Abstract: Today emergencies seem more complex than ever. Process of managing these emergencies also becomes more complex because of increasing number of involved parties, increasing number of people affected, and increasing amount of resources. This complexity, inherent in emergency management, brings lots of challenges to decision makers and emergency responders. Information systems and technologies are utilized in different areas of emergency management. However complexity increases exponentially in emergency situations and it requires more sophisticated IS and IT and it makes response and management more challenging. Thus analyzing the root causes of emergency management information systems complexity is crucial for improving emergency response effectiveness. This paper frames the issue of information systems complexity by focusing on the types of complexities involved in emergency management phases and explaining each complexity type. We propose 6 different complexity types: Human Complexity, Technologic Complexity, Event Complexity, Interaction Complexity, Decision Making Complexity, and Cultural Complexity.

Abstract: The OASIS Project addresses the Strategic objective 2.3.2.9, “Improving Risk Management”, of the second call for tender of the European Commission FP6 Information Society Technologies program. The objective of OASIS is to define and develop an Information Technology (IT) framework based on an open and flexible architecture and using standards that will be the basis of a European Emergency Management system. OASIS is intended to facilitate the cooperation between the information systems used by civil protection organisations, in a local, regional, national or international environment. This Disaster and Emergency Management system aims to support the response operations in the case of large scale as well as local emergencies.

Abstract: Multi-agency coordination in emergency management presents many challenges. Agencies that normally operate independently have to assemble into a unified supra organization to achieve a common goal. To achieve successful multi-agency coordination organizations need to span organizational boundaries and provide linkages with multiple agencies. This requires interorganizational compatibility of information and communication systems. Necessary for this success are the stakeholders responsible for facilitating these organizational boundary spanning activities. This paper proposes that the preliminary research findings can create a typology of dimensions crucial to facilitating multi-agency emergency management coordination. It is envisaged that the typology will culminate into a diagnostic tool that will enable stakeholders to examine the breakdowns and successes of multi-agency emergency management coordination.

Abstract: Social media enable rapid, peer-to-peer information flow during crisis events, affordances that have both positive and negative consequences. The potential for spreading misinformation is a significant concern. Drawing on an empirical study of information-sharing practices in a crisis-affected community in the Catskill Mountains after Hurricane Irene, this paper describes how an ad hoc group of community members, led by a handful of journalists, employed specific work practices to mitigate misinformation. We illustrate how the group appropriated specific tools and performed visible skepticism, among other techniques, to help control the spread of false rumors. These findings suggest implications for the design of tools and the development of best practices for supporting community-led, crowd-powered response efforts during disasters.

Abstract: Critical energy infrastructures are more and more focused upon by politics and society. Modern society depends on these structures, since they enable the steady support of electricity and other types of energy. Deliberately precipitated hazards of certain critical parts of electrical transmission systems (ETS) can lead to catastrophic consequences. Therefore, the analysis of feasible security hazards and resulting consequences for the operation of transmission systems are a concern to transmission system operators (TSO). Alas, there is no common method available that comprehensively identifies these feasible security related scenarios and classifies them according to their overall criticality for the safe operation of the ETS. To tackle this challenge, we propose a comprehensive, yet easy-to-apply method to systematically identify and assess the criticality of security threat scenarios. It is conducted in four steps and consists of a matrix based consistency check of threat scenarios in a defined solution space and a convenient semi-quantitative assessment of a risk factor for the ETS. The approach is illustrated by the simplified generic example of an EETS.

Abstract: Engineering reconnaissance following an extreme event is critical in identifying the causes of infrastructure failure and minimizing such consequences in similar future events. Typically, however, much of the data about infrastructure performance and the progression of geological phenomena are lost during the event or soon after as efforts move to the recovery phase. A better methodology for reliable and rapid collection of perishable hazards data will enhance scientific inquiry and accelerate the building of disaster-resilient cities. In this paper, we explore ways to support post-event reconnaissance through the strategic collection and reuse of social media data and other remote sources of information, in response to the September 2013 flooding in Colorado. We show how tweets, particularly with postings of visual data and references to location, may be used to directly support geotechnical experts by helping to digitally survey the affected region and to navigate optimal paths through the physical space in preparation for direct observation.

Abstract: This paper presents the results of our research on the development of a Dialog Action Manager-DAM as part of a complex crisis management system. Imagine the utility of such an automatic system to detect the crisis and to provide support to people in contexts similar to what happened recently at the underground in London and Madrid. Preventing and handling the scenarios of terrorism and other crisis are nowadays maybe the most important issues for a modern and safe society. In order to automate the crisis support, DAM simulates the behavior of an employee at the crisis centre handling telephone calls from human observers. Firstly, the system has to mimic the natural support for the paradigm 'do you hear me?' and next for the paradigm 'do you understand me?'. The people witnessing the crisis event as well as human experts provide reports and expertise according to their observations and knowledge on the crisis. The system knowledge and the data communication follow the XML format specifications. The system is centered on the results of our previous work on creating a user-centered multimodal reporting tool that works on mobile devices. In our paper we describe the mechanisms for creating an automatic DAM system that is able to analyze the user messages, to identify and track the crisis contexts, to support dialogs for crisis information disambiguation and to generate feedback in the form of advice to the users. The reasoning is done by using a data frame and rule based system architecture and an alternative Bayesian Network approach. In the paper we also present a series of experiments we have attempted in our endeavor to correctly identify natural solutions for the crisis situations.

Abstract: The environment of many HROs in modern, western countries have undergone dramatic changes in the last decades. They have changed from High Reliability Organizations (HROs) into High Reliability Networks (HRNs). In nearly all industries, the formerly vertically integrated, state-owned monopolies were 'unbundled' and in many segments, competition was introduced. Consequently, the services of modern-day large-scale technical systems are provided by networks of organizations. In-depth research in a number of infrastructure industries explored the consequences of these changes for the reliable provision of services in networks of organizations. In networks of organizations, reliability is increasingly achieved through 'real-time' management. This paper highlights three important consequences of these findings and provides some tentative conclusions about their effect on the design and use of Information Systems in complex, large-scale technical systems.

Abstract: Space-based river monitoring can provide a systematic, timely and impartial way to detect floods of humanitarian concern. This paper presents a new processing method for such data, resulting in daily flood magnitude time series for any arbitrary observation point on Earth, with lag times as short as 4h. Compared with previous work, this method uses image processing techniques and reduces the time to obtain a 6 year time series for an observation site from months to minutes, with more accurate results and global coverage. This results in a daily update of major floods in the world, with an objective measure for their magnitude, useful for early humanitarian response. Because of its full coverage, the grid-based technique also allows the automatic creation of low-resolution flood maps only hours after the satellite passes, independent of cloud coverage.

Abstract: A new flood monitoring module is in development for the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS). GDACS is an information system designed to assist humanitarian responders with their decisions in the early onset after a disaster. It provides near-real time flood alerts with an initial estimate of the consequences based on computer models. Subsequently, the system gathers information in an automated way from relevant information sources such as international media, mapping and scientific organizations. The novel flood detection methodology is based on daily AMSR-E passive microwave measurement of 2500 flood prone sites on 1435 rivers in 132 countries. Alert thresholds are determined from the time series of the remote observations and these are validated using available flood archives (from 2002 to present). Preliminary results indicate a match of 47% between detected floods and flood archives. Individual tuning of thresholds per site should improve this result.

Abstract: This paper discusses serious games developed as part of a training program developed for a Dutch crisis response group, which acts during a (potential) flooding crisis. Training in general contributes to a wide range of learning objectives and can address different target audiences. For each combination of learning objective and target audience, the proper form of education has to be selected, ranging from self-tuition to large scale multi-party training and exercises. Serious games can be a useful and educational addition to the set of existing training tools. For operational crisis response groups a high match with real-time warning systems is essential. Our approach shows how to integrate both serious games and early warning systems for effective training and exercises. We end with our lessons learned in designing serious games based on early warning systems, in the context of a training program for a crisis response group.

Abstract: When a crisis occurs, people from different organizations, on different hierarchical levels have to deal with unexpected situations that require coordinated effort. The goal of this research is to improve multidisciplinary cooperation for crisis management teams. We developed a tool, the Multi-mono guide, which helps team members to share information at the right time, with the right person, in the right way. A pre-test post-test intervention experiment was conducted with 8 professional teams to evaluate the effect of the tool on individual competencies, team situation awareness and process satisfaction. The experimental group was more satisfied with the meetings and about the way they shared information. Participants reported that the Multi-mono guide makes them aware of sharing information. We didn't find significant differences for individual competencies and team situation awareness. This is may be because the teams that participated were very experienced. Participants did find the Multi-mono guide useful for trainees.