Abstract: Information systems that support crisis responders and disaster risk management efforts are complex sociotechnical phenomena comprised of human capacities and relationships, data and software tools. Research in crisis informatics has highlighted the ways in which emergent groups of digital volunteers, or volunteer technical communities, have mobilized during disaster events to support information management efforts. This paper describes an action research project to support the creation of an ex ante volunteer technical community from among the potentially affected population in Kathmandu, Nepal, one of the most seismically at-risk cities in the world. In exploring this case, we argue that projects that attempt to create local open data ecosystems can be valuable but require investment in their design, execution and on-going maintenance.

Abstract: This paper reports the progress that is being made in developing a software tool (the Flood Warning Communicator, FWC) that helps communication professionals constructing effective flood-warning messages. The program provides authorities with a warning message that contains open spaces where event specific information can be inserted. The program uses a database containing (parts of) phrases. Based on the specific situation, a communication professional receives the most suitable standard phrase by clicking on information buttons in a user interface. Together, the phrases form the warning message that sometimes requires minor adjustments such that it suits the specific circumstances. FWC is a well working prototype that allows constructing messages for web sites and short text messages (sms). Research is needed to test and validate these warning messages. In addition, cooperation with public authorities is necessary to make the program suitable for local circumstances (e.g., safety regions and municipalities).

Abstract: Situation Awareness (SA) has been recognized and studied as an important requirement for an effective task performance of first responders. The integration of increasingly advanced sensor, network and artificial intelligence technology into the work processes affects the building, maintenance and sharing of SA. Connecting SA to decision support models provides new possibilities for the development of actionable SA (aSA), entailing information that guides the momentary decision-making processes of the concerning actors. In the European ASSISTANCE project, we are developing an aSA module that displays information about gas distributions, its current and predicted future states (e.g., entailing risks of breathing-in of toxic gases), with references to effective decision-making patterns for this situation. The aSA model is continuously updated based on sensor data. This paper gives an overview of this aSA module for chemical hazard prediction and corresponding display, and presents initial team design patterns that will be integrated into this display to support its actionability.

Abstract: Real-world experience teaches us that to manage emergencies, efficient crisis response coordination is crucial. ICT infrastructures are effective in supporting the people involved in such contexts, by supporting effective ways of interaction. They also should provide innovative means of communication and information management. At present, centralized architectures are mostly used for this purpose; however, alternative infrastructures based on the use of distributed information sources, are currently being explored, studied and analyzed. This paper aims at investigating the capability of a novel approach (developed within the European project OpenKnowledge1) to support both centralized and decentralized architectures for information gathering. For this purpose, we developed an agent-based e-Response simulation environment fully integrated with the OpenKnowledge infrastructure and through which existing emergency plans are modelled and simulated. Preliminary results show the OpenKnowledge capability of supporting the two afore-mentioned architectures and, under ideal assumptions, a comparable performance in both cases.

Abstract: In recent risk studies, some researchers have raised concerns regarding the focus on extraordinary events – sometimes called ?extreme paradigm? (Gaillard, 2007). Simultaneously, we are witnessing a growing interest in the more ?ordinary? situations that must be handled on a daily basis in order to avoid crises (Roux-Dufort 2007, Van Laere 2013). In an interdisciplinary perspective of sociology and geography, we have analysed five different control rooms (traffic safety, air traffic control, humanitarian coordination, weather forecasting and electrical supply). This transversal perspective has helped us consider control rooms as specific spatio-temporal devices, where ordinary practices aim as much at crisis avoidance as at crisis management. We conclude that it is important to broaden the analytical perspective of control rooms; to no longer regard them as the source of action but rather as one aspect of larger socio-technical monitoring devices.

Abstract: From high fidelity field exercises to disaster response deployments, search and rescue robots are being readily integrated into rescue operations. Previous research has proposed that for such new technology to be successful in an operation the organization architecture needs to support the coordination of shared perspectives between the human team members and the robotic platforms. For this, the robot platforms need to be effective team players in the field of practice. Based on this conceptual model, this paper introduces a novel software interface utilizing virtual position and orientation indicators to alleviate perceptual ambiguities and navigation problems experienced by robot handlers and problem holders. By actively orchestrating and sharing these indicators between handler and operator displays, the interface caters to user expertise and to the natural competency of the human perceptual system. These probes provide a basic tool for aiding robot navigation and way-finding fundamental to effective team coordination and communication in urban search and rescue missions.

Abstract: Microblogging platforms have been increasingly used in crisis, facilitating more participatory communication between official response channels and affected communities. Despite the potential benefits, research has shown that disaster response organizations could not effectively utilize social media data due to data deluge (Knox 2022). To better understand the information needed for disaster response, we turn to the National Incident Management System Guidance for public information officers (PIOs) (NIMS Basic Guidance for PIOs 2020), the primary spokesperson for emergency management organizations. The guidance indicates that PIOs use social media for two major purposes, supporting their operational needs and gauging public perception of risk and incident response. To support the operational needs, the crisis informatics literature has heavily focused on information types supporting situational awareness, including serviceable, eyewitness or actionable information. However, the information representing public perception, such as people’s cognitive and perceptual processes in response to incidents, has been less addressed at scale. To bridge the gap between quantitative study in crisis informatics and information representing cognitive and perceptual processes and better support the task of PIOs, I focus on the study of people’s cognitive and perceptual processes on social media for my research. Cognitive and perceptual processes refer to the way that people pay attention to or process environmental inputs, including the mental activities of acquisition, processing or evaluation of environmental cues, social cues, and warnings. These processes reveal people’s perception of- and decision-making in response to potential threats. With this focus, I seek to answer the following research question: How could people’s cognitive and perceptual processes be inferred from their social media activities in crisis to benefit stakeholders in incident response? My interest in tracing this overall theme through a varied range of sub-tasks produces three more specific research questions: RQ1. How can information exposure and attention be operationalized to highlight cognitive and perceptual processes? RQ2. How do people’s perception of risk communications from stakeholders vary in crisis? RQ3. How could a principled and scalable pipeline be designed to identify people’s cognitive and affective perceptions on Twitter? I took cues from the Protective Action Decision Model (Lindell and Perry 2012) and leveraged baselines in the literature to address these research questions. To address the first research question, I proposed a metric that conceptualized and operationalized the predecision process. The proposed metric was incorporated into a pipeline and applied to two real-word events to recommend messages that represent the shift of collective attention of those locally affected with a specialized focus on cognitive and perceptual processes. To address the second research question, I went beyond the perception of risks to include perceptions of risk communications by stakeholders. I performed an empirical study of the relation between risk communications by stakeholders and different kinds of public perceptions (Lindell and Perry 2012). To address the third research question, I proposed a future work to provide benchmark coding schemes, datasets and models to quantitatively identify information representing cognitive and perceptual processes. I will leverage existing benchmark datasets in the literature (Olteanu et al. 2014; Imran et al. 2016; Alam et al. 2018; Zahra et al. 2020; Rudra et al. 2017; Mazloom et al. 2018; Purohit et al. 2018) and coding schemes in qualitative studies (Trumbo et al. 2016; Demuth et al. 2018) and create benchmark classification models.

Abstract: This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of pen input recognition systems that are suited for so-called interactive maps. Such systems provide the possibility to enter handwriting, drawings, sketches and other modes of pen input. Typically, interactive maps are used to annotate objects or mark situations that are depicted on the display of video walls, handhelds, PDAs, or tablet PCs. Our research explores the possibility of employing interactive maps for crisis management systems, which require robust and effective communication of, e.g., the location of objects, the kind of incidents, or the indication of route alternatives. The design process described here is a mix of “best practices” for building perceptive systems, combining research in pattern recognition, human factors, and human-computer interaction. Using this approach, comprising data collection and annotation, feature extraction, and the design of domain-specific recognition technology, a decrease in error rates is achieved from 9.3% to 4.0%.

Abstract: In the 21st century, rapid changes of our society necessitate continuous review and practice of emergency plans. Traditional face-to-face (FtF) interactions to make emergency plans and train responders seem insufficient. The virtual team (VT), a new team form allowing dynamic recruitment of experts from global extent and conduction of teamwork whenever it is needed, provides a more agile solution. This paper introduces a group support system called Collario (Collaborative Scenario) aiming to facilitate effective collaboration in creating and discussing scenarios in VTs and to utilize scenarios as the vehicle to review and practice emergency plans on a continuous basis. This research is still in progress. Three professionals have been involved in system demonstrations and interviews. Although it is still too early to make any conclusions, it is encouraging to know that all the three experts thought Collario easy to use and might be useful for various emergency preparedness purposes.

Abstract: In the context of COVID-19, this study utilizes the Social Mediated Crisis Communication Model (SMCC) and the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) to investigate the relationship between social media users' protective actions and crisis information during public health crises in China. By constructing a structural equation model, this study aims to identify the influencing factors that affect social media users' personal’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions given crisis relevant information. Results findings are that warning information can significantly increase risk perception; emotional responses are not significantly affected by warning information and risk perception; risk perception has a negative impact on information gathering and sharing behavior; risk perception has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between information features and protective action.

Abstract: Most definitions of disaster resilience incorporate both the capacity to resist the initial impact of a disaster and the ability to recover after it occurs. Being able to characterize and analyze resilient behavior can lead to improved understanding not only of the capabilities of a given system, but also of the effectiveness of different strategies for improving its resiliency. This paper presents an approach for quantifying the transient behavior resulting from a disaster event in a way that allows researchers to not only describe the transient response but also assess the impact of various factors (both main and interaction effects) on this response. This new approach combines simulation modeling, time series analysis, and statistical outlier detection to differentiate between disaster resistance and disaster recovery. Following the introduction of the approach, the paper provides a preliminary look at its relationship to the existing concept of predicted disaster resilience. © 2012 ISCRAM.