Franclin Foping, & Ioannis M. Dokas. (2013). A saas-based early warning information fusion system for critical infrastructure safety. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 156–165). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: Maintaining the critical infrastructures, such as Drinking Water Treatment Plants (DWTP), transportation, power generation and communications systems, in a safe state is a complex problem. The effective collaboration, as well as the collection aggregation and dissemination of early warning information among the stakeholders of the Safety Management System (SMS) responsible for the safety of these critical infrastructures are some of the challenges that need to be addressed. This paper argues that the Software as a Service (SaaS) deployment model can offer new ways of enhancing the fusion of early warning information during the operation phase of critical infrastructures. It presents the requirements, the architecture and a number of features of a working prototype SaaS-based early warning information fusion system for DWTP safety issues in the Republic of Ireland. It is the first time that a SaaSbased working prototype system is reported of providing early warning information fusion services in the literature.
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Michael R. Bartolacci, Albena Mihovska, & Dilek Ozceylan Aubrecht. (2013). Optimization modeling and decision support for wireless infrastructure deployment in disaster planning and management. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 674–677). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: Natural disasters and emergencies create the need for communication between and among the affected populace and emergency responders as well as other parties such as governmental agencies and aid organizations. Such communications include the dissemination of key information such as evacuation orders and locations of emergency shelters. In particular, the coordination of efforts between responding organizations require additional communication solutions that typically rely heavily on wireless communications to complement fixed line infrastructure due to the ease of use and portability. While the deployment of temporary mobile networks and other wireless equipment following disasters has been successfully accomplished by governmental agencies and network providers following previous disasters, there appears to be little optimization effort involved with respect to maximizing key performance measures of the deployment or minimizing overall cost to deploy. This work does not focus on the question of what entity will operate the portable base stations or wireless equipment utilized during a disaster, only the question of optimizing placement for planning and real time management purposes. This work examines current wireless network optimization models and points out that none of them include the necessary variables for a disaster planning or emergency deployment context. Due to the fact that the choice of wireless technology impacts the nature of an overall model, a brief discussion of exemplar wireless technologies is included. The work also proposes criteria that must be taken into account in order to have a useful model for deployment of mobile base stations and related wireless communications equipment.
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Aamir Mahmood, Konstantinos Koufos, & Krisztina Cziner. (2008). Multicast voice performance within a public safety cell. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 18–24). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In public safety communications the first responders are getting directions about the tactical action plan with multicast voice whereas they can report back to the dispatcher with unicast voice. In this paper, the aim is to find the maximum number of voice calls for situation reporting in the presence of multicast voice for tactical coordination. In order to increase the reliability of our analysis we verify our simulator against a test bed prototype consisting of three 802.11 terminals. The simulation study is applied within a mobile cell. The proposed mobility model applies for initial deployment in emergency scenarios. We investigate the statistical properties of the model by simulations.
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Rahele B. Dilmaghani, & Ramesh R. Rao. (2008). A wireless mesh infrastructure deployment with application for emergency scenarios. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 484–494). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: When a disaster or emergency occurs, one of the most pressing needs is to establish a communication network for the first responders at the scene. Establishing and accessing a reliable communication infrastructure at a crisis site is crucial in order to have accurate and real-time exchange of information. Failure in the exchange of timely and crucial information or delay in allocating resources impedes early response efforts, potentially resulting in loss of life and additional economic impact. At a disaster site, the existing communication infrastructure may be damaged and therefore partially or totally unavailable; or, there may not have been previously existing infrastructure (as in the case of remote areas). A communication infrastructure within the context of emergency applications should be reliable, easily configurable, robust, interoperable in a heterogeneous environment with minimum interdependencies, and quickly deployable at low cost. A disaster scene is a chaotic environment which requires a systematic approach to abstract the system, study the flow of information and collaboration among different disciplines and jurisdictions to facilitate response and recovery efforts. We have deployed the wireless mesh infrastructure in several drills at the university campus and in the city as part of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) NSF-funded RESCUE project (Responding to Crises and Unexpected Events). To evaluate network performance and identify the source(s) of bottleneck, we have captured the network traffic. The lessons learned from test bed evaluations of the network based on real-world scenarios can be applied to future applications to enhance the network design and performance.
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Amro Al-Akkad, & Christian Raffelsberger. (2014). How do i get this app? A discourse on distributing mobile applications despite disrupted infrastructure. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 565–569). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: This paper aims to lead a discourse on distributing mobile applications while having no access to cloud services. While in daily life people acquire applications via application stores, the access to those stores can be severely hampered in disasters. Instead of wishful thinking, i.e. hoping that people or manufactures would pre-install an (emergency) app before a disaster, we have started to investigate into Internet-less deployment mechanisms. We discuss five potential approaches of deploying apps in an ad-hoc fashion. Each approach is assessed against six criteria, while taking a stance that the smartphone is the minimally required deployment platform. This paper concludes with the observation that current mobile operating system providers do not provide “Internet-less” deployment mechanisms, although platforms as Android allow for this. This said, we hope that this contribution can spark further interest into the discussed problematic.
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