Leorey Marquez, Pawan Gamage, Dhirendra Singh, Vincent Lemiale, Trevor Dess, Peter Ashton, et al. (2023). SEEKER: A Web-Based Simulation Tool for Planning Community Evacuations. In V. L. Thomas J. Huggins (Ed.), Proceedings of the ISCRAM Asia Pacific Conference 2022 (pp. 8–24). Palmerston North, New Zealand: Massey Unversity.
Abstract: Bushfires cause widespread devastation in Australia, one of the most fire-prone countries on earth. Bushfire seasons are also becoming longer and outbreaks of severe bushfires are occurring more often. This creates the problem of having more people at risk in very diverse areas resulting in more difficult mass evacuations over time. The Barwon Otway region in Victoria’s Surf Coast Shire is one such area with evacuation challenges due to its limited routes in and out of coastal areas and its massive population surges during the tourist season and holiday periods. The increasing gravity of the bushfire threat to the region has brought about the Great Ocean Road Decision Support System (GOR-DSS) project, and the subsequent development of a disaster evacuation tool to support emergency management organisations assess evacuation and risk mitigation options. This paper describes the design and development of SEEKER (Simulations of Emergency Evacuations for Knowledge, Education and Response). The SEEKER tool adds another level of intelligence to the evacuation response by incorporating agent-based modelling and allows emergency management agencies to design and run evacuation scenarios and analyse the risk posed by the fire to the population and road network. Furthermore, SEEKER can be used to develop multiple evacuation scenarios to investigate and compare the effectiveness of each emergency evacuation plan. This paper also discusses the application of SEEKER in a case study, community engagement, and training.
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Michael Erskine, Scott Seipel, & Cayson Seipel. (2022). Development of a Geospatial Agent-Based Simulation of Disaster Evacuations for Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) Policy. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 532–540). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: Several nations have signaled their intent to phase out petroleum-based engines for passenger vehicles and promote a transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs). While researchers have established the long-term environmental benefits of BEVs, there are critical considerations for policymakers in areas prone to natural disasters. This research intends to develop a geospatial-based model to explore and simulate the evacuation of BEVs during a disaster. This work-in-progress (WiPe) paper examines the variables essential to creating an effective hurricane simulation. The final simulation model is intended to allow for the evaluation of BEV policy options under a variety of scenarios. We describe the considerations made during the development of this geospatial agent-based simulation under various hurricane parameters. Finally, we mention the expected benefits of our work and hint at possible policy directions.
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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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Sebastian Lindner, Stephan Kühnel, Hans Betke, & Stefan Sackmann. (2018). Simulating Spontaneous Volunteers – A Conceptual Model. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 159–169). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: Recent disasters have revealed growing numbers of citizens who participate in responses to disasters. These so-called spontaneous unaffiliated on-site volunteers (SUVs) have become valuable resources for mitigating disaster scales. However, their self-coordination has also led to harm or putting themselves in danger. The necessity to coordinate SUVs has encouraged researchers to develop coordination approaches, yet testing, evaluating, and validating these approaches has been challenging, as doing so requires either real disasters or field tests. In practice, this is usually expensive, elaborate, and/or impossible, in part, to conduct. Simulating SUVs' behaviors using agent-based simulations seems promising to address this challenge. Therefore, this contribution presents a conceptual model that provides the basis for implementing SUV agents in simulation software to perform suitable simulations and to forecast citizens' behaviors under a given set of circumstances. To achieve adequate simulations, the conceptual model is based on the identification of 25 behavior-affecting attributes.
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Sebastian Lindner, Stefan Sackmann, & Hans Betke. (2019). Simulating Spontaneous Volunteers: A System Entity Structure for Defining Disaster Scenarios. 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: Fast and easy communication, e.g. via Twitter or Facebook, encourages self-coordination between spontaneous
volunteers in disasters. Unfortunately, this is more and more challenging official disaster management. The need
for the directed coordination of spontaneous volunteers triggered researchers to develop effective coordination
approaches. However, evaluating and comparing such approaches as well as their exercising are lacking a
standardized way to describe repeatable disaster scenarios, e.g. for simulations. Therefore, we present a novel
System Entity Structure (SES) for describing disaster scenarios considering the disaster environment,
communication infrastructure, disaster management, and population of spontaneous volunteers. The SES is
discussed as a promising scheme for including spontaneous volunteers in disaster scenarios on a general level. Its
applicability is demonstrated by a Pruned Entity Structure derived from a real disaster scenario. Based on the
results, we give an outlook on our subsequent research, the XML-based Spontaneous Volunteer Coordination
Scenario Definition Language (SVCSDL).
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