster Scenarios

Abstract: The increasing impacts of natural disasters have led to concerns regarding predisaster plans and post-disaster responses. During post-disaster responses, emergency transportation is the most important part of disaster relief supply chain operations, and its optimal planning differs from traditional transportation problems in the objective function and complex constraints. In disaster scenarios, fairness and effectiveness are two important aspects. This paper investigates emergency transportation in real-life disasters scenarios and formulates the problem as an integer linear programming model (called cum-MDVRP), which combines cumulative vehicle routing problem and multidepot vehicle routing problem. The cum-MDVRP is NP-hard. To solve it, a novel hybrid ant colony optimization-based algorithm is proposed by combining both saving algorithms and a simple two-step 2-opt algorithm. The proposed algorithm allows ants to go in and out the depots for multiple rounds, so we abbreviate it as ACOMR. Moreover, we present a smart design of the ants’ tabus, which helps to simplify the solution constructing process. The ACOMR could yield good solutions quickly, then the decision makers for emergency responses could do expert planning at the earliest time. Computational results on standard benchmarking data sets show that the proposed cum-MDVRP model performs well, and the ACOMR algorithm is more effective and stable than the existing algorithms.

Crowdsourcing roles, methods and tools for data-intensive disaster management

Abstract: Mobile technologies, web-based platforms, and social media have transformed the landscape of disaster management by enabling a new generation of digital networks to produce, process, and analyse georeferenced data in real time. This unprecedented convergence of geomobile technologies and crowdsourcing methods is opening up multiple forms to participate in disaster management tasks. Based on empirical research, this paper first proposes a conceptualisation of crowdsourcing roles and then analyses methods and tools based on a combination of two variables: (i) types of data being processed; (ii) involvement of the crowds. The paper also surveys a number of existing platforms and mobile apps leveraging crowdsourcing in disaster and emergency management with the aim to contribute to the discussion on the advantages and limits of using crowdsourcing methods and tools in these areas.

A resilience optimization model for transportation networks under disasters

Abstract: Natural and/or man-made disasters have caused serious problems in transportation systems due to their unpredictable and destructive characteristics. Under disasters, transportation infrastructure plays an important role in emergency management; however, this infrastructure is also vulnerable because of disasters. One way to describe the vulnerable is through resilience. Resilience refers to the ability to recover from a disruption under unexpected conditions, such as natural and/or man-made disasters. How to enhance resilience of transportation infrastructure under disasters is an important issue when facing natural or man-made disasters. This study aims to measure and optimize transportation resilience under disasters. An optimization model for resilience under the constraints of budget and traversal time is proposed. One special feature is that preparedness and recovery activities are implicitly considered and incorporated within the optimization model. The mathematical model provides a good connection between preparedness/recovery activities and network-level resilience. In order to illustrate the proposed model, a real city network and assumptions on activities of emergency management are used in a series of numerical experiments. Traffic conditions before and after disasters are evaluated by the simulation-assignment model, DynaTAIWAN. Experiments and results illustrate advantages for network-level transportation resilience assessment and also prioritize preparedness and recovery activities under budget constraints.

Processing Social Media Messages in Mass Emergency: Survey Summary

Abstract: Millions of people use social media to share information during disasters and mass emergencies. Information available on social media, particularly in the early hours of an event when few other sources are available, can be extremely valuable for emergency responders and decision makers, helping them gain situational awareness and plan relief efforts. Processing social media content to obtain such information involves solving multiple challenges, including parsing brief and informal messages, handling information overload, and prioritizing different types of information. These challenges can be mapped to information processing operations such as filtering, classifying, ranking, aggregating, extracting, and summarizing. This work highlights these challenges and presents state of the art computational techniques to deal with social media messages, focusing on their application to crisis scenarios.

Involvement in emergency supply chain for disaster management: A cognitive dissonance perspective

Abstract: An integrated process, interlinked operation and interoperable communication network amongst operating agencies are critical for developing an effective disaster management supply chain. The traditional managerial problems observed across disaster management operations are: non-cooperation among members, disrupted chain of commands, misuse of relief items, lack of information sharing, mistrust and lack of coordination. This study aims to understand the issues affiliated with negative attitude towards disaster management operations using theory of cognitive dissonance. A qualitative investigation was undertaken across 64 districts in Bangladesh. Five constructs were examined for their influences on attitude and behavioural intention of members participating in government emergency supply chain for disaster management. The results indicate that administrative conflict, political biasness and professional growth have significant effects on attitude. Impact of insecurity is non-significant on attitude. This r...

Introducing a Fragmentation Perspective on Coordination in Crisis Management

Abstract: Coordination theories are characterized primarily by a focus on integration, in which coordination is aimed at achieving a coherent and unified set of actions. However, in the extreme settings in which fast-response organizations operate, achieving integration is often challenging. In this study we employ a fragmentation perspective to show that dealing with ambiguity and discontinuity is not only inevitable for these organizations, it is a key characteristic of coordinating. We undertook an inductive, qualitative field study on how officers in command from the fire department, medical services, and police coordinate during emergency response operations. Our data are based on a four-year multi-site field study of 40 emergency management exercises in the Netherlands, combined with 56 retrospective interviews. Our inductive analysis of this data shows that officers use three coordination practices to deal with ambiguity and discontinuity: working around procedures, delegating tasks, and demarcating expertise. We theorize our findings by showing how these practices lead to conditions in which fragmentation can become an effective method of coordination. In doing so, we provide a more complete understanding of the process of coordinating in fast-response settings that will benefit both crisis management practice and organizational theory.

Involving children in disaster risk reduction: the importance of participation.

Abstract: Background: Millions of children are affected by disasters every year. Children need not be passive victims, however, but instead may contribute to disaster risk reduction activities. Objective: This paper provides a theoretical foundation for children's involvement in disaster risk reduction activities. Method: The paper reviews and analyses the literature on children's participation, on their developmental capacity to participate, and on disaster risk reduction activities involving children. Results: Participation yields numerous potential benefits for children, including enhanced personal development and skills, self-efficacy, and interpersonal relationships, and for communities through improved social connections and networks and disaster preparedness. Conclusions: Children are resources to be cultivated and mobilized for disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience. Attention is needed to identify approaches to appropriately enlist, engage, and involve children in disaster risk reduction activities; to promote these efforts; and to evaluate these approaches.

Design and Implementation of a Smart IoT Based Building and Town Disaster Management System in Smart City Infrastructure

Abstract: Recently, fire accidents in buildings have become bigger around the world, and it has become necessary to build an efficient building disaster management system suitable for fires in a Smart City. As building fires increase the number of casualties and property damage, it is necessary to take appropriate action accordingly. There has been an increasing effort to develop such disaster management systems worldwide by applying information communication technology (ICT), and many studies have been conducted in practice. In this paper, an augmented reality (AR)-based Smart Building and Town Disaster Management System is suggested in order to acquire visibility and to grasp occupants in case of fire disasters in buildings. This system provides visualization information and optimal guide for quick initial response by utilizing smart element AR-based disaster management service through linkage of physical virtual domain in the building. Additionally, we show a scenario flow chart of the fire extinguishment process according to the time from the ignition stage to the extinguishment stage in the building. Finally, we introduce the related sensors, the actuators, and a small test-bed for AR-based disaster management service. This test-bed was designed for interlocking and interoperability test of the system between the sensors and the actuators. It is expected that the proposed system can provide a quick and safe rescue guideline to the occupants and rescuers in the building where fire is generated and in regions of poor visibility.