Abstract: Today emergencies seem more complex than ever. Process of managing these emergencies also becomes more complex because of increasing number of involved parties, increasing number of people affected, and increasing amount of resources. This complexity, inherent in emergency management, brings lots of challenges to decision makers and emergency responders. Information systems and technologies are utilized in different areas of emergency management. However complexity increases exponentially in emergency situations and it requires more sophisticated IS and IT and it makes response and management more challenging. Thus analyzing the root causes of emergency management information systems complexity is crucial for improving emergency response effectiveness. This paper frames the issue of information systems complexity by focusing on the types of complexities involved in emergency management phases and explaining each complexity type. We propose 6 different complexity types: Human Complexity, Technologic Complexity, Event Complexity, Interaction Complexity, Decision Making Complexity, and Cultural Complexity.

Abstract: In case of emergencies (e.g., earthquakes, flooding), rapid responses are needed in order to address victims' requests for help. Social media used around crises involves self-organizing behavior that can produce accurate results, often in advance of official communications. This allows affected population to send tweets or text messages, and hence, make them heard. The ability to classify tweets and text messages automatically, together with the ability to deliver the relevant information to the appropriate personnel are essential for enabling the personnel to timely and efficiently work to address the most urgent needs, and to understand the emergency situation better. In this study, we developed a reusable information technology infrastructure, called Enhanced Messaging for the Emergency Response Sector (EMERSE), which classifies and aggregates tweets and text messages about the Haiti disaster relief so that non-governmental organizations, relief workers, people in Haiti, and their friends and families can easily access them.

Abstract: The simulation of radioactive pollutants dispersion is critical for emergency response of the nuclear terrorism. The radioactive ?dirty bomb?, also called radiological dispersion device (RDD), produced and used by the terrorist to make fearful and radioactive pollution in general, has a great risk on humans. Numerical investigation of the impact of different configurations on radioactive pollution release and dispersion in urban buildings is made in this paper. The numerical simulations used the OpenFOAM, a free and open source software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the simulations can be implanted to the information system of the nuclear terrorism emergency decision support system(EDSS) as the consequence assessment subsystem conveniently. The study showed that the configurations of building canyon and the position relationship of the source item and the buildings both affect the concentration distributions around the buildings.

Abstract: Underground space like subway stations is prone to be flooded which can lead to severe and unpredictable damage and even threaten human lives. In this paper, four groups of contrastive simulation of urban waterlogging at two subway stations' entry-exit platforms in heavy rainstorm are conducted, and emergency response strategies are suggested. A waterlogging simulation method named UPFLOOD based on shallow water equations is proposed considering complex topography. It has been found that the waterlogging at subway station's entry-exit platforms is easily influenced by several factors and the site selection of the subway stations is very important. A disaster process construction method based on PN model is proposed and it has been found that the response strategies including plugging, drainage and evacuation are important for disaster mitigation. This study helps decision makers to response quickly to meet the emergency of the waterlogging disaster at subway stations caused by heavy rainstorm.

Abstract: We discuss decision support tools used for more efficient planning of fire and rescue services. The methodology considers small and flexible units and includes dynamic utilization of the existing resources. We develop a quantitative measure for preparedness and use it as a basis for decision support. By constantly accounting for the current situation and using intelligent strategies to locate and allocate resources that support good preparedness, response times can be shortened. The tools will be tested using an experimental setup that includes human-in-the-loop simulations, and the results will compare situations that occur when the decision makers have and do not have access to the developed tools. © 2012 ISCRAM.

Abstract: For nuclear power plant (NPP) accident, the assessment of the radiation consequences plays an important role in the emergency response system. However, the source characteristics which greatly influence thhe accuracy of the assessment result is poorly known or even unknown at the early phase of accident, wich can cause poorly understanding of the situation and delay the response activities. In this paper, source inversion technology in analyzing nuclear accidents based on Gaussian puff model and ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is proposed. The method is validated with simulated measurements and the results show that it can give reasonable estimations of the change in release rate and height simultaneously, though the first guess of release rate is 102 larger than the true value. The investigation of the influence of sharp change in source term shows that the method is robust to capture the sharp change, but there is a delay of response when the release height increases simultaneously.

Abstract: This paper describes the Disaster Portal, a multi-faceted information portal for use by citizens and emergency personnel during disasters and emergency response. This portal is the result of a collaboration between the RESCUE project at UC-Irvine and the City of Ontario, California Fire Department (OFD). The portal provides a wide range of real-time information in disaster situations, such as situation summaries, announcements, shelter information, and aggregated services such as family reunification and donation management. A first version of this portal was developed and deployed by the City of Ontario in September 2007. The current system serves as a base to develop and refine results from several areas of research which are being incorporated into the existing system to provide additional or advanced capabilities. We provide an overview of the portal's capabilities, followed by technical details on the system architecture and implementation. We describe the experience of deployment of the system in the recent California wildfires. Finally we describe work in progress on several advanced capabilities.

Abstract: Making sense of the current state of an emergency and of the response to it is vital if appropriate decisions are to be made. This task involves the acquisition, interpretation and management of information. In this paper we present an integrated system that applies recent ideas and technologies from the fields of Artificial Intelligence and semantic web research to support sense-and decision-making at the tactical response level, and demonstrate it with reference to a hypothetical large-scale emergency scenario. We offer no end-user evaluation of this system; rather, we intend that it should serve as a visionary demonstration of the potential of these technologies for emergency response.

Abstract: This paper presents findings from a design-oriented study focusing on emergency response work. Traditionally, information technology for emergency response work has included enroute navigation advice, resource management, hazard material databases, property information repositories, and situation reporting using sketching functionality. Now, a new class of information technology has become available, namely mobile live video capabilities. This paper presents initial findings from a study on how mobile live video capabilities could improve information sharing and situation awareness in emergency response work.

Abstract: For all emergency response personnel involved in crisis situations it is essential to timely acquire all information critical to their task performance. However, in practice errors occur in the distribution of information between these collaborating actors leading to mistakes and subsequently more damage to the situation. In this paper we present a prototype system for dynamic information distribution able to support the information flow between collaborating crisis actors. The system has been evaluated by means of simulated experiments that use data from a real incident scenario. The results indicate that automated support by means of Machine Learning method works well. Especially, when actor work context features are included, then the performance on selecting and distributing relevant information is high. Furthermore, actors acquire relevant information much faster making group communication much more efficient.

Abstract: This paper presents a study of the role of artefacts in sensemaking during emergency response. A qualitative study was conducted with two UK Police Forces, with a particular focus on the role of artefacts in the creation and modification of sensemaking frames. This research demonstrates that sensemaking is a key component of emergency response Command and Control and that this activity is distributed across the individuals within the system. Collaborative sensemaking is coordinated via social and organisational means, supported by a range of private (informal) and shared (formal) artefacts, which function as resources for action – cueing frame seeking and frame-defined data collection. The study also reveals the role of narrative in bridging the gap between these two parallel sensemaking processes and raises implications for the further digitisation of the emergency response environment, demonstrating the importance of balancing social and technical factors in the design of ICT for emergency response. © 2012 ISCRAM.

Abstract: Availability and access to information is critical for providing a highly effective response to an ongoing event ? however, often information reported by citizens over the phone may be unclear, inaccurate, biased or subjective, based on the context of the reporter. This can often lead to inadequate response to an emergency, which can in turn result in loss of property or worse, lives. On the other hand, excessive response to an emergency can also result in a highly expensive exercise. Our solution to address this problem is to make the citizen act as a camera for the control room by exploiting the user?s mobile camera. The system is designed to provide a live view of the citizen?s immediate surroundings, while control room personnel can provide instructions. In this paper, we introduce the system and share initial insights from a focus group evaluation conducted within a separate but closely related domain.

Abstract: The objective of crisis management is to limit the impact of a feared event that has occurred and to restore the conditions corresponding to a nominal situation. In this context, we will focus on emergency response plans for mass casualty crises. In this paper, we propose a functional modelling of the French generic emergency plan, ORSEC plan, using the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). On the basis of this representation, a dysfunctional analysis is performed from a new approach identifying Failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), in order to better anticipate, the events likely to interrupt the intervention plan. This work will then be used in a multi-agent dynamic planning and scheduling model to allow an actor to choose among the dynamic planning approaches the one that allows him/her to reach his/her goal.