Xiaojing Guo, Xinzhi Wang, Luyao Kou, & Hui Zhang. (2021). A Question Answering System Applied to Disasters. 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. 2–16). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: In emergency management, identifying disaster information accurately and promptly out of numerous documents like news articles, announcements, and reports is important for decision makers to accomplish their mission efficiently. This paper studies the application of the question answering system which can automatically locate answers in the documents by natural language processing to improve the efficiency and accuracy of disaster knowledge extraction. Firstly, an improved question answering model was constructed based on the advantages of the existing neural network models. Secondly, the English question answering dataset pertinent to disasters and the Chinese question answering dataset were constructed. Finally, the improved neural network model was trained on the datasets and tested by calculating the F1 and EM scores which indicated that a higher question answering accuracy was achieved. The improved system has a deeper understanding of the semantic information and can be used to construct the disaster knowledge graph.
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Nada Matta, Thomas Godard, Guillaume Delatour, Ludovic Blay, Franck Pouzet, & Audrey Senator. (2021). Analyzing Social Media in Crisis Management Using Expertise Feedback Modelling. 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. 17–27). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Currently social media are largely used in interactions, especially in crisis situations. We note a big volume of interactions around events. Observing these interactions give information even to alert the existence of an incident, event, or to understand the expansion of a problem. Crisis management actors observe social media to be aware about this type of information in order to consider them in their decisions. Specific organizations are founded in order to observe social media interactions and send their analysis to rescue and crisis management actors. In our work, an experience feedback of this type of organizations (VISOV, a crisis social media analysis association) is capitalized in order to emphasize from one side, main dimensions of this analysis and from another side, to simulate some aspects using TextMining that help to explore big volume of data.
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Audun Stolpe, & Jo Hannay. (2021). On the Adaptive Delegation and Sequencing of Actions. 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. 28–39). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Information systems support to crisis response and management relies crucially on presenting actionable information in a manner that supports cognitive processes, and does not overwhelm them. We outline how AI Planning can be used viably to support the \emph{delegation and sequencing} of tasks. The idea is to use standard operating procedures as initial specifications of plans in terms of actors, actions and delegation rules. When expressed in the AI planning language \textit{Answer set Programming} (ASP), machine reasoning can be used in a \textit{pre-incident review} to display relevant delegation and sequencing inherent in a plan. % together with measures of goal achievement. The purpose of this is to uncover weaknesses in the initial plan and to optimize sequencing and delegation to increase the likelihood of achieving goals. Further, adaptive planning can be supported in \textit{during-incident reviews} by updating the current status, upon which ASP will then compute new alternatives. % and corresponding goal achievement measures. At this point, initial goals may no longer be viable and the explicit suggestion of prior sub-optimal goals now worth pursuing can be a game-changer under stress. The conceptual basis we lay out in terms of delegation and sequencing can be readily extended with further planning factors, such as resource requirements, role transfer and goal achievement.
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Nilani Algiriyage, Raj Prasanna, Kristin Stock, Emma Hudson-Doyle, David Johnston, Minura Punchihewa, et al. (2021). Towards Real-time Traffic Flow Estimation using YOLO and SORT from Surveillance Video Footage. 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. 40–48). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Traffic emergencies and resulting delays cause a significant impact on the economy and society. Traffic flow estimation is one of the early steps in urban planning and managing traffic infrastructure. Traditionally, traffic flow rates were commonly measured using underground inductive loops, pneumatic road tubes, and temporary manual counts. However, these approaches can not be used in large areas due to high costs, road surface degradation and implementation difficulties. Recent advancement of computer vision techniques in combination with freely available closed-circuit television (CCTV) datasets has provided opportunities for vehicle detection and classification. This study addresses the problem of estimating traffic flow using low-quality video data from a surveillance camera. Therefore, we have trained the novel YOLOv4 algorithm for five object classes (car, truck, van, bike, and bus). Also, we introduce an algorithm to count the vehicles using the SORT tracker based on movement direction such as ``northbound'' and ``southbound'' to obtain the traffic flow rates. The experimental results, for a CCTV footage in Christchurch, New Zealand shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach. In future research, we expect to train on large and more diverse datasets that cover various weather and lighting conditions.
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Kenneth Johnson, Javier Cámara, Roopak Sinha, Samaneh Madanian, & Dave Parry. (2021). Towards Self-Adaptive Disaster Management Systems. 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. 49–61). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Disasters often occur without warning and despite extensive preparation, disaster managers must take action to respond to changes critical resource allocations to support existing health-care facilities and emergency triages. A key challenge is to devise sound and verifiable resourcing plans within an evolving disaster scenario. Our main contribution is the development of a conceptual self-adaptive system featuring a monitor-analyse-plan-execute (MAPE) feedback loop to continually adapt resourcing within the disaster-affected region in response to changing usage and requirements. We illustrate the system's use on a case study based on Auckland city (New Zealand). Uncertainty arising from partial knowledge of infrastructure conditions and outcomes of human participant's actions are modelled and automatically analysed using formal verification techniques. The analysis inform plans for routing resources to where they are needed in the region. Our approach is shown to readily support multiple model and verification techniques applicable to a range of disaster scenarios.
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Tina Mioch, Reinier Sterkenburg, Tatjana Beuker, & Mark A. Neerincx. (2021). Actionable Situation Awareness: Supporting Team Decisions in Hazardous Situations. 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. 62–70). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
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.
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Oussema Ben Amara, Daouda Kamissoko, Frédérick Benaben, & Ygal Fijalkow. (2021). Hardware architecture for the evaluation of BCP robustness indicators through massive data collection and interpretation. 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. 71–78). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Recently, the concept of robustness measurement has become clearly important especially with the rise of risky events such as natural disasters and mortal pandemics. In this context, this paper proposes an overview of a hardware architecture for massive data collection in the aim of evaluating robustness indicators. This paper essentially addresses the theoretical and general problems that the scientific research is seeking to address in this area, offers a literature review of what already exists and, based on preliminary diagnosis of what the literature has, presents a new approach and some of the targeted findings with a focus on the leading aspects, having a primary objective of explaining the multiple aspects of this research work.
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Antonio De Nicola, Maria Luisa Villani, Francesco Costantino, Andrea Falegnami, & Riccardo Patriarca. (2021). Knowledge Fusion for Distributed Situational Awareness driven by the WAx Conceptual Framework. 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. 79–85). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Large crisis scenarios involve several actors, acting at the blunt-end of the process, such as rescue team directors, and at the sharp-end, such as firefighters. All of them have different perspectives on the crisis situation, which could be either coherent, alternative or complementary. This heterogeneity of perceptions hinders situational awareness, which is defined as the achievement of an overall picture on the above-mentioned crisis situation. We define knowledge fusion as the process of integrating multiple knowledge entities to produce actionable knowledge, which is consistent, accurate, and useful for the purpose of the analysis. Hence, we present a conceptual modelling approach to gather and integrate knowledge related to large crisis scenarios from locally-distributed sources that can make it actionable. The approach builds on the WAx framework for cyber-socio-technical systems and aims at classifying and coping with the different knowledge entities generated by the involved operators. The conceptual outcomes of the approach are then discussed in terms of open research challenges for knowledge fusion in crisis scenarios.
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Rouba Iskandar, Julie Dugdale, Elise Beck, & Cécile Cornou. (2021). PEERS: An integrated agent-based framework for simulating pedestrians' earthquake evacuation. 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. 86–96). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Traditional seismic risk assessment approaches focus on assessing the damages to the urban fabric and the resultant socio-economic consequences, without adequately incorporating the social component of risk. However, the human behavior is essential for anticipating the impacts of an earthquake, and should be included in quantitative risk assessment studies. This paper proposes an interdisciplinary agent-based modeling framework for simulating pedestrians' evacuation in an urban environment during and in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake. The model is applied to Beirut, Lebanon and integrates geo-spatial, socio-demographic, and quantitative behavioral data corresponding to the study area. Several scenarios are proposed to be explored using this model in order to identify the influence of relevant model parameters. These experiments could contribute to the development of improved of emergency management plans and prevention strategies.
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Yasas Senarath, Jennifer Chan, Hemant Purohit, & Ozlem Uzuner. (2021). Evaluating the Relevance of UMLS Knowledge Base for Public Health Informatics during Disasters. 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. 97–105). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: During disasters public health organizations increasingly face challenges in acquiring and transforming real-time data into knowledge about the dynamic public health needs. Resources on the internet can provide valuable information for extracting knowledge that can help improve decisions which will ultimately result in targeted and efficient health services. Digital content such as online articles, blogs, and social media are some of such information sources that could be leveraged to improve the health care systems during disasters. To efficiently and accurately identify relevant disaster health information, extraction tools require a common vocabulary that is aligned to the health domain so that the knowledge from these unstructured digital sources can be accurately structured and organized. In this paper, we study the degree to which the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) contains relevant disaster, public health, and medical concepts for which public health information in disaster domain could be extracted from digital sources.
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Dashley Rouwendal van Schijndel, Audun Stolpe, & Jo Erskine Hannay. (2021). Toward an AI-based external scenario event controller for crisis response simulations. 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. 106–117). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: There is a need for tool support for structured planning, execution and analysis of simulation-based training for crisisresponse and management. As a central component of an architecture for such tool support, we outline the design ofan AI-based scenario event controller. The event controller is a component that uses machine reasoning to computethe next state in a scenario, given the actions performed in the corresponding simulation (execution of the scenario).Scenarios are specified in Answer Set Programming, which is a logic programming language we use for automatedplanning of training scenarios. A plan encoding in ASP adds expressivity in scenario specification and enablesmachine reasoning. For exercise managers this gives AI-based tool support for before-action and during-actionreviews to optimize learning. In line with Modelling and Simulation as as Service, our approach externalizes eventcontrol from any particular simulation platform. The scenario, and its unfolding in terms of events, is externalizedas a service. This increases interoperability and enables scenarios to be designed and modified readily and rapidlyto adapt to new training requirements.
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Julian Zobel, Patrick Lieser, Tobias Meuser, Lars Baumgärtner, Mira Mezini, & Ralf Steinmetz. (2021). Modeling Civilian Mobility in Large-Scale Disasters. 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. 119–132). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: When disasters destroy critical communication infrastructure, smartphone-based Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) can provide basic communication for civilians. Although field tests have shown the practicability of such systems, real-world experiments are expensive and hardly repeatable. Simulations are therefore required for the design and extensive evaluation of novel DTN protocols, but meaningful assertions require realistic mobility models for civilians. In this paper, trace files from a large-scale disaster field test are analyzed to identify typical human behavior patterns in a disaster area. Based on this, we derive a novel civilian disaster mobility model that incorporates identified behaviors such as group-based movement and clustering around points-of-interests such as hospitals and shelters. We evaluate the impact of mobility on DTN communication performance by comparing our model with other established mobility models as well as the trace file dataset in a simulative evaluation based on the field test scenario. In general, our mobility model leads to a more realistic assessment of DTN communication performance compared to other mobility models.
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Tobias Meuser, Lars Baumgärtner, & Patrick Lieser. (2021). Pandemic Skylines: Digital Twins for More Realism in Epidemic Simulations. 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. 133–145). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: In the recent months, many measures have been taken by governments to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the unknown properties of the disease and a lack of experience with handling pandemics, the effectiveness of measures taken was often hard to evaluate the effectiveness of measures, leading to inefficient measures and late execution of efficient measures. Many models have been proposed to evaluate the performance of these measures on the spreading of a pandemic, but these models are commonly vastly simplified and, thus, limited in expressiveness. To extend the expressiveness of the models, we developed a epidemic simulation inside of a flexible and scalable city simulation game to analyse the counter measures to a pandemic in this city and spot common places of infection on a microscopic level. The configurability of our developed epidemic simulation will also be useful for potential future pandemics.
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Usman Anjum, Vladimir Zadorozhny, & Prashant Krishnamurthy. (2021). TBAM: Towards An Agent-Based Model to Enrich Twitter Data. 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. 146–158). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Twitter is widely being used by researchers to understand human behavior, e.g. how people behave when an event occurs and how it changes their microblogging pattern. The changing microblogging behavior can have an important application in the form of detecting events. However, the Twitter data that is available has limitations in it has incomplete and noisy information and has irregular samples. In this paper we create a model, calledTwitter Behavior Agent-Based Model (TBAM)to simulate Twitter pattern and behavior using Agent-Based Modeling(ABM). The generated data can be used in place or to complement the real-world data and improve the accuracy of event detection. We confirm the validity of our model by comparing it with real data collected from Twitter
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Xiaoyong Ni, Hong Huang, Wenxuan Dong, Chao Chen, Boni Su, & Anying Chen. (2021). Scenario Prediction and Crisis Management for Rain-induced Waterlogging Based on High-precision Simulation. 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. 159–173). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Many cities, especially those in developing countries, are not well prepared for the devastating disaster of exceptional rain-induced waterlogging caused by extreme rainfall. This paper proposes a waterlogging scenario prediction and crisis management method for such kind of extreme rainfall conditions based on high-precision waterlogging simulation. A typical urban region in Beijing, China is selected as the study area in this paper. High-precision and full-scale data in the study area requested for the waterlogging simulation are introduced. The simulation results show that the study area is still vulnerable to extreme rainfall and the subsequent waterlogging. The waterlogging situation is much more severe with the increase of the return period of rainfall. This study offers a good reference for the relevant government departments to make effective policy and take pointed response to the waterlogging problem.
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Alexander Gabriel, Babette Tecklenburg, Yann Guillouet, & Frank Sill Torres. (2021). Threat analysis of offshore wind farms by Bayesian networks – a new modeling approach. 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. 174–185). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: As a result of the ongoing commitment to climate protection in more and more countries and the corresponding expansion of renewable energies, the importance of renewables for the security of electricity supply is also increasing. Wind energy generated in offshore wind farms already accounts for a significant share of the energy mix and will continue to grow in the future. Therefore, approaches and models for security assessment and protection against threats are also needed for these infrastructures. Due to the special characteristics and geographical location of offshore wind farms, they are confronted with particular challenges. In this context, this contribution outlines how an approach for threat analysis of offshore wind farms is to be developed within the framework of the new research project “ARROWS” of the German Aerospace Center. The authors first explain the structure of offshore wind farms and then present a possible modeling approach using Qualitative function models and Bayesian networks.
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Ivar Svare Holand, Peter Mozelius, & Trond Olav Skevik. (2021). A structured and dynamic model for emergency management exercises. 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. 186–197). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Emergencies are management challenges, and emergency exercises that involve multiple collaborating parties is a means towards mastering them. Such exercises are often conducted in a virtual training environment based on complex disaster scenarios. The reported study was carried out using a requirement-focused design approach. The aim was to describe and discuss a relevant design for lean, dynamic, and cost-efficient emergency management exercise systems. Data were gathered from a literature study and analyses of earlier emergency management projects in which the authors had participated. Despite the complexity of many current emergency management exercises, the scenarios usually involve only the response phases and have a linear structure that hinders both didactic aspects and the software structure. The conclusion drawn from the study is that an emergency management exercise model should focus on managing the activities that correspond to alternatives that unfold from a dynamic scenario. Finally, the authors recommend the principles of alternate reality games as a way towards more dynamic and cost-efficient emergency exercise systems.
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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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Duygu Pamukcu, Christopher Zobel, & Yue Ge. (2021). Analysis of Orange County, Florida 311 System Service Requests During the COVID-19 Pandemic. 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. 208–217). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The Orlando metropolitan area in Florida, where Walt Disney World is located, is intimately familiar with impacts of natural disasters because of the yearly threat of hurricanes in the southeastern United States. One of the tools that has aided them in their efforts to monitor and manage such disasters is their 311 non-emergency call system, through which local residents can issue requests to the municipality for disaster-related information or other services. This paper provides a preliminary examination of the potential for the Orange County 311 system to provide actionable information to them in support of their efforts to manage a different type of disaster: the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential of the system to support the County in this context is illustrated through several preliminary analyses of the complete set of service requests that were registered in the first ten months of 2020.
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Anmol Haque, Duygu Pamukcu, Ruixiang Xie, Mohsen Zaker Esteghamati, Margaret Cowell, & Jennifer L. Irish. (2021). Cascading Effects of Mass Gatherings on COVID-19 Infections from a Multi-hazard Perspective: A Case Study of New York City. 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. 218–227). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The devastating economic and societal impacts of COVID-19 can be substantially compounded by other secondary events that increase individuals' exposure through mass gatherings such as protests or sheltering due to a natural disaster. Based on the Crichton's Risk Triangle model, this paper proposes a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation framework to estimate the impact of mass gatherings on COVID-19 infections by adjusting levels of exposure and vulnerability. To this end, a case study of New York City is considered, at which the impact of mass gathering at public shelters due to a hypothetical hurricane will be studied. The simulation results will be discussed in the context of determining effective policies for reducing the impact of multi-hazard generalizability of our approach to other secondary events that can cause mass gatherings during a pandemic will also be discussed.
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Stella Polikarpus, Tobias Ley, & Katrin Poom-Valickis. (2021). Collaborative Authoring of Virtual Simulation Scenarios for Assessing Situational Awareness. 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. 229–237). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Situational awareness (SA), the ability to perceive, comprehend and predict situation around you and it is a key in attending any incident as critical foundation for successful decision-making. Because incidents are solitary events, development and assessment of SA presents a significant challenge. In this article we analyze the authoring process of twenty-two scenarios implemented in the XVR on-scene virtual simulation software used to assess rescue incident commanders' (ICs) SA. To allow the scenarios to be used by different assessors, the Collaborative Authoring Process Model for Virtual Simulation Scenarios (CAPM) was developed. In Estonia, 473 assessments were recorded in Effective Command database and analysed by all three levels of SA as recommended by Endsley (2000). Introduction of CAPM resulted in scenarios being re-used by different assessors for authentic SA measuring. In the last sections of this article, we introduce our suggestions to improve virtual scenario design and SA research.
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Erik Borglund, Martina Granholm, & Ulf Andersson. (2021). Virtual Emergency Operation Centre: How to manage a crisis from an EOC when you need to work from home. 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. 238–245). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: What happens when an organization requires its employees to work from home during a pandemic that needs to be managed? This research in progress article focuses on TELCOALPHA and their transition of the emergency operation centre (EOC) to be digital and distributed. A qualitative research method approach was applied and liminality has been used as lens to investigate the passage from analog to digital. Focus has been on understanding the transition and how they handled ambiguity within the organization when their crisis management moved online. The transition was successful, and two areas were identified as important to this success: 1. TELCOALPHA used IT that the staff in the crisis organization already had experience of working with prior to the Covid-19 pandemic; 2. TELCO_ALPHA ran crisis management team meetings as they would run regular business meetings. There was no new “crisis management structure” at the meetings.
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Boris Petrenj, Mariachiara Piraina, Giada Feletti, Paolo Trucco, Valentina Urbano, & Stefano Gelmi. (2021). Cross-border Information Sharing for Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Requirements and Platform Architecture. 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. 247–259). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Resilience of Critical Infrastructures is high on the agenda of countries' efforts. Modern CI highly interdependent and span countries, so disruptions occurring on one side of the border can significantly affect economic and social functions on the other. To build CI resilience, stakeholder organizations must collaborate and exchange information throughout the Emergency Management cycle. In this paper, we present the Critical Infrastructure Platform (PIC in Italian) which is being developed within the SICt project (Resilience of Cross-Border Critical Infrastructure). PIC is a technological piece of a broader cross-border regional resilience strategy between Lombardy Region (Italy) and Canton Ticino (Switzerland) aiming to improve the capacity to manage accidental events involving transportation CI between the two countries. The main goal of the PIC platform is to support secure and effective information-sharing, inter-organizational risk assessment, monitoring and operational coordination under critical situations. The paper presents the key requirements of such ICT system, its high-level architecture including the description of its main modules, main takeaways and future steps.
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Kees Boersma, & Robert Larruina. (2021). Restoring the Medical Supply Chain from Below: The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the Production of Face Masks during the Covid-19 Crisis. 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. 260–269). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic hit societies all over the world deeply. Since it has affected societies worldwide and compromised socio-technical systems across geographical, judicial and administrative borders it can be considered a cross-border, transboundary crisis. This dimension has exposed the global medical supply chain's vulnerability. Due to its 'lean and mean' characteristics the supply chain was unable to function adequately during the crisis and formal authorities struggled to restore it, causing serious problems in the response to the pandemic. At the same time, numerous initiatives from below tried to give a (partial) answer on how to restore the broken supply chain. This paper presents a case study about a Dutch social enterprise (i.e. the Refugee Company) engaged with the cross-border dimension of the COVID-19 crisis. The Refugee Company set up a supply chain, operation and (domestic) production of personal protection equipment (PPE) materials, in particular face masks. The paper draws on data collected through qualitative methods, including document analysis (secondary sources), interviews and observations. The conclusion is that social entrepreneurs and enterprises played a crucial role in restoring the supply chain. The paper provides valuable lessons for both policy makers and crisis managers: there is great potential in recognizing the entrepreneurial activities from below in strengthening supply chains at times of crisis, potentially making them more sustainable and resilient.
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Hoang Long Nguyen, Yasas Senarath, Hemant Purohit, & Rajendra Akerkar. (2021). Towards a Design of Resilience Data Repository for Community Resilience. 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. 271–281). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Community resilience is coming under scrutiny recently because of its need to support communities in preparing and protecting lives against risks and bouncing back to normal operations after disruptions. However, community resilience is an intricate concept that is arduous to capture and turn into explicit knowledge. This motivated us to propose a general architecture for a resilience data repository that enables communities to adopt a general methodology for collecting, storing, managing, and sharing resilience-based information. To ensure that the repository is useful and practical, we started with in-depth literature review and conducted survey with practitioners to obtain their insights into community resilience and potential data sources from local communities. Eventually, we presented the utility of the repository by describing several potential applications. Information systems professionals of community stakeholders and disaster management agencies can construct their own resilience repositories by utilising the proposed design of the architecture.
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