Lívia C. Degrossi, Guilherme G. Do Amaral, Eduardo S. M. De Vasconcelos, João Porto De Albuquerque, & Jo Ueyama. (2013). Using wireless sensor networks in the sensor web for flood monitoring in Brazil. 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. 458–462). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: Flood is a critical problem that will increase as a result of climate changes. The problem of flooding is particularly challenging over the rainy season in tropical countries like Brazil. In this context, wireless sensor networks that are capable of sensing and reacting to water levels hold the potential of significantly reducing the damage, health-risks and financial impact of events. In this paper, we aim to outline our experiences with developing wireless sensor network for flood monitoring in Brazil. Our approach is based on Open Geospatial Consortium's (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards, so as to enable the collected data to be shared in an interoperable and flexible manner. We describe the application of our approach in a real case study in the city of São Carlos/Brazil, emphasizing the challenges involved, the results achieved, and some lessons learned along the way.
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Edjossan-Sossou, A., Selouane, K., Sayah, M. A., Ouabou, M., Vignote, C., Capitaine, M., et al. (2023). An innovative scenario-based modeling tool for the management of resilient water resources. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 808–821). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: As freshwater availability for domestic and agro-industrial uses is highly sensitive to climate change, there is an urgent need for the management of this critical resource to be resilient, i.e., to cope with and rapidly recover from climate risks. To achieve this resilient goal, decision-makers need to have a comprehensive understanding of (i) the current and future local water resources, (ii) the ways these resources are and will be impacted by climate change, and (iii) the effects their management decisions can have. In this paper, we present an innovative scenario based modeling tool that help decision-makers make the most appropriate decision towards managing water resources: the Resilience Performance Assessment (RPA). This GIS-based decision support tool illustrates the current and future effects of climate change on local water resources and simulates the outcomes of different water resources management strategies. The RPA helps guide decision-makers towards the implementation of context specific adaptation strategies.
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Marc van den Homberg, Lydia Cumiskey, Esther Oprins, Pablo Suarez, & Anja van der Hulst. (2015). Are you Ready! to take early action? Embedding serious gaming into community managed DRR in Bangladesh. In L. Palen, M. Buscher, T. Comes, & A. Hughes (Eds.), ISCRAM 2015 Conference Proceedings ? 12th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Kristiansand, Norway: University of Agder (UiA).
Abstract: This paper applies a Game-based Learning Evaluation Model (GEM) to assess whether the early warning ? early action serious game ?Ready!? is an effective component to add to existing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) training curricula, facilitated by NGO staff and applied at the community level. We developed a paper-based survey with 17 five-level Likert items and 15 open questions addressing the different GEM indicators to question 16 NGO staff, and used a simplified set of five questions with emoticons for 58 community people. The results showed that the staff saw great potential in embedding Ready! in DRR processes and that the community highly appreciated the game. The GEM was found to be a useful methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of this serious game. However, in the context of a lower educated and partly illiterate community, the importance of designing an individual, largely visual assessment instrument instead of a paper-based survey was acknowledged.
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Murray Turoff, Victor A. Bañuls, & Miguel Ramirez de la Huerga. (2018). Hurricanes Send Signals for the Future of Emergency Preparedness. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 797–805). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: Trends over the past decades when coupled with recent disaster events call into serious question whether our typical reactions to natural disasters will be sufficient for what we can expect in the future. This paper summarizes current events and scientific understanding of our planet to provide insights of the authors into what should be the basis for future policies and plans.
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Thomas Münzberg, Marcus Wiens, & Frank Schultmann. (2014). A strategy evaluation framework based on dynamic vulnerability assessments. 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. 45–54). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: Assessing a system's vulnerability is a widely used method to estimate the effects of risks. In the past years, increasingly dynamic vulnerability assessments were developed to display changes in vulnerability over time (e.g. in climate change, coastal vulnerability, and flood management). This implies that the dynamic influences of management strategies on vulnerability need to be considered in the selection and implementation of strategies. For this purpose, we present a strategy evaluation framework which is based on dynamic vulnerability assessments. The key contribution reported in this paper is an evaluation framework that considers how well strategies achieve a predefined target level of protection over time. Protection Target Levels are predefined objectives. The framework proposed is inspired by Goal Programming methods and allows distinguishing the relevance of time-dependent achievements by weights. This enables decision-makers to evaluate the overall performance of strategies, to test strategies, and to compare the outcome of strategies.
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Gisli Rafn Olafsson. (2010). Effective coordination of disaster response – The international perspective. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Humanitarian situations have gotten more and more complex. Climate change is increasing the intensity, the increased involvement of NGOs and the revolution of social media has changed disaster response. This paper starts with a discussion of the changes that have happened in the last 10 years and then discusses how technology plays an increasing role in solving some of the more complex issues that disaster coordinators face.
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Robert Power, Mahesh Prakash, Bella Robinson, Nikhil Garg, Maria Wikstrom, & Martijn Mooij. (2023). A Climate Resilience Platform for Agriculture. In V. L. Thomas J. Huggins (Ed.), Proceedings of the ISCRAM Asia Pacific Conference 2022 (pp. 164–172). Palmerston North, New Zealand: Massey Unversity.
Abstract: The changing climate will see an increase in the frequency, scale, and intensity of future natural disasters. While communities and governments need to work together to mitigate the impact of these emergency events, the business community will also need to adapt to ensure the ongoing sustainability of their enterprises. This is especially true of the agricultural sector which is exposed to climate variability. The Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) tool is an online interactive digital platform bringing together a variety of climate information specifically for farmers and the agricultural sector. It will enable agricultural businesses, planners, and communities to explore various climate related datasets to better understand how the expected future climate may impact different regions and commodities. This will help people to anticipate and plan for the impacts of a variable and changing climate. We present the CSA tool, available at https://climateservicesforag.indraweb.io/, outlining how it is being developed in collaboration with key stakeholders in the Australian farming community, the climate data available and usage scenarios.
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Victor A. Bañuls, Andrzej M. Skulimowski, & José Antonio Román Begines. (2021). Disaster Resilience Modeling of Municipal Water Supply Infrastructures in the Context of Atmospheric Threats. 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. 198–207). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The resilience of water supply infrastructure (WSI) is of utmost importance as threats to predominantly, although not exclusively, urban WSI may accompany virtually all kinds of natural disasters. In this paper, we present some of the challenges posed by climate change in modeling emergencies in WSIs. Climate change is a global phenomenon that significantly impacts global lifestyle. It is expected that increase in global temperatures causes sea levels to rise, increases the number of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and storms while highly impacting WSI. In this respect, the challenge is to be prepared for the unexpended by modeling various complex scenarios. Only with a multidisciplinary approach at the global, regional, national, and local levels, can success be achieved. We discuss some of the specific challenges posed by climate change in modeling emergencies in WSIs with a case study modeled using EMERTIC. EMERTIC is a software based on AI and scenarios, that is aimed at supporting decision making at different stages of the Emergency Management cycle.
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Vihan C.N. Weeraratne, Raymond C.Z. Cohen, Mahesh Prakash, Lalitha Ramachandran, Nikhil Garg, & Valentijn Pauwels. (2023). Assessing Climate Vulnerability Under Future Changes to Climate, Demographics and Infrastructure: A Case Study for the Chapel Street Precinct, Melbourne. In V. L. Thomas J. Huggins (Ed.), Proceedings of the ISCRAM Asia Pacific Conference 2022 (pp. 35–44). Palmerston North, New Zealand: Massey Unversity.
Abstract: The Chapel Street Precinct is a busy commercial and residential corridor in the City of Stonnington Local Government Area (LGA) located in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Authorities and planners in the LGA are interested in understanding how the changing climate affects the socioeconomic environment of the region. By considering existing climate hazards (such as extreme heat, flood and water availability), infrastructure, and demographic information in the region together with future projections of climate change and demographic changes, a Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SVI) was created at a Mesh Block scale to better identify relatively high-risk Mesh Blocks in the region. The climate projections under medium and high future emission scenarios (i.e., representative concentration pathways (RCP)) as per IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) fifth assessment report (AR5), RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 respectively for 30-year epochs around 2030, 2050 and 2070 were used in the SVI development. The current-day scenario is considered under Baseline conditions for demographic and asset information representing present-day conditions, whereas the baseline climate dataset considers the climate for the 30 year period 1991-2020 to best represent the present-day climate. The multi-model mean of the future climate projections from 6 different climate models were obtained from the Victoria’s Future Climate tool (https://vicfutureclimatetool.indraweb.io), developed by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Data61 together with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) under Data61’s INDRA framework (https://research.csiro.au/indra/). A version of INDRA is currently under development to allow map-based interactivity, experimentation and scrutiny of the vulnerability indices and their subcomponents across the study region. The SVI was created using a weighted indicator approach utilising a range of indicators belonging to 3 categories, exposure, susceptibility, and baseline adaptive capacity. The indicators were first normalised and the final SVI was given a score between 0-1 for each Mesh Block. The worst levels of vulnerability were observed to be for the RCP8.5 2070 scenario. In general, the RCP8.5 scenarios indicated a worse outcome compared to the RCP4.5 scenario. The area along Chapel Street within the precinct which is a densely built-up area high in population was found to be the most vulnerable area in the study region. It is foreseen that decision makers will be able to use the holistic data-driven outcomes of this study to make better informed decisions whilst adapting to climate change.
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