Abstract: Disturbing crowd disaster incidents have been witnessed in every corner of the planet, which often lead to extensive difficulties, especially when they involve mass multi-nation casualties. When conducting Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) tasks, starting from finding the missing, curing the injured, and identifying the deceased, the challenge in such disasters is the lack of information to provide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and conduct DVI in a timely manner. The literature presents fragmented solutions that can equip either post-mortem DVI or EMS with solutions to facilitate data collection and dissemination, but they do not consider a holistic solution that allows access to the victims' right information when needed. In this paper, we analyze information needs across multi-disciplines, as well as the requirements for technical support that can help manage the identification process. Recommendations should lay a sound foundation for future multi-disciplinary research in the areas of DVI, EMS, crowd disaster, health informatics, information security and software engineering in the health sphere.

Abstract: We utilize the 2012 Hurricane Sandy dataset to investigate methods to measure network stability during a crisis. While previous research on information distribution has focused on individuals that are most connected, or most willing to share information, we examined this dataset for indicators of network stability. The value of this measure is to identify the points of failure within the network. The findings in this paper provide support for the use of social network analysis within the realm of crisis response to identify the points of failure within the network.

Abstract: We developed a web application for location recording and rescue request using Twitter (T-Pl@ce). This application helps supported users (e.g., older adults, persons with disabilities, and children) who require support to share their location coordinates via Twitter. Supporting users (e.g., families, relatives, or neighbors) of the supported user can then check the location coordinates of the supported user when required. When the supported user needs to be rescued, he/she can post a rescue request on Twitter by pressing the “Rescue request” button on the application. In this study, we introduce the e-mail notification function to reliably notify a rescue request to the system administrator. In addition, to track the location of the supported user, we introduce a location tracking function. Then, the administrator, the emergency assistance employees (e.g., rescue experts or social workers), or the supporting user can refer to the request and the location tracking page and execute the support and rescue activities.

Abstract: During a natural disaster, major damages to critical structures such as bridges or power lines can severely disrupt community functions for long periods of time, making the task of swiftly identifying this type of damage vital for response and recovery. However, survey flight paths are often designed with a main focus of complete and quick coverage of affected areas through aerial photography, which is then assigned to volunteers to aid in damage report and labeling. We designed a crowdsourcing interface that focuses on locating points of interest and assessing damage using images from survey flights. We tested our design using a disaster and a non-disaster application by recruiting volunteers on Amazon Mechanical Turk. We found that the type of structure may cause difficulties for crowd workers in providing accurate assessments and that designing flights to also target structures may provide higher quality imagery for this type of task.

Abstract: Disasters, when they strike hard, may cause the disruption of many vital services. 'Telecommunications' is being considered one of the vital lifeline services as many disaster relief operations rely on it. Effective communication is dependent on a telecommunication network infrastructure that is working properly. Unfortunately, the infrastructure may be damaged during a disaster causing no-coverage and/or congested network traffic in the disaster-affected areas. In this paper we propose a conceptual framework for building a resilient communication system that not only considers the communications infrastructure but also other driving factors which are necessary for its success. The proposed framework is based on five key pillars, namely: robustness, redundancy, adaptability, agility, and readiness to build capability for developing a resilient communication system. The findings reported in this paper provide some insights into resilient communications that may help network researchers/engineers to contribute further towards developing a robust and resilient communication system capable of coping with disasters.

Abstract: In the response phase of disasters, minimal research has been conducted on the near real-time operational usage of social media. Research findings during this phase could provide evidence to the emergency management community that social media content can be retrieved, verified, and ultimately utilized in decision-making. This paper discusses potential strategies for conducting future research in near real-time during disasters to gain insightful knowledge rarely captured. Following the April 25, 2015, magnitude 7.8 Nepal earthquake, a team of 20 digital volunteers were virtually activated for 48 hours to extract medical-related information from multiple social media platforms and Internet sources. This practitioner insight paper examines methods applied to filter, classify, analyze, verify, and distribute the medical-related information in a timely manner. Association of past research studies are applied to the digital volunteer's experience within a case study framework, calling attention to the feasibility of digital volunteers as an information source in future research.

Abstract: A primary component of disaster response is training. These educational exercises provide responders with the knowledge and skills needed to be prepared when disasters happen. However, traditional training methods, such as high-fidelity simulations (e.g., real-life drills) and classroom courses, may fall short of providing effective and cost-efficient training that is needed for today's challenges. Advances in technology open a wide range of opportunities for training using computer-mediated simulations and exercises. These exercises include the use of mixed reality games and wearable computers. Existing studies report on the usefulness of these technologies for training purposes. This review paper synthesizes prior research and development of disaster response simulations and identifies challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned. Through this review, we provide researchers and designers with an overview of current practices in designing training simulations and contribute practical insights into the design of future disaster response training.

Abstract: Over the last three decades, the number and severity of natural disasters all across the world has been increasing exponentially (Basher, 2006). This paper intends to consider geographic information capacity (GIC) as it relates to government, government regulated organizations, and international organizations, including the United Nations, and their involvement in disaster risk reduction and management. Specifically, the paper aims to understand similarities and differences and the connection between two governmental disaster management organizations, FEMA in the United States and BBK and THW in Germany. We present a comparative analysis on the two countries in terms of their organizational structures, how their structures affect geographic information capacity and how geographic information capacity is related to disaster risk reduction and disaster response. Future work can make comparisons across more countries, including developing countries, to see what structural changes can be made in government entities to help increase GIC when disaster strikes.

Abstract: Information and communication technologies (ICT) are becoming increasingly important in emergency management and crisis communication. ICT tools are developed and adopted in all phases of the emergency management cycle. On the one hand, these tools contribute to better disaster preparedness and effective response. On the other hand, the lack of consideration of universal design in these tools also creates new barriers for different stakeholders, particularly the elderly and people with disabilities. The primary objective of this paper is to give an overview of the current state of the emerging research field of Universal Design of ICT for emergency management and provide a Research Agenda to highlight ways to uncover how the increasing introduction of ICT in emergency management can contribute to removing barriers instead of adding more barriers.

Abstract: A set of publications from the online, English-language, Emergency Management (EM) doctrine has been surveyed to identify common topics in Command & Control (C2) at the tactical and operational levels. Jackson's (2013) ontological and epistemological review of the evolution of military doctrine serves as the analytic lens, enabling a link to be made to resilience and agility. The topics identified were mapped to scientific disciplines in C2. The results could be used to draw up a recommended table of contents for comprehensive EM doctrine, to guide the development of curricula for training emergency managers, and to define the user requirements for supporting information systems. In further research, the results should be compared to a similar, ongoing survey of military C2 doctrine.

Abstract: Taiwan is located in the collision zones between two continental plates collide. From the perspective of plate tectonics, the paleo-tectonic environment of the Taiwan and its surrounding areas are rather complex and active due to the tectonic compression of the Eurasian Plate and Philippine Sea Plate. This has resulted in frequent earthquakes in Taiwan. In addition, the tropical and subtropical climate drives not only weathering and erosion of surface rocks, but also typhoon or monsoon triggered torrential and heavy rains in summer and autumn. For downstream land subsidence areas with poor discharge capacity, it is therefore often to have serious floods and resulted in large-scale disasters that endanger citizens' lives and property. Affected by climate change, high urban density and overexploitation of land resources, Taiwan has a substantial increase in natural disasters over the last couple of years. As the country is confronted by unfavorable environment and climate conditions, how disaster alerts and information are accurately and timely released has become an important topic for facilitating the evacuation of citizens and dispatch of disaster relief personnel. This study has combined the mobile communications technology to enable our government to, with the Cell Broadcast Service (CBS), instantly send messages to all 4G and 3G (WCDMA) mobile users within the coverage of designated base stations and without being affected by the network congestion through independent channels. This will help timely notify citizens to evacuate and reduce casualties.

Abstract: In this paper, we focus on understanding the effectiveness of deep neural networks by comparison with the effectiveness of standard classifiers that use carefully engineered features. Specifically, we design various feature sets (based on tweet content, user details and polarity clues) and use these feature sets individually or in various combinations, with Naïve Bayes classifiers. Furthermore, we develop neural models based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) with handcrafted architectures. We compare the two types of approaches in the context of identifying informative tweets posted during disasters, and show that the deep neural networks, in particular the CNN networks, are more effective for the task considered.