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Ian Carpenter. (2008). Implementing CAP and EDXL standards to enhance web-based crisis management. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (2). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In response to the Australian Federal Government's legislative changes, including the Disaster Management Act 2003, both State and Local Government are finding it necessary to work ever more closely to ensure the successful development, approval and operation of local disaster management plans and activities. Working closely with numerous Local governments and their stakeholders, Faulkner Technologies has developed a web-based information management exchange to facilitate the timely and accurate collation, dissemination and sharing of event-related information during an incident or disaster. Challenges such as geographically-dispersed operations, information management, communication management, reporting and logging and capturing key learnings are common to all local councils. Our web-based information management exchange dovetails with both the paper-based Standard Operating Procedure and multiple communication systems significantly enhancing the management of disasters and incidents. In conjunction with NICTA (National ICT Australia) and their Smart Applications for Emergencies (SAFE) project, the solution uses the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and Emergency Data eXchange Language (EDXL) standards for message distribution.
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Diego Klappenbach, Silvia Hollfelder, Andreas Meissner, & Stefan Wilbert. (2004). From analog voice radio to ICT: Data communication and data modeling for the German NBC Reconnaissance Vehicle. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2004 – 1st International Workshop on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 145–150). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In Germany, the public safety system is largely organized by the German Federal States, which operate, among other equipment, a fleet of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicles (NBC RVs) to take measurements in contaminated areas. Currently, the NBC RVs, which have been centrally designed and procured by the German Center for Civil Defense, verbally report measured values to a Central Control Unit (CCU) over the assigned Public Safety Organization (PSO) analog voice radio channel. This procedure has several disadvantages. The channel is not secure, puts a natural limit on the achievable throughput and thus on the number of NBC RVs that can be operational simultaneously. Also, while data is being reported, other PSO members are blocked from sending. Finally, a proprietary model is used to structure the NBC RV data, so the data can only be aggregated and evaluated at the CCU but not by any other PSO unit. To overcome these problems, we propose in this paper a heterogeneous and flexible communication platform that complies with reliability and coverage requirements for PSO. More specifically, our proposed system is designed to replace current ways of communicating between NBC RVs and the CCU. We also propose to standardize data structures for data exchange to enable PSO cooperation. A drastically higher number of measured values can then be transmitted to the CCU, and the data can be processed in a much more effective manner in the CCU as well as in cooperating PSO task forces. Ultimately, this will improve NBC RV missions and consequently shorten PSO response time when dealing with NBC disasters. © Proceedings ISCRAM 2004.
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Matthias Lendholt, Martin Hammitzsch, & Peter Löwe. (2013). Harmonization of data formats for tsunami simulation products. 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. 365–369). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: The development of sustainable tsunami early warning systems (TEWS) requires the adoption of proven standards for components on all system levels. This is crucial to ensure the successful operation of the overall system in the long term. Currently, components, data formats and models used to build an individual TEWS come from independent development efforts, using non-standardized proprietary interfaces. Integrating these components into a TEWS requires additional work effort due to the proprietary technologies and formats. This article discusses alternative cost-effective approaches. The successful integration of the TEWS system components depends critically on the adoption and application of industry standards and good practices. From this perspective, this article examines the role of tsunami simulation models, and the challenge to integrate the data products generated from independent tsunami models for a TEWS. The significance of tsunami simulation products, consisting of data and metadata, for the overall early warning workflow is described, including data exchange (among multiple TEWS) and information visualization in combination with additional spatial information. As an outcome, the use of standardized data formats for simulation products is recommended for future work. This approach is demonstrated on a simulation of the March 2011 Tohoku-Oki mega thrust earthquake.
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Matthias Lendholt, Martin Hammitzsch, & Miguel Angel Esbrí. (2012). Interlinking national tsunami early warning systems towards ocean-wide system-of-systems networks. In Z.Franco J. R. L. Rothkrantz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2012 Conference Proceedings – 9th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Vancouver, BC: Simon Fraser University.
Abstract: For the integration of national tsunami warning systems to large scale, ocean-wide warning infrastructures a specific protocol has been developed enabling system communication in a system-of-system environment. The proposed communication model incorporates requirements of UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission tsunami programme to interlink national tsunami early warning systems. The model designed to be robust simple is based on existing interoperability standards. It uses the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) for the exchange of official tsunami warning bulletins. Sensor measurements are communicated via markup languages of the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite. Both communication products are embedded into an envelope carrying address information based on the Emergency Data Exchange Language Distribution Element (EDXL-DE). The research took place within the context of two European research projects. The reference implementation of the presented results was tested independently in deployments at two early warning centers. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Steven McGee, & Reverend Kathy Graves. (2008). The International Heartbeat Beacon for interoperability & synchronicity of event, alert data. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 128–133). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The Heartbeat Beacon addresses data temporal / exchange interoperability gaps by stipulating CAP instantiated data exchanges for military, first responder, and commercial stake holder domains by standardizing data exchange formats, symbol sets, event refresh rates enabling direct collaboration with military telemetry systems using commercial products. Multicast radius will be adjustable e.g., increase / decrease with audible tones based on business logic / military mission thread logic according to threshold rules visually displayed as concentric color band expansion / collapse based on DHS five level color / audible advisory schemes. Alert, evacuation, alternate routing of transportation assets, medical triage will then are adjustable. Organizations through router/switch updates via heartbeat messages will enable spontaneous integration of disparate communities of interest allowing the network to be maneuvered in response to unified events and alerts.
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Jiri Trnka, Michael Le Duc, & Ake Sivertun. (2005). Inter-organizational issues in ICT, GIS and GSD – Mapping Swedish emergency management at the local and regional level. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 75–82). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Inter-organizational issues are very challenging in emergency management (EM). In this paper, aspects of information and communication technologies (ICT), geographical information systems (GIS) and geospatial data (GSD) in the Swedish EM system, an EM system involving a large number of EM organizations, are reported based on a case study. The issues concerned include separated ICT & GIS development between organizations and formation of technological coalitions, problems of identification and access of GSD, located through the large number organizations, as well as uncoordinated launching of web-based GIS service. Possible implications of this situation for command and control are discussed. Additionally, areas for further research are suggested.
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Nuwan Waidyanatha, Tharaka Wilfred, Kasun Perera, Manoj Silva, & Brenda Burell. (2012). Complexity and usability of voice-enabled alerting and situational reporting decoupled systems. In Z.Franco J. R. L. Rothkrantz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2012 Conference Proceedings – 9th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Vancouver, BC: Simon Fraser University.
Abstract: Telephone calls are the predominant telecommunication mode in Sri Lanka. Leveraging voice-based applications for disaster communication would be acceptable and sustainable. The findings in this paper are from an experiment concerning interactive voice for connecting community-based emergency field operatives with their central coordination hub. Challenge was in interchanging the Freedom Fone (FF) Interactive Voice Response (IVR) generated, Sinhala and Tamil language, speech data with the text-based 'Sahana' disaster management system for analysis and decision support. Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) interoperable content standard was adopted for mediation. Low quality voice data resulting in incomplete information was a barrier to automating transformations between text and speech. Replacing those processes with human procedure significantly degrades the reliability. Moreover, human interaction with decoupled software systems, to accomplish the sequence of tasks, points to instabilities. This paper discusses the complexities and usability shortcomings discovered through controlled-exercises in Sri Lanka. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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