Abstract: In China, storm surge disasters cause severe damages in coastal regions. One of the most important tasks is to predict affected regions and their relative damage levels to support decision-making. This study develops a two-stage retrieval model to search the most similar past disaster case to complete prediction. Based on spatial attributes of cases, the top-ranking past cases with a similar location to the target case are selected. Among these past cases, the most similar past case is selected by disaster attribute similarities. Three typical storm surge case studies have been used and implemented into this proposed model and the results show that all the most affected regions can be predicted. The proposed model simplifies the prediction process and updates results quickly. This study provides useful information for the government to make real-time response plans.

Abstract: In the process of network operation, it is of great significance to evaluate the emergency capability for the safety and resilience of urban rail transit. In this work, we proposed an emergency capability evaluation model of network operation-based urban rail transit by building a four-level index system. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method demonstrated the effectiveness of the evaluation index system. The ranking of index importance Wi characterizes the emergency capability of network operation-based urban rail transit. Taking Shenzhen Metro as an example, this study analyzed the risk in the actual network operation, evaluated the emergency capability of network operation and calculated the comprehensive score of emergency capability. Furthermore, based on the correlation analysis results from the emergency capability indexes, we put forward some measures to improve the weaker indexes in the evaluation. The results indicate that the emergency capability evaluation method of network operation-based urban rail transit proposed in this study can better guide the emergency management of network operation-based urban rail transit.

Abstract: Many governments, organizations, practitioners and researchers involved in collaboration on resilience in emergency management are agreed that this is a key aspect. The QuEP+R framework aims to improve resilience in an organization's emergency plan management, in which the stakeholders must be adequately prepared and trained for their responsibilities in the emergency plan, providing techniques that propose the improvement of the emergency plan besides resilience. However, for these techniques to be effective, organizations need the theoretical resilience proposed in QuE+R to be implemented. The CiET framework was designed for this purpose and has learning objectives and training contents related to QuEP+R techniques to train stakeholders. The CiET capability plan contents have been classified by resilience dimensions towards the optimization of resilience in emergency plan management. The integration is supported by I+R-Tool, which generates the capability plans automatically from the results of the QuEP+R assessment, which outcomes in a stakeholder's effective training, contributing to the optimization and improvement of the resilience, therefore, in improving the quality of emergency plans. Hence, the aim remains to search for the continuous improvement of the emergency plan management within organizations.

Abstract: The constantly increasing number of passengers using public transportation leads to an expansion of the ser-vices offered by public transportation companies. The existing transportation infrastructures, especially rail-way stations, can only partly cope with this rapid growth. There is already overcrowding on platforms and access routes, especially during disruptions caused by natural disasters or major public events. This crowding may result in personal injury or shutdown of operations for safety reasons. The research project CroMa aims at improving robustness, safety, security and performance of railway stations at peak loads. The paper contributes thereto by developing an approach to assess railway infrastructure in terms of the risk of overcrowding. The core of this research is to combine qualitative workshop results with quantitative database analysis. Furthermore, the paper gives an outlook on the ongoing process model development as a basis for a semi-quantitative evaluation tool for railway stations applicable by end users.

Abstract: This article shows the research process carried out by Regional Government of southern Europe, with more than 8 million citizens, to create an Information System to serve as a diagnostic and certification model for the resilience level of the municipalities of that region. This Information System will allow the local authorities of the regional governments to know in what situation they are and what they should do to improve their resilience level. The research framework is based on the best practices in urban resilience. One of the relevant characteristics of the work is the integration of the knowledge of a very heterogeneous group of experts for the identification of the special needs of the target region that has been articulated through a Delphi process.

Abstract: The main goal of this WiPe is to analyze a wicked problem of disaster management, to offer an external
evaluation on how the emergency system worked and to plan a foresight exercise able to design a personalized
emergency response services to citizens. The first part of the paper is rather a hindsight analysis regarding
disaster management of ?Colectiv 2015?, one of the worst manmade disasters in the recent Romanian history.
After four years of investigations and reports and many recovery measures ?Colectiv 2015? is still a complex
problem that needs external evaluation. The second part of the paper is a two-tier research: an intermediary
analysis of the wicked problem, using Barry Turner?s framework and a design of a foresight exercise. In the
Conclusions of WiPe we propose a design of research meant to: 1) better understand the causes and
shortcomings of disaster management and failure of foresight and 2) help the Emergency System in Romania
build a disaster resilience mechanism.

Abstract: The aim of this work is defining fundamental principles of an Internal Security System in the presence of intentional risks in Public Administration. The relevance of this object of study has increased even more with the emergence of new terrorist groups and the proliferation of organized crime, which have been categorized as a maximum threat to Security by the government. This context has led to new regulations and legislation on Security matters at the national and international level to protect assets, people and the activity of the Administration itself. Despite the large number of regulations and relevance of this topic, there is not any study which defines in a comprehensive manner the requirements that a security system must have in the presence of intentional risks in Public Administration. The results of this work are intended to be a reference for the Public Administration, for the prevention and reaction to damage to people, property, and operation, intentionally caused by external agents, personnel themselves or users. These principles have been applied and validated through a Delphi process in the Administration of the Regional Government of Andalusia in which more than 40 security-related managers have participated.

Abstract: The importance of community resilience has become increasingly recognized in emergency management and
post-disaster community well-being. To this end, three seismic resilience planning initiatives have been
conducted in the U.S. in the last decade to envision the current state of community resilience. Experts who
participated in these initiatives confronted challenges that must be addressed for future planning initiatives.
We interviewed eighteen participants to learn about the community resilience planning process, its
characteristics, and challenges. Conducting qualitative content analysis, we identify six main challenges to
community resilience planning: complex network systems; interdependencies among built environment systems;
inter-organizational collaboration; connections between the built environment and social systems;
communications between built environment and social institutions? experts; and communication among
decision-makers, social stakeholders, and community members. To overcome the identified challenges, we
discuss the capability of human-centered simulation modeling as a combination of simulation modeling and
human-centered design to facilitate community resilience planning.

Abstract: Fast and easy communication, e.g. via Twitter or Facebook, encourages self-coordination between spontaneous
volunteers in disasters. Unfortunately, this is more and more challenging official disaster management. The need
for the directed coordination of spontaneous volunteers triggered researchers to develop effective coordination
approaches. However, evaluating and comparing such approaches as well as their exercising are lacking a
standardized way to describe repeatable disaster scenarios, e.g. for simulations. Therefore, we present a novel
System Entity Structure (SES) for describing disaster scenarios considering the disaster environment,
communication infrastructure, disaster management, and population of spontaneous volunteers. The SES is
discussed as a promising scheme for including spontaneous volunteers in disaster scenarios on a general level. Its
applicability is demonstrated by a Pruned Entity Structure derived from a real disaster scenario. Based on the
results, we give an outlook on our subsequent research, the XML-based Spontaneous Volunteer Coordination
Scenario Definition Language (SVCSDL).

Abstract: Available medical resources are the basis of efficient disaster medical relief. The medical resources assignment for disaster medical relief forces is usually fixed. However, the injury condition distribution changes in different disaster and so does the demand for the medical resources. So the assignment of medical relief forces should be more flexible and based on the injury. We analyzed the component parts and rules of disaster medical relief, defining the related concepts and rules. Then, we constructed the describing rules of injury-treatment-medical-technique-resource-assignment process. Based on these, we established the ontology of disaster medical relief system and the injury-driven medical resources assignment ontology model (MRAOM). We used the model to describe the medical relief situation after earthquake to demonstrate the model could describe complicated situations. We also used the model to describe and forecast the medical resource assignment of treating batch wounded to demonstrate the model's validity.

Abstract: Disaster Risk Reduction is a complex field in which a huge amount of data is collected and processed every day
in order to plan and run preparedness and response actions, which are required to get ready and to effectively
respond to natural disasters when they strike. This paper, which targets a wide audience, focuses on the design of
a mobile application that aims to integrate the crowdsourcing paradigm in current Disaster Risk Reduction
processes. The design process is integrated in the User Centred Approach, which we apply through a co-design
methodology involving end-users, iterative prototyping and development phases, and five in-field evaluations of
the implemented solution. We describe both the design activities and the results obtained from end-users�
feedbacks focusing on the perspective of first responders.

Abstract: Successful emergency response and control center operations rely on a great number of information sources. The importance of said information becomes immediately obvious if it is not available when required during an emergency situation. This can be described as the criticality of information, signifying a potential need for action to prepare for functional failures. The concept described in this paper approaches the criticality via an analysis that examines various combinations of information sources and situations in order to identify weaknesses and improve existing procedures. The proposed semi-quantitative assessment was developed taking several attributes and characteristics of criticality into account and afterwards conducted in close cooperation with emergency response institutions.