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Boris Petrenj, & Paolo Trucco. (2021). Blockchain-based Solutions to support inter-organisational Critical Infrastructure Resilience. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 982–993). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: This conceptual paper critically discusses opportunities for and challenges to the development and exploitation of blockchain-based solutions for resilience management at inter-organizational level of interdependent Critical Infrastructure (CI) systems. The main premise behind this idea is that trustful information-sharing and inter-institutional collaboration are the key elements of government and private sector efforts to build CI resilience (CIR). The discussion presents a vision that the adoption and adaptation of Blockchain Technology (BCT) could significantly improve the way a network of stakeholders prepares for and performs in face of inevitable CI disruptions. Even though BCT is regarded as technological innovation, the impacts go far beyond information systems. BCT application in this domain would entail significant benefits to organizational, managerial, legal and social issues, but would require adequate operational and organizational changes. We discuss how interdisciplinary approach (BCT and CIR) could address existing challenges, how it could introduce new challenges and how it could support other approaches and paradigms currently being regarded as the future of risk and resilience management. Even though the discussion in this paper is focused on Critical Infrastructure resilience, each point also applies to Crisis/Disaster management domain in general. This is a preliminary overview with the aim to stimulate further discussions and point to possible new, disruptive and interdisciplinary research avenues. To this end, a possible research agenda is eventually proposed.
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Briony Gray. (2020). Turning Words into Wisdom: A Framework for Using Post-Disaster Data for Community Resilience. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 356–365). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Small island developing states (SIDs) face a range of underlying issues that increase their vulnerability and risk to disaster. This commonly results in a lack of available, reliable and actionable data for both island nations as well as their insular communities. Simultaneously, issues such as climate change make their riskscapes unique and challenging to mitigate, forcing the need to find methods of improving community resiliency. This paper uses qualitative interviews conducted in the post-disaster phase of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season to highlight the main issues experienced by communities. It then uses these, as well as literature guidance, to create a Lessons Learnt Framework (LLF) designed to challenge underlying assumptions, assess management efforts, discuss and record community experiences, and to feedback social capital into vulnerable communities to support future community resilience.
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Briony Gray, Mark J. Weal, & David Martin. (2017). Social Media during a Sustained Period of Crisis: The Case of the UK Storms. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 633–644). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: This paper analyses the social media communications surrounding the 2015 – 2016 series of winter storms in the UK. Three storms were selected for analysis over a sustained period of time; these were storms Desmond, Eva and Frank which made landfall within quick succession of one another. In this case study we examine communications relating to multiple hazards which include flooding, evacuation and weather warnings using mainstream media content such as news stories, and online content such as Twitter data. Using a mixed method approach of content analysis combined with the application of a conceptual framework, we present (i.) the network of emergency responders managing events, (ii.) an analysis of crisis communications over time, and (iii.) highlight the barriers posed to effective social media communications during multi-hazard disasters. We conclude by assessing how these barriers may be lessened during prolonged periods of crisis.
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Briony Gray, Mark Weal, & David Martin. (2018). Supporting Situational Awareness during Disasters: The Case of Hurricane Irma. In Kristin Stock, & Deborah Bunker (Eds.), Proceedings of ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018: Innovating for Resilience – 1st International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Asia Pacific. (pp. 123–131). Albany, Auckland, New Zealand: Massey Univeristy.
Abstract: In a rapidly globalizing world, disasters and the way in which they are managed are changing. Social media, in conjunction with other online resources, now provide a wealth of information throughout the lifecycle of disasters and are relied upon by individuals and emergency responders alike. The study of such data as a lens for analysis has proved valuable in recent years, with many contributing to targeted emergency response protocols and improved methods for the management strategies of future crises. This study seeks to make a similar contribution by reporting on the use of such data for situational awareness during the case of hurricane Irma, which occurred between September and August 2017. Using a mixed methods approach the paper examines data from social media such as Twitter, as well as other online sources such as blogs and news media, to provide original insight into the disaster. A conceptual framework is then applied to determine the uses and users of social media, and to identify how these change throughout the course of the disaster, thus demonstrating situational awareness over time. The paper concludes with proposed improvements for disaster management and emergency response for future similar disasters, specifically in the hurricane season, in addition to more generalized hazards which are predicted to increase in their frequency and severity due to underlying issues such as climate change.
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Briony Gray, Mark Weal, & David Martin. (2018). Building Resilience in Small Island Developing States: Social Media during the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season. In Kristin Stock, & Deborah Bunker (Eds.), Proceedings of ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018: Innovating for Resilience – 1st International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Asia Pacific. (pp. 469–479). Albany, Auckland, New Zealand: Massey Univeristy.
Abstract: There are growing concerns that future Atlantic hurricane seasons will be severe and unpredictable due to underlying factors such as climate change. The 2017 season may offer a range of lessons, especially to small island developing states (SIDS), who are looking to build community resilience and heighten community engagement to cope with disaster. While many SIDS utilise a range of media and technology for these purposes, there has been a recent uptake in the use of social media, which may have further potential to support their goals. This paper scopes the use and users of social media in the case of Antigua and Barbuda during the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. Through a series of qualitative interviews it explains the role that social media currently has, and concludes with suggestions for its improvement in future seasons that are contextualized over the disaster lifecycle phases.
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Briony Gray, & Matthew Colling. (2021). Supporting Emergency Health Services during a Pandemic: Lessons from the Canadian Red Cross. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 320–332). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has tested Canada's readiness capacity as emergency health needs continue to exceed some communities' capacity to respond. To address this variance, the Canadian Red Cross (in collaboration with local, provincial, territorial, national, and Indigenous partners) have leveraged international experience in humanitarian response and preparedness, developing innovative new response services, delivery modalities, and protocol through which to mitigate and manage risk. This approach breaks down emergency management into two main streams – health interventions and disaster management – to innovatively and effectively cope with increasingly complex and frequent requests for support. Using internal data from within the Canadian Red Cross, this paper presents and discusses the services, roles and expectations of this two-stream approach which has been designed to (i.) support COVID-19 testing and vaccination, (ii.) support outbreak crisis management, especially through epidemic, prevention, and control interventions, and (iii.) support traditional emergency management responses in the midst of a pandemic. It concludes by reporting on the successes of the two-stream approach to date while scoping further the potential evolutionary track of some of these services, their underpinning methodology, and appetite for recovery operations in the near future. This approach may therefore be of value to other organizations or practitioners coping with emergency management challenges during a pandemic.
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Briony Gray, & Matthew Colling. (2021). Understanding Interoperability in Humanitarian Aid Organizations. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 439–447). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Quality and timely knowledge is critical to effective humanitarian operations during crises. Despite this, there remain limitations to its capture, exchange and understanding both in the inter and intra agency settings. To improve this, methods like interoperability should be improved within humanitarian aid organizations and their wider networks. Learning from the experiences and insights of domestic and international delegates of the Canadian Red Cross, this paper highlights that the biggest added values of interoperability to the intra-agency setting are (i.) increasing organizational capacity, expertise and reputation, (ii.) better tools, processes and leveraging valuable knowledge, and (iii.) improved engagement of volunteers, employees and delegates. The most prevalent barriers are (i.) workplace culture, (ii.) differences in operations, context and communications and (iii.) the socio-technical barriers of systems, processes and integration. The paper concludes by presenting lessons for humanitarian organizations to improve interoperability, supporting resilient responses for future crisis management.
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Bruna Diirr, Vânia de Oliveira Neves, Marcus Vinícius Vasconcelos de Almeida Cunha, Ana Beatriz Kapps dos Reis, & Jairo Francisco de Souza. (2021). Software Requirements for Disaster Management Systems. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1042–1054). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Disasters are a major global problem and a serious threat to sustainable development. In this context, the development of disaster management systems becomes a complex activity, both due to the unpredictability of the events to be treated and the difficulty in extracting or identifying these systems users' needs (requirements). This study aims to understand the requirements usually elicited for disaster management systems and how such requirements are identified. Thus, a systematic mapping of literature (SM) and an open-source repository mining (RM) were performed. Results bring benefits both to academics and practitioners, as detail several characteristics of disaster management systems that could assist these systems development and decision-making, besides providing inputs to guide further research.
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Cámbara, G., Grivolla, J., Farrús, M., & Wanner, L. (2023). Automatic Speech Translation for Multinational First Responder Teams. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 188–196). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: Big disasters as increasingly observed all over the world, often require the involvement of a large number of personnel, in particular personnel acting in the field, i.e., First Responders. By far not always local teams are sufficient. As a consequence, in particular in Europe, teams from different member states are dispatched to support the local teams. However, this bears a potential of miscommunication since it cannot be taken for granted that English is mastered to a sufficient degree by everybody to serve as lingua franca. In this paper, we present work in progress carried out in the context of the INGENIOUS project on an automatic speech translation module that facilitates the interaction between First Responders speaking different languages. The module is embedded into the Telegram Messenger Application and consists of three main modules: Automatic Speech Recognition, Machine Translation, and Text-to-Speech, which are applied in sequence. We opt for a pipeline solution instead of end-to-end speech translation in order to guarantee the availability of the original speech transcriptions and their translations.
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Camelia Bellepeau, Hugo Bergere, Corentin Thevenet, Frédérick Bénaben, Nafe Moradkhani, & Thibaut Cerabona. (2022). Use of Physics of Decision to Assess how COVID-19 Impacted Air Pollution. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 887–894). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: This article focuses on the question of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on air pollution. The chosen approach is based on the principle of “Physics of Decision” (POD), which considers: (i) the performance of a system as a physical trajectory within the framework of its performance indicators, (ii) risks or opportunities (potentialities) as forces that may deviate that trajectory, and (iii) benefits or damages (actualities) as concrete deviations of the performance trajectory. The daily data about the air pollution in Paris area (France) has been gathered for eight years (2014-2021) and three main performance indicators have been chosen. Then, the performance trajectory of each year has been plotted and the expected trajectories of 2020 and 2021 have been guessed from the previous ones. The deviation between the expected and actual trajectories of 2020 and 2021 have been assessed, and using physics and motion laws, evaluated as a deviation force.
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Carlo Alberto Bono, Barbara Pernici, Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez, Amudha Ravi Shankar, Mehmet Oguz Mülâyim, & Edoardo Nemni. (2022). TriggerCit: Early Flood Alerting using Twitter and Geolocation – A Comparison with Alternative Sources. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 674–686). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: Rapid impact assessment in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster is essential to provide adequate information to international organisations, local authorities, and first responders. Social media can support emergency response with evidence-based content posted by citizens and organisations during ongoing events. In the paper, we propose TriggerCit: an early flood alerting tool with a multilanguage approach focused on timeliness and geolocation. The paper focuses on assessing the reliability of the approach as a triggering system, comparing it with alternative sources for alerts, and evaluating the quality and amount of complementary information gathered. Geolocated visual evidence extracted from Twitter by TriggerCit was analysed in two case studies on floods in Thailand and Nepal in 2021. The system respectively returned a large scale and a local scale alert, both in a timely manner and accompanied by a valid geographical description, while providing information complementary to existing disaster alert mechanisms.
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Carole Adam, & Cédric Lauradoux. (2022). A Serious Game for Debating about the Use of Artificial Intelligence during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 554–563). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: Crises always impose a difficult compromise between safety and liberty, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no different. Governments have enforced various sanitary restrictions to reduce virus spread. With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the scale of surveillance has risen to unprecedented levels. However, these technologies entail many risks, from potential errors or biases, to their extended enforcement beyond the duration of the initial crisis. Citizens should be aware that these technologies are not infallible, and measure the consequences of errors, so as to make informed decisions about what they want to accept, and for how long. To this aim, we have designed a serious game in the form of a municipal debate between citizens of a virtual town. Some first test sessions helped us improve the game design, and provided proof of the interest of this game to trigger debates and raise awareness.
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Carole Adam, & Eric Andonoff. (2019). Vigi Flood: a serious game for understanding the challenges of crisis communication. In Z. Franco, J. J. González, & J. H. Canós (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management. Valencia, Spain: Iscram.
Abstract: Emergency managers receive communication training about the importance of being ?first, right and credible?,
which is not easy. For instance, in October 2018, the Aude department in the South-West of France was hit by
intense rain. Flash floods were hard to forecast and only the ?orange? level of vigilance could be raised initially, but
the population dismissed this very usual warning in that season. The ?red? level was then raised too late, leading
to high criticism. The main problem here is the loss of trust induced by too many ?false alarms?. In this paper
we propose a serious game called VigiFlood for raising awareness in the population about the difficulty of crisis
communication and their own responsibility for reacting to the alerts. The implemented game still has limited
functionality but already shows interesting results in helping the user to visualise and understand the trust dynamics
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Carole Adam, & Hélène Arduin. (2022). Finding and Explaining Optimal Screening Strategies with Limited Tests during the COVID-19 Epidemics. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 102–115). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: The COVID-19 epidemics has now lasted for 2 years. A vaccine has been found, but other complementary measures are still required, in particular testing, tracing contacts, isolating infected individuals, and respecting sanitary measures (physical distancing, masks). However these measures are not always well accepted and many fake news circulate about the virus or the vaccine. We believe that explaining the mechanisms behind the epidemics and the reasons for the sanitary measures is key to protect the general population from disinformation. To this end, we have developed a simple agent-based epidemic simulator that includes various screening strategies. We show that it can be used to compare the efficiency of various targeting strategies, starting date, and number of daily tests. We also ran an optimisation algorithm that proves that the best strategies consist in testing widely and early. Our simulator is already available to play online, to raise awareness in the general population.
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Carolin Klonner, Melanie Eckle, Tomás Usón, & Bernhard Höfle. (2017). Quality Improvement of Remotely Volunteered Geographic Information via Country-Specific Mapping Instructions. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 939–947). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: Volunteered geographic information can be seen as valuable data for various applications such as within disaster management. OpenStreetMap data, for example, are mainly contributed by remote mappers based on satellite imagery and have increasingly been implemented in response actions to various disasters. Yet, the quality often depends on the local and country-specific knowledge of the mappers, which is required for performing the mapping task. Hence, the question is raised whether there is a possibility to train remote mappers with country-specific mapping instructions in order to improve the quality of OpenStreetMap data. An experiment is conducted with Geography students to evaluate the effect of additional material that is provided in wiki format. Furthermore, a questionnaire is applied to collect participants' socio-demographic information, mapping experience and feedback about the material. This pre-study gives hints for future designs of country-specific mapping instructions as well as the experiment design itself.
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Carolyn Huston, Jennifer Davis, Petra Kuhnert, & Andrew Bolt. (2023). Creating Trusted Extensions to Existing Software Tools in Bushfire Consequence Estimation. In V. L. Thomas J. Huggins (Ed.), Proceedings of the ISCRAM Asia Pacific Conference 2022 (pp. 25–34). Palmerston North, New Zealand: Massey Unversity.
Abstract: Bushfire modelling has advanced with wildfire simulators such as Spark and Phoenix Rapidfire that can generate plausible fire dynamics and simulations that decision-makers can easily explore. With extreme weather impacting the Australian landscapes through the onset of droughts and heatwaves, it is becoming more important to make decisions rapidly from fire simulations. An element of this decision-making process is trust, in which the decision-maker feels empowered to make decisions from models of complex systems like fire. We propose a framework for decision-making that makes use of a fire emulator, a surrogate version of Spark, to facilitate faster exploration of wildfire predictions and their uncertainties under a changing climate. We discuss the advantages and next steps of an emulator model using the mechanisms and conditions framework, a powerful vocabulary and design framework that builds in trust to allow users of a technology to understand and accept the features of a system.
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Carsí, J. A., Canós, J. H., Penadés, M. ª C., Sánchez-Díaz, J., & Borges, M. R. S. (2023). Towards a Generic Metamodel for Urban Resilience Assessment. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 1059–1068). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: The proliferation of natural and artificial disasters in the last decades has made urban resilience enforcement a strategic goal of city governments worldwide and a hot research topic for academics and practitioners. Consequently, several urban resilience assessment and improvement frameworks have been proposed. Some frameworks have associated operational tools, but these systems are not interoperable with other frameworks' utilities, forcing cities to use different tools for evaluating various aspects of resilience. Since data must be converted manually from one tool to another, the conversion may be error-prone and tedious. In this paper, we report the steps toward defining an urban resilience metamodel that intends to be at the core of a multi-framework urban resilience management portal. Our goal is to provide city administrators with a single operational tool able to evaluate resilience according to different frameworks, thanks to the definition of semantic interoperability mechanisms between the frameworks and the metamodel
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Cary Milkop, & Najif Ismail. (2018). The Poor Performance of Non Structural Components in Seismic Events in Context. In Kristin Stock, & Deborah Bunker (Eds.), Proceedings of ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018: Innovating for Resilience – 1st International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Asia Pacific. (pp. 351–365). Albany, Auckland, New Zealand: Massey Univeristy.
Abstract: Damage to non-structural components (NSCs) in seismic events has been identified as a recurring problem in New Zealand for decades. It is also a problem in comparable seismic risk countries. Whilst improvements have been made and lessons learned, the complexity of suspended ceilings has also grown. The purpose of this article is to review the situation for suspended NSCs and to discuss recommendations. Whilst NSCs have not received the attention that structural components have, they are a significant source of costs and consequences should they fail in seismic events. Several articles have emerged surrounding NSC failure but owing to the inherent complexity of the subject, there is no one document that covers all aspects. The poor performance of NSCs in seismic events has been known and written about for several decades. The USA is a comparable and useful source of information around what has proven to be effective and system-changing.
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Cécile L'Hermitte, William Wang, & Eric Deakins. (2018). Exploring the Physical Internet concept to improve disaster relief operations. In Kristin Stock, & Deborah Bunker (Eds.), Proceedings of ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018: Innovating for Resilience – 1st International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Asia Pacific. (pp. 12–27). Albany, Auckland, New Zealand: Massey Univeristy.
Abstract: Successful disaster relief operations call for responsive and flexible movements of goods in order to make the relief items available when and where they are needed by the affected communities. The objective of this explorative research is to investigate the applicability of the Physical Internet to emergency relief operations. The Physical Internet is a groundbreaking logistical system in which standardised, modular packages are automatically routed from origin to destination through a hyperconnected network of logistics providers and facilities. Although the concept is receiving growing attention from academics, practitioners and policy makers, research in the disaster management context is virtually non-existent. Based on a review of the relevant academic literature and publicly available information from emergency responding agencies and the media, we firstly use the Kaikoura earthquake that occurred in the South Island of New Zealand on 14th November 2016 to identify six key requirements that support the efficient movement of relief items in the aftermath of a disaster. We then identify six characteristics of the Physical Internet and explore how these characteristics can support the requirements of emergency response operations. We conclude that the Physical Internet principles have the potential to enhance the speed, flexibility and reliability of emergency responses. In other words, a fully integrated and collaborative logistics system in which relief items and information move seamlessly across a web of interconnected transport modes and operators can increase the efficient deployment of urgently needed relief items. This study extends the Physical Internet principles to emergency relief operations and identifies new ways of improving and optimising the logistics of emergency responses. In doing so, this research aims to stimulate debate within the disaster relief sector.
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Cecilia Hammar Wijkmark, & Ilona Heldal. (2020). Virtual and Live Simulation-Based Training for Incident Commanders. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1154–1162). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Computer and virtual simulation-based training (CST) offer several benefits for emergency response and management preparedness. However, organizations responsible for training are often hesitant to use CST, based on cost and perceived lack of benefit when compared to live simulation training (LST). This paper investigates how CST can complement LST, and how it contributes to achieving the necessary learning objectives for level one fire and rescue service incident commanders (ICs). Data and examples come from an experimental study with students from different fire and rescue services trained in the role of the IC in LST and CST, in a similar scenario. Results show the cost and benefits of the CST implementation based on evaluations from learners, instructors and responsible managers. Participants had a positive attitude towards using virtual simulations, but the results also point to barriers regarding the suitable design of learning scenarios and implementation.
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Cecilia Hammar Wijkmark, Ilona Heldal, & Maria-Monika Metallinou. (2021). Experiencing Immersive VR Simulation for Firefighter Skills Training. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 913–921). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Virtual Reality (VR) technology has gained interest for training in many domains, including firefighter education and training. However, there is hesitation in accepting immersive VR technology, especially for skills training. This paper examines the results from a field study investigating how first-time users experience immersive VR comparing with hot fire live simulation (HF-LS) training, a training involving several human senses. This study included nineteen firefighter students, eight instructors, and seven experienced firefighters using a VR technology simulating fire, smoke, heat, and via haptic feedback hose and pressure experiences. Data investigating user experiences were collected through questionnaires and observations. The results show that experienced firefighters valued the training using this VR technology higher than students. Further findings illustrate a difference between different user groups regarding expectations on the realism of simulated representations. For example, the visual realism of the smoke and the fire was more appreciated by experienced firefighters than students and instructors.
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Cedric Papion. (2018). Water supply network resilience in the Wellington Region. In Kristin Stock, & Deborah Bunker (Eds.), Proceedings of ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018: Innovating for Resilience – 1st International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Asia Pacific. (pp. 263–271). Albany, Auckland, New Zealand: Massey Univeristy.
Abstract: Wellington sits across an active seismic fault line and depends on remote sources for its water supply. With widespread damage expected after a large earthquake, it may be months before a minimal water supply is restored to residents, and even longer before it reaches the tap. This paper presents a recent study undertaken to identify network vulnerabilities and take water supply resilience to the next level. The study presented a possible timeline for repairs to the bulk network and restoration of supply to each suburb's reservoir. This highlighted the most critical areas where an alternative supply or storage was needed. The study also considered how to get the water to the customers after the reticulation network had been damaged. The strategy considered by Wellington Water was to develop a seismically-resilient skeleton network connecting reservoirs and key distribution points. A notable innovation was the use of algorithms to determine optimal locations for public tap stands and identify the most cost-effective critical pipe network where strengthening upgrades needed to be focused. The aspects of the project concerning its significance for the region, the overall resilience strategy and the pipeline resilience engineering were presented at the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) and Water NZ conferences in 2017. While this paper touches on these subjects, its main focus is on the use of geospatial information for earthquake preparedness and resilience planning.
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Cendrella Chahine, François Peres, Thierry Vidal, & Mohamad El Falou. (2022). Functional and Dysfunctional Modelling and Assessment of an Emergency Response Plan. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 363–375). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: The objective of crisis management is to limit the impact of a feared event that has occurred and to restore the conditions corresponding to a nominal situation. In this context, we will focus on emergency response plans for mass casualty crises. In this paper, we propose a functional modelling of the French generic emergency plan, ORSEC plan, using the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). On the basis of this representation, a dysfunctional analysis is performed from a new approach identifying Failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), in order to better anticipate, the events likely to interrupt the intervention plan. This work will then be used in a multi-agent dynamic planning and scheduling model to allow an actor to choose among the dynamic planning approaches the one that allows him/her to reach his/her goal.
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Cendrella Chahine, Thierry Vidal, Mohamad El Falou, & François Pérès. (2022). Multi-Agent Dynamic Planning Architectures for Crisis Rescue Plans. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 243–255). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: We are interested in rescue management in crises such as in terrorist attacks. Today, there are emergency plans that take into account all the stakeholders involved in a crisis depending on the event type, magnitude and place. Unfortunately, they do not anticipate the evolution of the crisis situation such as traffic and hospital overcrowding. In addition, decisions are taken after the information has been passed from the operational level to higher levels. This work focuses on the operational level of the emergency plan. What will happen if the actors at this level, can make certain decisions without escalating the information to higher levels? To answer this question, a multi-agent dynamic planning approach is proposed and it will be tested in two different architectures in order to see how much autonomy can be given to an agent and how they coordinate to save the victims.
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Chalioris, C. E., A. Papadopoulos, N., Sapidis, G., C. Naoum, M., & Golias, E. (2023). EMA-based Monitoring Method of Strengthened Beam-Column Joints. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 853–873). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: Reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column joints (BCJ) are crucial structural components, primarily during seismic excitations, so their structural health monitoring (SHM) is essential. Additionally, BCJ of existing old RC frame structures usually exhibits brittle behavior due to insufficient transverse reinforcement. To alter the brittle behavior of BCJ, an innovative reinforcing technique has been employed, accompanied by a real-time SHM system. Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (C-FRP) rope as near surface-mounted (NSM) reinforcement has been utilized as external reinforcement of the column and the joint panel. The use of piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers for real-time SHM of BCJ sub-assemblages was investigated. Statistical damage indices, such as RMSD and MAPD, were employed to quantify the damage. Furthermore, an innovative approach based on hierarchical clustering was introduced. The experiment results revealed that the damage level of the reference and the retrofitted specimens were successfully diagnosed with PZT transducers.
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