Abstract: The project Systemic Pandemic Risk Management (SPRM), funded by the Research Council of Norway, has developed methods to assess and manage pandemic systemic risks. The project consortium includes an enterprise leading the project, public partners and research institutions in Norway, Sweden, and Italy. Kristiansand municipality, a partner in the SPRM project, adopted the project methods to assess and manage systemic risks. Based on a scenario about the potential spread patterns of the COVID-19 Omicron variant developed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, staff from Kristiansand employed the SPRM project’s approach to facilitate systemic risk assessment and management workshops. Practitioners and decision-makers from the main hospital in the Agder county and several municipalities proposed risks, their causal consequences and identified practical and impactful mitigation strategies. The strategies were implemented at the county level. The approach can improve handling of systemic risk scenarios beyond pandemics.

Abstract: Cooperation and mutual assistance in emergency situations is one of the main objectives of the Latin-American Association of Governmental Organisms of Civil Defense and Protection. To promote such collaboration m-ARCE has been developed; an ubiquitous mobile office for disaster mitigation where users can send and receive information anywhere and anytime. When a catastrophe happens in a country, and almost all infrastructure is destroyed, mobile technology, such as mobile devices and wireless networks, offers the user resources to ask for help and to manage it. Latin-American Countries often suffer catastrophes that provoke numerous human losses and major economic and social problems. International assistance and collaboration with the affected country is necessary to help in its recovery. The Web, like Internet, offers static office services to users who can access information using an infrastructure in indoor environments. On the other hand, mobile computing and networking use the Internet, together with mobile physical devices linked to it, and software platforms built upon it, to design and coordinate systems across countries. In the ubiquitous mobile office design, we describe how services, such as chat, email and wireless communication, should be configured for emergency situation. We make use of ubiquitous hypermedia -linked nodes in ubiquitous spaces- to ensure mobility and accessibility to the mobile device interface, such as PDAs and smartphones.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to outline the requirement for data-driven methods for determining optimal geographic locations of United States Department of Defense (DOD) Humanitarian Assistance (HA) resources, including disaster mitigation and preparedness projects. HA project managers and tactical implementers charged with cost-efficient deployment of HA resources are challenged to produce measurable effects, in addition to contributing to broader Joint and Interagency-informed security assistance strategies. To address these issues, our ongoing research advocates geospatial multi-criteria site suitability decision support capabilities that leverage 1) existing geospatial resource location-allocation methodology as applied in government, retail, and commercial sectors; 2) user-generated criteria and objective preferences applied in widely-used decision frameworks; 3) assessments of the feasibility of obtaining data at a geographic scale where DOD tactical/operational level users can benefit from the model outputs; and 4) social science theory related to the HA domain criteria that form the foundation of potential decision models.

Abstract: In the USA the basic objective of local and state government's Emergency Operations Plans (EOP) is to implement mitigation measures to reduce the loss of life and property damage by the efficient mobilization and deployment of resources. The evacuation of citizens out of harms way either before an impeding disaster or after the occurrence of one is a critical component of any EOP. This document represents a summary of the Evacuation Plan designed for the City of New Orleans. Results of live field exercises conducted during the 2006 Hurricane Season and suggestions for improvement will be highlighted. The ideal Emergency Evacuation Tracking System will be designed to operate within a System of Systems framework with interfaces: to field personnel, emergency managers and logisticians operating in an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), with state and local government systems such as public information emergency hotline (311 Centers in the USA), asset tracking management systems and others.

Abstract: While creating a community hazard mitigation plan (HMP) has become recognized as a key component of successful disaster management, significant portions of the process are often inaccessible to people with vision disabilities. Maps in particular are often large, visually dense documents that are printed on two-dimensional paper, or distributed via PDF with no alternate text. For people with profound low vision or who are blind, alternative media is required. The research discussed here proposes that tactile maps may present an accessible and cost-effective medium for representing geospatial data relevant to the hazard mitigation planning process. Using flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs) distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a starting point, this paper proposes an evaluatory framework for transcribing conventional maps into tactile documents, as well as characterizing users' experiences using them for mitigation planning, directions for future research and generalizing the process for applications in other domains.

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the health care system and affected all sectors of society, including critical infrastructures. In turn, the impact on society's infrastructures has impacted back on the health care sector. These interactions have created a system of associated risks and outcomes, where the outcomes of risks are risks themselves and where the resulting consequences are complex vicious cycles. Traditional risks assessment methods cannot cope with interdependent risks. This paper describes a novel risk systemicity approach to elicit and mitigate the systemic risks of a major pandemic. The approach employed the internet-based software strategyfinder[TM] in workshops to elicit relevant risk information from sixteen appropriately selected experts from the health care sector and major sectors impacted by and impacting back on the health care sector. The risk information was processed with powerful analytical tools of strategyfinder to allow the experts to prioritise portfolios of strategies attacking the vicious cycles.

Abstract: The effective implementation of early warning is one of the best investments for disaster prevention and mitigation. In the last decade, we have witnessed strong efforts and progress towards better risk detection, monitoring and prediction. However, the best warnings are ineffective if they cannot be distributed in a timely way and targeted to people at risk. With the evolvement of new Information and Communication Technologies, we have new opportunities and face new challenges for improving classical warning processes. Based on our experience and research results from two user-centered hydro-meteorological Early Warning Systems (EWS) we present an approach for context-aware alerting that can increase considerably the effectiveness of warning. Furthermore, we introduce an applied evaluation model for the effectiveness of an EWS.

Abstract: This paper describes SIGAME, a web-based application for national cooperation in case of disaster. The main motivation of SIGAME is to provide a quick, flexible, reliable, many-to-many, updated communication channel for improving and coordinating the response of assistance suppliers (located at several territories) when an emergency occurs. In order to make communication as efficient as possible and taking into account the organizational diversities of the suppliers, the political implication and the characteristics of the future users, a user centered design method for web-based interactive systems seems to be the best solution for attending the designer through the different phases and products of the design process. In particular, we will focus on the techniques used both to involve stakeholders in the design and to collect requirements.

Abstract: Disaster Risk Management (DRM) is a multi-dimensional problem complex requiring knowledge and experience from a wide range of disciplines. It also requires a methodology which can collate and organize this knowledge in an effective, transparent manner. Towards this end, seven specialists from the social, natural and engineering sciences collaborated in a facilitated workshop in order to develop a prototype multi-hazard disaster reduction model. The model, developed with computer-Aided morphological analysis (MA), makes it possible to identify and compare risk reduction strategies, and preparedness and mitigation measures, for different types of hazards. Due to time constraints, the model is neither complete nor accurate-but only represents a proof-of-principle. The workshop was sponsored by the Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center (EDM) in Kobe, in January, 2005.

Abstract: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is among the three most prominent causes of death in industrialized nations. Therefore, experts are calling for solutions, including smartphone-based systems to mobilize volunteers. German researchers are developing a crisis response system with a crowd tasking app. It aims to help reduce the effects of large-scale events, but also of ad-hoc incidents including SCA. This paper describes an approach to determine the potential of the system to increase the survival rate of SCA illustrated by an example. Its concept was analyzed by five experts from three countries and benefited from their feedback.

Abstract: During large earthquakes, it is critical to safely guide evacuation efforts and to prevent accidents caused by congestion. In this paper, we focus on detecting the degree of crowd congestion following an earthquake based on information posted to Social Networking Services (SNSs). This research uses text data posted to Twitter just before/after the occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake (11 March 2011 at 02:46 PM JST). First, we extract co-occurring place names, proper nouns, and time-series information from tweets about congestion in the Tokyo metropolitan area (TMA). Next, using these extracted data, we analyze the frequency and spatiotemporal characteristics of these tweets. Finally, we identify expressions that describe the degree of crowd congestion and discuss methods to quantify these expressions based on a questionnaire survey and tweets that contain a photograph.

Abstract: Recent Developments in the telecommunication technology offer a number of additional tools not only for the providers of emergency and disaster response, but may also facilitate early warning. Their application depends, however, on the regulatory framework governing telecommunications and on their appropriateness for the specific requirements in the pre-, peri- and postimpact phases of an event. Telecommunications are a key element for to the success of emergency preparedness and response, and the application of all available technologies and networks saves lives. The recent events in the Indian Ocean Region will have to be the subject of detailed analysis and evaluation of all existing mechanisms, hopefully leading to improvements in the organizational and operational field. First information available already in the immediate aftermath of the events of 26 December 2004 has been applied to the considerations in the present paper.