Abbas Ganji, Tom Wilson, Sonia Saveli, Dharma Dailey, & Mark Haselkorn. (2019). Cause and Effect: A Qualitative Analysis of Obstacles to Information Sharing During a Regional Disaster Exercise. 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: After large-scale disasters, diverse partner agencies rely heavily on an information-sharing environment that supports collaborative work. In the U.S., this occurs under the Incident Command System (ICS), a structured organizational framework for coordinated action. We explore obstacles to information sharing and coordinationobserved at a county-level Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operating under ICS during the response phase of a large-scale regional disaster exercise. Textual observations collected in situ are analyzed for both the effect/manifestation and cause/source of barriers to information sharing. Two-thirds of barriers that manifest as computational issues are not caused by technology breakdowns, and a third caused by unclear processes manifest as computational issues. Overall, obstacles to collaborative work that appear to be related to computational issues are generally attributable to non-technical causes. This indicates that resources directed at improving collaborative management of disasters by enhancing technological capabilities are likely to be misdirected.
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Abbas Ganji, Negin Alimohammadi, & Scott Miles. (2019). Challenges in Community Resilience Planning and Opportunities with Simulation Modeling. 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: 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.
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