Abstract: This practitioner paper outlines some of the benefits for the use of social media, from the perspective of a local-level or county-level emergency manager (EM). As compared to state and national level emergency management, because local level EMs have limited manpower and resources, social media can positively or negatively impact the effectiveness of communication before, during and after disaster strikes. Outlined in this paper are six key points where local EMs have specific needs that could be addressed by the effective use of social media and, in the opinion of the authors, represent the top issues that EMs face when considering how to leverage Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other social media platforms. The six needs addressed in this paper include: 1) Best practices for general social media use by EMs, 2) Social media use for internal command and control within the EM group, 3) Developing situation awareness by monitoring social media, especially prior to predicable events, 4) Communicating disaster preparedness messages through social media, 5)Using social media for gathering damage assessment information during, or immediately following a crisis,and 6) Leveraging social media volunteer groups. This short paper picks up where the Federal Emergency Management Agency's social media training leaves off and attempts to represent these six needs as use cases for researchers and developers to address in future publications and products.

Abstract: This paper describes the basic work performance analysis from three research projects with a goal to investigate the impact of a decision support system that presents global positioning system (GPS) information to the decision makers in crisis management organizations. The goal was to compare the performance between teams that had access to GPS information in the command post with teams that had access only to paper maps. The method used was controlled experiments with the C3Fire micro-world. A total of 304 participants, forming 48 teams, participated in the three studies. The participants came from three different groups, university students, municipal crisis management organizations and rescue service personnel. The result shows that the performance and communication change depending on if the teams used GPS support or paper maps. The result also shows that the participants' background and perceived complexity of the task have an impact on the results.

Abstract: Good support for information sharing and processing is essential for successful crisis management. A crisis manager handles information from many different sources and collaborates with many different actors. This study is therefore focusing on specifying some needs and requirements for information support systems for crisis management command and control centres. The study is based on case studies and interviews in Sweden with the aim to understand how information processing best can be supported from a crisis manager's perspective. The needs and requirements found in the study can be used in future system design or improvement.

Abstract: This paper is a critical examination of the U.S. Incident Command System (“ICS”) as an organizational structure and information gathering tool for emergency management from the perspective of a career emergency management officer who became a graduate student in information management following 35 years of public service. In addition to examining the ICS, and assessing its current weaknesses in the area of information management, the paper proposes a low-cost, COTS approach to automating the ICS information gathering and dissemination process.

Abstract: The paper describes work-in-progress of an action research approach investigating command post exercises in disaster response organizations. The empirical basis of our approach is three command post exercises in Germa-ny. The main contribution of this paper is the framework for the conceptualization of command post exercises and an analysis of challenges in the conceptualization of command post exercises. © 2012 ISCRAM.

Abstract: During a disaster, health and medical decision makers need accurate, timely information. However, it is seldom readily available to the right decision makers, at the right time. Quite a number of databases currently exist with information about health and medical organizations which decision makers need during a disaster. Some of these databases have functions that facilitate decision-making and communication before, during and after a disaster. In theory, linking several existing databases will supply this information. Also, other functions can be provided in one package for incident management and monitoring of the preparedness capacity of a State's health and medical systems. But, this has not happened yet in Florida. This research assessed the different users needs, defined the information required to make good decisions and is testing a pilot decision support system of linked databases.

Abstract: Local emergency-response organizations must maximize their use of existing resources. Therefore, emergencyresponse organizations need appropriate command-and-control (C2) systems to coordinate not only their own resources, but also to take advantages of other local actors. The local nature of response coordination imposes additional challenges for the development of C2 systems. In particular, the C2 systems must support coordination across organizational boundaries at the local level. Service-oriented architectures (SOA) provide new technologies for the development of C2 systems. This approach is based on a set of loosely-coupled services offered by multiple actors rather than a single monolithic system. This work reports the result of a prototype SOA implementation that builds on a previous requirements engineering study for service-oriented C2 systems for local emergency response. The results illustrate how it is possible to develop lightweight C2 systems using state-or-the art Web and SOA technologies. However, there are still remaining organizational and maintainability challenges.

Abstract: This paper tests the claimed benefits of using geographical information systems (GIS) in emergency response operations. An experimental study comparing command teams using GIS and paper-based maps is presented. The study utilized a combined approach using microworld simulations together with physical artefacts. Participants in the experiment took the role of command teams, facing the task of extinguishing a simulated forest fire. A total of 132 persons, forming 22 teams, participated in the study. In eleven of the teams, the participants were given access to GIS with positioning of fire-brigades as well as sensor data about the fire outbreak. In the other eleven teams, the participants were using paper-based maps. The result shows that teams using GIS performed significantly better than teams with paper-based maps in terms of saved area. Communication volume was considerably reduced in the case of GIS teams. Implications of these results on GIS are discussed as well as methodological considerations for future research.

Abstract: This paper presents preliminary analysis from a validation study of a novel emergency medicine command and control training and evaluation simulator: DIGEMERGO®. The simulated emergency scenario was a surge capacity event at a generic emergency department, in which the participants took on a management role as the emergency department?s coordinating head nurse. A between group validation design with medical expert and novice participants was used. Initial analysis examined three triage measures associated with surge capacity management performance: time to triage, amount of patients triaged, and triage accuracy. The results show that experts were significantly more accurate at triaging in-hospital patients, but not incoming trauma patients. No significant differences in time or number of patients triaged was found. These initial results partially indicate simulator validity, but trauma patient triage accuracy suffered from a confounding variable in the triage system used. Analysis of additional measures is undergoing to further investigate validity claims.

Abstract: A crucial aspect for large-scale disaster management is an efficient technology support for communication and decision-making processes in command and control centers. Yet, experiences with the introduction of novel technologies in this setting show that field professionals tend to remain attached to traditional workflows and artifacts, such as pen and paper. We contribute the results of a comprehensive field study which analyzes how the information flow is currently performed within different units and persons in the command and control center. These findings provide insights into key aspects of current workflows which should be preserved by novel technological solutions. As our second contribution, by using a participatory design approach and based on our findings, we present a novel approach for computer support in command and control centers. This relies on digital pens and paper and smoothly integrates traditional paper-based workflows with computing, thereby combining the advantages of paper and those of computers.

Abstract: We investigated the value of different media types (Photo, Video, Audio) to support the situational awareness of a Command and Control (C2) officer monitoring three simultaneous military operations. Twenty-one Polish soldiers individually monitored the real-time battlefield information collected by three (virtual, scripted) platoons. Twice during the monitoring task a series of Situation Awareness (SA) probes were presented (Endsley, 1995). At the end of the task, participants were also given a series of meta-SA probes and preference questions. We found that Video supported Level 2 SA (comprehension) better than the other two media types. We also found that participants preferred to receive information in the Photos and Audio clips than in Video. We conclude that if the goal of the C2 team is to better understand the global situation, then providing the persons-in-the-field with video cameras is a valid solution. However, we obtained no evidence to suggest that such an approach supports the ability to predict what may occur in the future (Level 3 SA). © 2012 ISCRAM.

Abstract: Effective command and control (C2) is necessary to achieve and maintain superiority in military engagements. C2 is well documented in the literature and is a major focus in the military arena; however, the conventional military network topology is increasingly becoming a liability and ineffective in the new age of asymmetric warfare. The beyond-line-of-sight command and control (BLOS C2) concept is a radical shift towards a seamless joint network topology, which will dramatically increase tactical C2 across military service branches, equipment types, and geographical locations. Though BLOS C2 is still in its testing phase, this paper examines the systems thinking approach of BLOS C2 with respect to layered models, adaptation, and synergy. The implementation of the BLOS C2 “tactical Wi-Fi” concept helps fill a Central Command (CENTCOM) capability gap in support of a Contingency Plan (CONPLAN) that provides Navy Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) with a robust force protection system. © 2012 ISCRAM.

Abstract: The course of large-scale incidents as well as disasters can reveal weaknesses in command and control (C2) systems, which make adjustments necessary. Also, new technologies may require C2-systems to be adapted to achieve their full potential for improving incident command. This paper deals with an approach to enable the comparison and evaluation of different C2-systems or their adaptations in order to find the best possible customizations for C2-systems. To this purpose, systems theory is used to unify the approaches of different research disciplines. Within the C2-system boundaries, distinctions were made to represent three different levels of evaluation: “Physical Characteristics”, “Structures and Processes” as well as “C2-system-effectiveness”. During the implementation of the evaluation methods from the different research disciplines into the systems theory approach, it became apparent that the comprehensive approach is desirable, but that broad knowledge and expertise is necessary, especially at the highest evaluation level “C2-system-effectiveness”.