Gah-Kai Leung. (2021). Reducing Flood Risks for Young People in the UK Housing Market. 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. 481–487). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Flooding is one of the most serious natural hazards faced in the UK. The Environment Agency estimates that in England alone, about 5.2 million properties are at risk of flooding, or roughly one in six (2009: 3). Flooding imposes significant financial, psychological and social burdens on households and these may be especially acute for young people in the property market, such as renters and first-time buyers. This paper examines how housing-related policy can help alleviate the burdens of flooding on young people in the housing market. First, it canvasses the kinds of damage inflicted when flooding affects properties. Second, it discusses the financial burdens imposed by such damage. Third, it enumerates the financial burdens and benefits of measures to protect against flooding. Fourth, it considers the non-monetary burdens of flooding, in the form of psychological and social burdens. Finally, the paper offers some policy recommendations in light of the preceding discussion.
|
|
Cheng Wang, Benjamin Bowes, Arash Tavakoli, Stephen Adams, Jonathan Goodall, & Peter Beling. (2020). Smart Stormwater Control Systems: A Reinforcement Learning Approach. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 2–13). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Flooding poses a significant and growing risk for many urban areas. Stormwater systems are typically used to control flooding, but are traditionally passive (i.e. have no controllable components). However, if stormwater systems are retrofitted with valves and pumps, policies for controlling them in real-time could be implemented to enhance system performance over a wider range of conditions than originally designed for. In this paper, we propose an autonomous, reinforcement learning (RL) based, stormwater control system that aims to minimize flooding during storms. With this approach, an optimal control policy can be learned by letting an RL agent interact with the system in response to received reward signals. In comparison with a set of static control rules, RL shows superior performance on a wide range of artificial storm events. This demonstrates RL's ability to learn control actions based on observation and interaction, a key benefit for dynamic and ever-changing urban areas.
|
|
Rachel Samuels, John Eric Taylor, & Neda Mohammadi. (2018). The Sound of Silence: Exploring How Decreases in Tweets Contribute to Local Crisis Identification. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 696–704). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: Recent research has identified a correlation between increasing Twitter activity and incurred damage in disasters. This research, however, fails to account for localized emergencies occurring in areas in which people have lost power, otherwise lack internet connectivity, or are uncompelled to Tweet during a disaster. In this paper, we analyze the correlation between daily Tweet counts and FEMA Building Level Damage Assessments during Hurricane Harvey. We find that the absolute deviation of Tweet counts from steady state is a potentially useful tool for the evolving information needs of emergency responders. Our results show this to be a more consistent and persistent metric for flood damage across the full temporal extent of the disaster. This shows that, when considering the varied information needs of emergency responders, social media tools that seek to identify emergencies need to consider both where Tweet counts are increasing and where they are dropping off.
|
|
Keri K. Stephens, Jing Li, Brett W. Robertson, William R. Smith, & Dhiraj Murthy. (2018). Citizens Communicating Health Information: Urging Others in their Community to Seek Help During a Flood. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 893–902). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: When wide-scale flooding occurs in a community not accustomed to floods, health concerns emerge. While official organizations tasked with communicating emerging health information exist, the proliferation of social media makes it possible for average citizens to participate in this conversation. This study used a combination of semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation techniques to explore how citizens used private social media sites to share health information. We found two main categories of health concerns: existing medical conditions and water-created. We further identified six themes that describe the common approaches average citizens used to share health information: Narrating a personal experience, presenting it as a Public Service Announcement, downplaying the contribution, bringing a credible source into the conversation, including external links and sources, and using humor. Together, these findings suggest that citizens need health information during a flood disaster, and when they do not have it available from official sources, they use their private social media to tap into a shared community identity and carefully help one another.
|
|
Meshal Alharbi, & Graham Coates. (2019). Assessing Flood Recovery of Small Businesses using Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation. In Z. Franco, J. J. González, & J. H. Canós (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management. Valencia, Spain: Iscram.
Abstract: In developed countries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent the majority of all businesses, e.g. 99.9% in the UK. Given this significant proportion, any disruption to the operation of SMEs will have a negative impact on a nation?s economy. In the context of flooding, this paper reports on the use of agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) to assess SMEs immediate response and short-term recovery. In particular, it focuses on the interactions between manufacturing SMEs and mutual aid partners, and retail SMEs and companies specializing in refurbishing premises. Results show that a manufacturing SME with a mutual aid partner can reduce loss in production by approximately 6% over a 7 working day period. In relation to retail
SMEs, those with employees able to be allocated to refurbish its premises recovered faster than SMEs employing a refurbishment company, potentially one day earlier.
|
|