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Author Michael Klafft; Ulrich Meissen
Title Assessing the economic value of early warning systems Type Conference Article
Year 2011 Publication 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011 Abbreviated Journal ISCRAM 2011
Volume Issue Pages
Keywords Disaster prevention; Disasters; Information systems; Privatization; Assessment models; Continuous operation; Disaster management; Early Warning System; Economic assessments; Investment decisions; Private investors; Sociocultural factors; Investments
Abstract As of today, investments into early warning systems are, to a large extent, politically motivated and “disaster-driven”. This means that investments tend to increase significantly if a disaster strikes, but are often quickly reduced in the following disaster-free years. Such investment patterns make the continuous operation, maintenance and development of the early warning infrastructure a challenging task and may lead to sub-optimal investment decisions. The paper presented here proposes an economic assessment model for the tangible economic impact of early warning systems. The model places a focus on the false alert problematic and goes beyond previous approaches by incorporating some socio-cultural factors (qualitatively estimated as of now). By doing so, it supports policymakers (but also private investors) in their investment decisions related to early warning applications.
Address Fraunhofer ISST, Germany
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM Place of Publication Lisbon Editor M.A. Santos, L. Sousa, E. Portela
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2411-3387 ISBN 9789724922478 Medium
Track Early Warning and Alert Systems Expedition Conference 8th International ISCRAM Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 654
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Author Ulrich Meissen; Frank Fuchs-Kittowski
Title Towards a reference architecture of crowdsourcing integration in early warning systems Type Conference Article
Year 2014 Publication ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Abbreviated Journal ISCRAM 2014
Volume Issue Pages 334-338
Keywords Disaster prevention; Disasters; Information systems; Management information systems; Alert systems; Architectural principles; Disaster management; Early warning; Early warning systems; Geo-crowdsourcing; Integrated architecture; Reference architecture; Architecture
Abstract Crowdsourcing has the potential to become a crucial information source in disaster management. In order to become effective as an integrated part of disaster management systems it is important to set the general architectural foundations for such integrations beyond prototypical experiments. This paper discusses general architectural principles of the application of crowdsourcing in Early Warning Systems (EWS). An integrated architecture is proposed to use classical sensor data and crowdsourcing in an EWS solution. Therefore, typical components of crowdsourcing applications are identified and mapped to monitoring subsystems of EWS's. Three main structural variants of applying crowdsourcing in early warning systems along the example of a prototypical extension of two existing large-scale hydro-meteorological warning systems are presented.
Address Fraunhofer FOKUS, HTW Berlin, Germany
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher The Pennsylvania State University Place of Publication University Park, PA Editor S.R. Hiltz, M.S. Pfaff, L. Plotnick, and P.C. Shih.
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2411-3387 ISBN 9780692211946 Medium
Track Geographic Information Science Expedition Conference 11th International ISCRAM Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 761
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Author Ulrich Meissen; Markus Hardt; Agnès Voisard
Title Towards a general system design for community-centered crisis and emergency warning systems Type Conference Article
Year 2014 Publication ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Abbreviated Journal ISCRAM 2014
Volume Issue Pages 155-159
Keywords Disaster prevention; Information systems; Meteorological problems; Mobile devices; Systems analysis; Alerting; Community engagement; Early warning; Reference architecture; Situation awareness; Disasters
Abstract Early Warning Systems (EWS) provide an effective measure for better disaster preparedness, response, and mitigation. The effectiveness of EWS depends highly on the ability to distribute alert message to the persons that will be affected. In this context mobile devices play already a vital role in the ability to reach people in time and at the endangered location. Most existing approaches focus on mass dissemination methods via SMS and Cell-Broadcasting. As these approaches are effective to inform masses about a disaster with one message for all they have their weaknesses in telling the people how to respond according to their location and provide individual guidance (e.g. by maps) within specific communities. Research in disaster management gives strong evidence that the later is often crucial for better disaster response. Accordingly, we witness an increasing demand for more community-centered warnings systems solutions. This paper introduces the general foundations and architecture for alert services on mobile devices that adapt incoming alert information to the profile and situation of user groups and even individual users. The approach is scalable for different communitycentered warning systems. Its first applicability and community engagement effects are shown in the example of the community-centered public disaster alert system in Germany and a target group specific weather hazard alert system, KATWARN and WIND with currently over 2.5 million subscribed users, which was developed by the authors.
Address Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin, Germany; Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher The Pennsylvania State University Place of Publication University Park, PA Editor S.R. Hiltz, M.S. Pfaff, L. Plotnick, and P.C. Shih.
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2411-3387 ISBN 9780692211946 Medium
Track Community Engagement in Crisis Informatics Research Expedition Conference 11th International ISCRAM Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 762
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Author Ulrich Meissen; Agnès Voisard
Title Increasing the effectiveness of early warning via context-aware alerting Type Conference Article
Year 2008 Publication Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Abbreviated Journal ISCRAM 2008
Volume Issue Pages 431-440
Keywords Disaster prevention; Alert systems; Context-awareness; Disaster prevention and mitigations; Early Warning System; Early warning systems; Evaluation modeling; New information and communication technologies; Research results; Information systems
Abstract The effective implementation of early warning is one of the best investments for disaster prevention and mitigation. In the last decade, we have witnessed strong efforts and progress towards better risk detection, monitoring and prediction. However, the best warnings are ineffective if they cannot be distributed in a timely way and targeted to people at risk. With the evolvement of new Information and Communication Technologies, we have new opportunities and face new challenges for improving classical warning processes. Based on our experience and research results from two user-centered hydro-meteorological Early Warning Systems (EWS) we present an approach for context-aware alerting that can increase considerably the effectiveness of warning. Furthermore, we introduce an applied evaluation model for the effectiveness of an EWS.
Address Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST), Mollstr. 1, 10178 Berlin, Germany; Institute of Computer Science, FU Berlin, Germany
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM Place of Publication Washington, DC Editor F. Fiedrich, B. Van de Walle
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2411-3387 ISBN 9780615206974 Medium
Track Early Warning Systems Expedition Conference 5th International ISCRAM Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 763
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Author Simone Wurster; Ulrich Meissen
Title Towards an economic assessment approach for early warning systems: Improving cost-avoidance calculations with regard to private households Type Conference Article
Year 2014 Publication ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Abbreviated Journal ISCRAM 2014
Volume Issue Pages 439-443
Keywords Disasters; Investments; Early Warning System; Early warning systems; Economic assessments; Investment decisions; Quantitative assessments; Quantitative models; Theoretical framework; Warning technologies; Information systems
Abstract In recent years, Early Warning Systems (EWS) have proven their value by saving many lives. However, most in-vestments into EWS were motivated directly by experienced disaster events and rarely pro-actively by possible up-coming threats. In order to change that we think that besides ethical and humanitarian reasons also the positive economic effects should be analyzed. EWS also help to protect property, but their contribution is not as obvious in that field due to the lack of quantitative models. This paper presents a disaster-independent formula that shows the benefits of EWS. Additional value to existing approaches is based on its advanced focus on behavioral aspects and the benefits of EWS in comparison to warnings issued via social media. We consider this work as an important contribution for future investments into warning technologies. However, yet this model just provides a theoretical framework for necessary empirical studies that are subject of further research.
Address TU Berlin, Germany; Fraunhofer FOKUS, Germany
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher The Pennsylvania State University Place of Publication University Park, PA Editor S.R. Hiltz, M.S. Pfaff, L. Plotnick, and P.C. Shih.
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2411-3387 ISBN 9780692211946 Medium
Track Planning, Foresight and Risk Analysis Expedition Conference 11th International ISCRAM Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1107
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Author Ulrich Meissen; Frank Fuchs-Kittowski; Michael Jendreck; Stefan Pfennigschmidt; Markus Hardt; Agnès Voisard
Title A general system architecture and design for the coordination of volunteers for agile disaster response Type Conference Article
Year 2017 Publication Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management Abbreviated Journal Iscram 2017
Volume Issue Pages 890-900
Keywords Crisis and disaster management; Response; Alerting; Crowdsourcing; Crowdtasking; Volunteer system; Architecture; System design; System test
Abstract In the recent decade the evolvement and widespread success of new technologies in particular in the field of computing power, network bandwidth, mobile networks and wearable devices have prepared the foundation for completely new approaches in crisis management. Currently, we are at the edge that such new technologies for crisis management are becoming a real and practically applicable option, e.g. in the field of alerting, crowdsourcing, and crowdtasking. In parallel, we witness in the recent years that citizens are more and more willing to help during crisis and disasters, thus providing a large – yet unused – potential for agile support in disaster preparation and response. In many disaster situations the emergency personnel reach the limits of their capabilities. In particular during the isolation phase the support of such volunteers can be a valuable benefit for disaster response. With the help of new technologies crisis management can provide current on-site information via mobile devices in real time as well as organize and coordinate the activities of the volunteers at specific locations. In this paper we present the results of the research project ENSURE: a general architecture and a system design for the coordination of spontaneous volunteers for agile disaster response. With the expected broader implementation of such systems in disaster management in the future it is inevitable to elaborate such common technological foundations for practical mass applications.
Address Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin; Fraunhofer FU, Berlin; Fraunhofer HTW, Berlin
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iscram Place of Publication Albi, France Editor Tina Comes, F.B., Chihab Hanachi, Matthieu Lauras, Aurélie Montarnal, eds
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 2411-3387 ISBN Medium
Track New Technologies for Crisis Management Expedition Conference 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 2074
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Author Michael Holzhüter; Ulrich Meissen
Title A Decentralized Reference Architecture for Interconnected Systems in Emergency Management Type Conference Article
Year 2020 Publication ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Abbreviated Journal Iscram 2020
Volume Issue Pages 961-972
Keywords Civil Protection; Emergency Management; Interoperability; Interconnected Collaboration; Resilient Architecture
Abstract Optimal communication and information exchange are key elements for handling complex crises or disaster situations. With the increasing number of heterogeneous ICT systems, also raises the importance of adequate support for interconnectivity and information logistics between stakeholders to thoroughly gather information and to make quick but precise decisions. The main purpose of the information exchange is then to manage the crisis as quickly as possible, to provide full information to protect first responders' health and safety, to optimally dispatch resources, and to ensure coordination between different relief forces. Based on an end user survey with a particular focus on first responders, this paper introduces an evolutionary architecture to enable information exchange in crises situation or disasters. The aim is to provide a decentralized approach among heterogeneous ICT-systems which abstracts from the underlying communication technologies and heterogeneity of connected systems and fulfills the functional and non-functional requirements from end users.
Address Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin; Fraunhofer-Institut für Offene Kommunikationssysteme; Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin; Fraunhofer-Institut für Offene Kommunikationssysteme
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Virginia Tech Place of Publication Blacksburg, VA (USA) Editor Amanda Hughes; Fiona McNeill; Christopher W. Zobel
Language English Summary Language English Original Title
Series Editor (up) Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 978-1-949373-27-86 ISBN 2411-3472 Medium
Track Technologies for First Responders Expedition Conference 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Notes michael.holzhueter@fokus.fraunhofer.de Approved no
Call Number Serial 2287
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