Adrot, A., & Aguerre, M. (2023). The Impact of conflicts on Data Sharing for Disaster Risk Reduction. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 43–53). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: Cross-border regions are particularly exposed to hazards and require cooperation for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Accordingly, multiple countries have been investing in technology and jointly innovate to share and process data against disasters. However, these countries’ capacity to share data depends on the history and the context of the border itself. Going further, conflicts between countries – may they be past, present or future – can radically question and endanger collaborative efforts to share data for DRR. This collaborative research, involving a cohort of master students and an NGO, explores the influence of conflicts on data sharing and cooperation for DRR. Still in progress, this research examines how conflicts affect data sharing and how DRR actors manage them. It is based on exploratory archive analysis of three distinct cases of cross-border DRR collaboration within the EU borders, as well as experts and actors interviewing. Preliminary findings reveal that conflicts affect DRR at three levels: i) actors, ii) interactions with DRR actors, iii) relations between local DRR actors and institutions. The expected contribution of this research is theoretical, practical and pedagogical.
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Andreas Lotter, Florian Brauner, Alexander Gabriel, Frank Fiedrich, & Stefan Martini. (2017). New Decision-Support Framework for Strengthening Disaster Resilience in Cross-Border Areas. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 412–419). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: The improvement of disaster resilience in cross-border areas causes special challenges. Involved countries use different structures in their civil protection systems and have to work together facing more difficult conditions than in local incidents. Furthermore, in the past involved countries mainly worked individually and focused on the concerned areas in their territories regardless transnational activities. The project INCA will develop a resilience framework to support decision-makers. The framework will focus on information management, the implementation of volunteers and the needs of citizens who are receiving medical care. Therefore, a case study region on the German-French border was defined and a scenario-based approach will be used to investigate resilience opportunities through disaster collaboration. The tested scenario is a transnational long-lasting power-outage in the German-French region.
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Anouck Adrot, & Mercedes Aguerre. (2022). Data Ecosystems and Disaster Risk Reduction in Cross-border Regions: Visioning from 2020 Roya Valley Flood Disaster. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 878–886). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: Knowledge on the practical support from data ecosystems to disaster risk reduction remains partial. More specifically, we misunderstand the drivers and challenges inherent to emergency data ecosystems development in cross-border regions. We also miss cases of data ecosystem building in those regions. This research addresses these gaps by abiding by the principles and guidelines of visioning, a prospective and collaborative research design. Based on qualitative interviewing and archive analysis of the case 2020 Roya Valley floods, this work provides a prospect of a segment of data ecosystem that involves an organizational field aiming at Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) at the French-Italian border. Still in progress, this work provides a comprehensive narration of a fictious data ecosystem. The narration hints at the major benefits and challenges inherent to this potential data ecosystem. This work enriches our understanding of data ecosystems’ features and benefits to cooperation between organizations involved in emergencies at borders (such as governments, civil protection agencies, volunteer-based organizations). In future development it will propose an agenda to support practitioners in the development good practices related to data ecosystems.
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Boris Petrenj, Mariachiara Piraina, Giada Feletti, Paolo Trucco, Valentina Urbano, & Stefano Gelmi. (2021). Cross-border Information Sharing for Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Requirements and Platform Architecture. 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. 247–259). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Resilience of Critical Infrastructures is high on the agenda of countries' efforts. Modern CI highly interdependent and span countries, so disruptions occurring on one side of the border can significantly affect economic and social functions on the other. To build CI resilience, stakeholder organizations must collaborate and exchange information throughout the Emergency Management cycle. In this paper, we present the Critical Infrastructure Platform (PIC in Italian) which is being developed within the SICt project (Resilience of Cross-Border Critical Infrastructure). PIC is a technological piece of a broader cross-border regional resilience strategy between Lombardy Region (Italy) and Canton Ticino (Switzerland) aiming to improve the capacity to manage accidental events involving transportation CI between the two countries. The main goal of the PIC platform is to support secure and effective information-sharing, inter-organizational risk assessment, monitoring and operational coordination under critical situations. The paper presents the key requirements of such ICT system, its high-level architecture including the description of its main modules, main takeaways and future steps.
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Ivar Svare Holand, Peter Mozelius, & Trond Olav Skevik. (2021). A structured and dynamic model for emergency management exercises. 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. 186–197). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Emergencies are management challenges, and emergency exercises that involve multiple collaborating parties is a means towards mastering them. Such exercises are often conducted in a virtual training environment based on complex disaster scenarios. The reported study was carried out using a requirement-focused design approach. The aim was to describe and discuss a relevant design for lean, dynamic, and cost-efficient emergency management exercise systems. Data were gathered from a literature study and analyses of earlier emergency management projects in which the authors had participated. Despite the complexity of many current emergency management exercises, the scenarios usually involve only the response phases and have a linear structure that hinders both didactic aspects and the software structure. The conclusion drawn from the study is that an emergency management exercise model should focus on managing the activities that correspond to alternatives that unfold from a dynamic scenario. Finally, the authors recommend the principles of alternate reality games as a way towards more dynamic and cost-efficient emergency exercise systems.
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Miriam Klein, Eric Rigaud, Marcus Wiens, Anouck Adrot, Frank Fiedrich, Nour Kanaan, et al. (2018). A Multi-Agent System for Studying Cross-Border Disaster Resilience. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 135–144). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: Resilience to disasters depends on measures taken before, during and after the occurrence of adverse events. These measures require interactions between people belonging to different organizations (public, private, non-profit) and citizens in normal and stressful situations. The efficiency of resilience measures results from the collective interaction of individuals, groups of individuals, and organizations, as well as the situational characteristics of the decision environment. The aim of the French-German research project INCA is to develop a decision support framework for improving cross-border area resilience to disasters. This project comprises the design and the implementation of a multi-agent system with the objective to study the behavioral and organizational implications of cross-border cooperation for crisis management and disaster resilience. The analyzed measures focus on citizens who require medical support and the integration of volunteers into the crisis management procedure. This paper outlines the potentials of the multi-agent system and provides first implementation insights.
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Petrenj, B., Piraina, M., Borghetti, F., Marchionni, G., & Urbano, V. (2023). Cross-border Digital Platform for Transport Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Functionalities and Use Case. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 96–111). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: The resilience of increasingly interdependent Critical Infrastructure (CI) systems hugely depends on the stakeholder organizations’ ability to exchange information and coordinate, while CI’s cross-border dimension further increases the complexity and challenges. This paper presents the progress in the Lombardy Region (Italy) and Canton Ticino (Switzerland) on the joint capacity to manage disruptive events involving transportation CI between the two countries. We present a cross-border digital platform (Critical Infrastructure Platform – PIC) and its main functionalities for improved cross-border risk and resilience management of CI. A use case, based on a scenario of an intense snowfall along the transboundary motorway impacting both countries, demonstrates how PIC advances the exchange of information, its visualization and analysis in real-time. The use case also shows the practical value of the digital platform and its potential to support the management of cross-border events (and their cascading events) that require the cooperation of Italian and Swiss actors.
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Samuel Auclair, Christian Iasio,, reï Balgiu, Antoni Blasquez, Jean-Christophe Castagnos, et al. (2022). Post-earthquake Damage Assessment: Feedback from a Cross-Border Crisis Exercise. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1000–1007). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: In November 2021, a large-scale crisis exercise was organized in the heart of the Pyrenees. The main objective of this cross-border exercise between France, Spain and Andorra was to allow practitioners to prepare for a largescale earthquake, by testing the contribution of the tools developed within the framework of the European project POCRISC. Among the different functions activated during the exercise, this article focuses on the particularly critical function of emergency assessment of building damage. It analyses the feedback from the exercise participants asked to evaluate the deployment, coordination and operation of the damage assessment function, including the use of a tool developed specifically for these activities.
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Frederik Schütte, Rubén Casado, & Emilio Rubiera. (2013). Solving interoperability issues in cross border emergency operations. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 370–375). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: This paper describes the work that is being done within the EU research project DISASTER to solve interoperability issues in cross-border emergency operations by applying a technical solution that is able to create a common operational picture. To that end a twofold solution is proposed: The development of a common and modular ontology shared by all the stakeholders taking into account different countries cultural, linguistic and legal issues. And, from that point, bearing in mind that most legacy EMSs (Emergency Management Systems) rely on Service-Oriented-Architectures (SOA), the implementation of transparent SOA mediation algorithms compliant with current data formats and existing solutions. That way, a mediation solution is provided by the DISASTER Mediator, which plays the role of gateway for each EMS enabling a communication based in Web Services. In order to avoid a misunderstanding of shared information it is necessary to create a solution that offers more than a plain translation of terms but rather a concept mediation so the corresponding user is able to understand the situation in its own framework of reference.
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Benedikt Weber, Thomas Deckers, & Frank Wilson. (2013). Interoperability during a cross-border firefighting operation at the dutch-german border. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 925–926). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: This practitioner report describes a moor- And turf-fire that occurred in 2011 at the Dutch-German border and was engaged by forces both from the Netherlands and Germany. All involved emergency management organizations were facing interoperability issues when it came to cross-border cooperation, although cooperation handbooks were already in use and the involved organizations were used to work together. The size of the incident and it's remote location called for an increased coordination between all involved actors and across all command levels.
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Connie White, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, & Murray Turoff. (2008). United we respond: One community, one voice. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 25–33). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: When emergency situations cross borders, or when newly formed groups need to work together, decision making can suffer from threat rigidity and pertinent information can be bypassed. We describe a Dynamic Delphi system under development that can create and sustain a group “voice” for an emergency response Community of Practice (CoP). We further describe its intended use for a CoP consisting of local, state and federal government responders, civilian emergency response teams (CERT), and volunteers. Community members can brainstorm, explore ideas, debate and vote iteratively to best reflect the group's opinion at any moment in time. Ongoing studies demonstrate that an online system implementing Dynamic Delphi characteristics along with Thurstone's Law of Comparative Judgment will prove conducive for building a repertoire of ideas, rules, policies or any other aspect of the community's 'voice', in such a way that the individual voices are juxtaposed in harmony to create a single song.
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Yannic Schulte, Miriam Klein, Marcus Wiens, & Frank Fiedrich. (2020). Spontaneous Volunteers Across National Borders: An Agent-Based Comparison. 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. 327–336). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: In today's globalized world and with the extensive use of social media, there is a high connectivity of people across countries, which can be a helpful potential in disaster response. In a coordinated manner, spontaneous volunteers from neighbouring nations can provide high manpower and resources to a disaster affected area. In this article, we discuss why the consideration of spontaneous volunteers is relevant in a cross-border context in order to improve disaster resilience for borderlands. Furthermore, we introduce a baseline agent-based model to simulate cooperation procedures for the involvement of spontaneous volunteers to the official crisis response in a borderland and discuss important issues that need to be addressed in future considerations.
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