Daniel Twigt, João Lima Rego, Deborah Tyrrell, & Tineke Troost. (2011). Water quality forecasting systems: Advanced warning of harmful events and dissemination of public alerts. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Operational systems developed to monitor and forecast water quality can play a key role to counter and reduce the impact of harmful water quality events. Through these systems, many of the steps required to provide relevant information to the water quality manager can be automated, reducing the lead time required for a warning to be issued, as well as the potential for human error. The systems can also facilitate the routine dissemination of water quality forecasts to relevant parties in order to trigger early warnings or crisis response. This paper outlines some general characteristics of such water quality forecasting systems, focusing on the various elements from which such systems are composed. In addition, examples of existing systems to forecast bathing water quality and harmful algae blooms are provided as illustration. Such systems are either in a development stage (bathing water quality) or already used in operations (harmful algae blooms).
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Matti Haataja, Markku Häkkinen, & Helen T. Sullivan. (2011). Understanding user acceptance of mobile alerting systems. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Even though the adoption of emergency alerting systems may improve the safety and security of individuals, participation in existing systems that utilize mobile alerting in universities in USA varies and does not match the high adoption rate of mobile phone technology itself (Sullivan, Häkkinen & Piechocinski 2009; Wu, 2009). As the adoption of mobile alerting system (MAS) can be viewed as a critical life safety benefit, there is motivation to better understand factors that affect the acceptance of MAS. Among the possible, alternative methods of implementing mobile alerting, an opt-in type of system can enable the alerting process to be executed in a way that is more suitable and useful for a diverse community of individuals. As a result of this study, a refined version of technology acceptance model (TAM) is proposed, extended with factors of perceived trust and perceived financial cost to better interpret the acceptance of MAS. This model is being evaluated in ongoing research on MAS in a university and community context.
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João A. Santos, Sara Rodrigues, Neves, Ana Vieira, Conceiçao J. Fortes, Maria Teresa Reis, et al. (2011). MOIA: An integrated decision support tool for port management. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper describes MOIA, a numerical tool that evaluates sea-wave effects on port operations and broadcasts warning messages whenever the safety of such operations are deemed to be at risk. The evaluation of the sea-wave transformation from offshore – where the results of numerical models for sea-wave forecast at a regional level are available – up to the port area is described. Also, the procedures used to evaluate the sea-wave effects on sailing ships, focusing on the amplitude of the vertical movements of a selected point in the ship, are explained. Such procedures are combined and applied to an example where the average downtime for the navigation at four points along the sailing lane is evaluated for the entrance voyages into the port of Praia da Vitória (Azores) of a given ship.
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Simone De Kleermaeker, Annette Zijderveld, & Bart Thonus. (2011). Training for crisis response with serious games based on early warning systems. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
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.
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Ana Rosa Trancoso, José Delgado Domingos, Maria João Telhado, & João Corte-Real. (2011). Early warning system for meteorological risk in Lisbon municipality: Description and quality evaluation. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The current work describes and evaluates an early warning system for meteorological risk in Lisbon that has been functioning in SMPC since February 2008. The system aims to integrate multiple sources of information and facilitate cross checking observations, forecasts and warnings, allowing for an efficient and timely evaluation of the alert level to issue. Currently, it comprises hourly weather and tide level forecasts and automated warnings for Lisbon city, given by MM5 and WRF models running at IST. Results show MM5 performing better than WRF except for warm weather. The overall skill of the warning system is 40% with some false alarm ratios, mainly for forecasts with more than 3 days in advance. This is a reasonable characteristic for early warning since a potentially problematic situation can be anticipated and checked avoiding unnecessary economic expenditures if the warnings do not persist.
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