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Timothy E Wright, & Greg Madey. (2008). A prototype virtual emergency operations center using a collaborative virtual environment. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 71–82). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In the realm of emergency operations, planning and training is a critical ingredient for success. The use of virtual environments can offer a convenient means of practicing and simulating activities in an emergency operations center (EOC). Although many virtual environments strive to offer realism in their simulations of weather, population, and incident happenings, they often fall short in terms of collaboration among simulation participants: unless participants are at the same physical location, their ability to see and interact with one and other is limited. Moreover, interactivity that is possible may not be truly synchronous (e.g., network lag can cause activities to happen out of order). These are compelling drawbacks to computer-based EOC simulators/trainers, since collaboration is a cornerstone for successful EOC teams. To address these problems, we present the virtual EOC. Our prototype aims to provide a collaborative virtual environment that enables interactivity among participants while executing synchronous, script-driven tests and simulations.
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Tina Comes, Claudine Conrado, Michael Hiete, Michiel Kamermans, Gregor Pavlin, & Niek Wijngaards. (2010). An intelligent decision support system for decision making under uncertainty in distributed reasoning frameworks. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper presents an intelligent system facilitating better-informed decision making under severe uncertainty as found in emergency management. The construction of decision-relevant scenarios, being coherent and plausible descriptions of a situation and its future development, is used as a rationale for collecting, organizing, filtering and processing information for decision making. The development of scenarios is geared to assessing decision alternatives, thus avoiding time-consuming analysis and processing of irrelevant information. The scenarios are constructed in a distributed setting allowing for a flexible adaptation of reasoning (principles and processes) to the problem at hand and the information available. This approach ensures that each decision can be founded on a coherent set of scenarios, which was constructed using the best expertise available within a limited timeframe. Our theoretical framework is demonstrated in a distributed decision support system by orchestrating both automated systems and human experts into workflows tailored to each specific problem.
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Tina Comes, Niek Wijngaards, & Frank Schultmann. (2012). Efficient scenario updating in emergency management. 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: Emergency managers need to assess, combine and process large volumes of information with varying degrees of (un)certainty. To keep track of the uncertainties and to facilitate gaining an understanding of the situation, the information is combined into scenarios: stories about the situation and its development. As the situation evolves, typically more information becomes available and already acknowledged information is changed or revised. Meanwhile, decision-makers need to keep track of the scenarios including an assessment whether the infor-mation constituting the scenario is still valid and relevant for their purposes. Standard techniques to support sce-nario updating usually involve complete scenario re-construction. This is far too time-consuming in emergency management. Our approach uses a graph theoretical scenario formalisation to enable efficient scenario updating. MCDA techniques are employed to decide whether information changes are sufficiently important to warrant scenario updating. A brief analysis of the use-case demonstrates a large gain in efficiency. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Tiziana Catarci, Massimiliano De Leoni, Andrea Marrella, Massimo Mecella, Manfred Bortenschlager, & Renate Steinmann. (2010). The WORKPAD project experience: Improving the disaster response through process management and geo collaboration. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In complex emergency/disaster scenarios teams from various emergency-response organizations collaborate with each other to achieve a common goal. In these scenarios the use of smart mobile devices and applications can improve the collaboration dynamically. The lack of basic interaction principles can be dangerous as it could increase the level of disaster or can make the efforts ineffective. The paper focuses on the description of the main results of the project WORKPAD finished in December 2009. WORKPAD worked on a two-level architecture to support rescue operators during emergency management. The use of a user-centered design methodology during the entire development cycle has guaranteed that the architecture and the resulting system meet the end-user requirements. The feasibility of its use in real emergencies is also proven by a demonstration showcased in July with real operators. The paper includes the qualitative and quantitative showcase results and mentions some guidelines which can be useful for persons who want to develop emergency-management systems.
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Torben Wiedenhöfer, Christian Reuter, Benedikt Ley, & Volkmar Pipek. (2011). Inter-organizational crisis management infrastructures for electrical power breakdowns. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Major electricity breakdowns like the Northeast Blackout (USA) in 2003 or the blackout in most parts of Western Europe in 2005, have shown the fundamental role of electricity in our everyday life. The experiences of these accidents show that power suppliers, firefighters, police, county administration and citizens face multifarious challenges in inter-organizational communication, information and coordination processes during coping and recovery work. In this work-in-progress paper we describe early research dealing with inter-organizational issues in emergency management (EM). We are mainly focusing on supporting social practices in inter-organizational EM, for example collaborative interpretation of emergency situations, ad-hoc coordination or supporting citizen communication and helping routines. Identified from our experiences from related projects, discussions and literature studies, we suggest potential questions and future topics in user-driven software engineering processes for EM and domain specific problems, such as supporting citizen participation, coping with information uncertainties and quality variations or enhancing inter-organizational learning.
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Torbjørg Meum, & Bjørn Erik Munkvold. (2013). Information infrastructure for crisis response coordination: A study of local emergency management in norwegian municipalities. 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. 84–88). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: While great progress is made in terms of development and implementation on new ICT services for supporting crisis response coordination, the challenge remains on how to integrate these services within the ICT infrastructure in daily use by emergency responders. We report from an ongoing analysis of existing crisis response infrastructure in Norwegian municipalities, presenting an overview of current practice and related challenges. We argue for an information infrastructure perspective on the integration challenges, focusing on how new services based on geographic information systems and social media should be based on existing systems in use.
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Torbjørg Træland Meum. (2014). An action design research approach to developing emergency management systems. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 175–179). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: We propose Action Design Research (ADR) as an approach to promote user participation and mutual learning in the design and development of systems for emergency management based on social media technologies. We outline some design challenges related to the dynamic and evolving nature of social media, and emphasize an iterative design process that is strongly oriented toward collaboration and change involving both the researcher and the user community. In particular, we emphasize the transformative power of social media and argue for design approaches that take into account the new dimension of e-participation throughout the design process.
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Trishan R. De Lanerolle, William V. Anderson, Sam DeFabbia-Kane, Eli Fox-Epstein, Dimitar Gochev, & Ralph A. Morelli. (2010). Development of a virtual dashboard for event coordination between multiple groups. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Collabbit is an open source web-based application that aims to increase emergency management efficiency through distributed asynchronous information sharing. The software is targeted to loosely coupled non-profit disaster relief agencies that coordinate response to and recovery from disasters. Disaster relief agencies create a common operating picture of an emergency incident through remotely posted incident updates. Individual users subscribe to topics of interest and receive near-instantaneous updates on those topics. Where information is lacking, users may access a topically organized contact registry. This report describes the development and deployment of the Collabbit project.
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Valerio Lorini, Carlos Castillo, Francesco Dottori, Milan Kalas, Domenico Nappo, & Peter Salamon. (2019). Integrating Social Media into a Pan-European Flood Awareness System: A Multilingual Approach. In Z. Franco, J. J. González, & J. H. Canós (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management. Valencia, Spain: Iscram.
Abstract: This paper describes a prototype system that integrates social media analysis into the European Flood Awareness
System (EFAS). This integration allows the collection of social media data to be automatically triggered by flood
risk warnings determined by a hydro-meteorological model. Then, we adopt a multi-lingual approach to find
flood-related messages by employing two state-of-the-art methodologies: language-agnostic word embeddings
and language-aligned word embeddings. Both approaches can be used to bootstrap a classifier of social media
messages for a new language with little or no labeled data. Finally, we describe a method for selecting relevant and
representative messages and displaying them back in the interface of EFAS.
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Wolfgang Raskob, Florian Gering, & Valentin Bertsch. (2009). Approaches to visualisation of uncertainties to decision makers in an operational decision support system. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Decision making in case of any emergency is associated with uncertainty of input data, model data and changing preferences in the decision making process. Uncertainty handling was from the beginning an integral part of the decision support system RODOS for the off-site emergency management following nuclear or radiological emergencies. What is missing so far is the visualisation of the uncertainties in the results of the model calculations. In this paper we present the first attempt to visualise uncertain information in the early and late phase of the decision making process. For the early phase, the area of sheltering was selected as example. For the later phase, the results of the evaluation subsystem of RODOS were selected being used for the analysis of remediation measures such as agricultural management options. Both attempts are still under discussion but the presentation of the early phase uncertainty will be realised in the next version.
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Wolfgang Raskob, Valentin Bertsch, Jutta Geldermann., Sandra Baig, & Florian Gering. (2005). Demands to and experience with the decision support system rodos for off-site emergency management in the decision making process in Germany. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 269–278). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Emergency situations, man-made as well as natural, can differ considerably. However, they share the characteristic of sudden onset, involve complex decisions and necessitate a coherent and effective emergency management. In the event of a nuclear or radiological accident in Europe, the real-time on-line decision support system RODOS provides support from the early phase through to the medium and long-term phases. This paper describes the demands to a Decision Support System from a user-centred view as well as experiences gained from conducting moderated decision making workshops based on a hypothetical accident scenario focusing on the evaluation of long-term countermeasures using the simulation capabilities of the RODOS system and its recently integrated evaluation component Web-HIPRE, a tool for multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA).
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Xiang Yao, Murray Turoff, & Starr Roxanne Hiltz. (2010). A field trial of a collaborative online scenario creation system for emergency management. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In Emergency Management and Business Continuity Planning, scenarios are a widely used tool. Existing scenario creation systems allow distributed groups to create scenarios together but have limited collaboration support. This study developed and evaluated a solution to provide various types of collaboration support around a knowledge structure at the core of a collaborative scenario creation system called Collario. Following the Design Science paradigm, it evolved through four iterations into a working prototype. Several evaluation methods, including protocol analysis and field study, were employed to evaluate the design effects and obtain user feedback. The results of the first field trial are described in this paper. They indicate that the system is useful to support creation and discussion of emergency scenarios in virtual teams and to share knowledge and experiences among geographically distributed emergency professionals and researchers. It was also found that the system is not hard to learn and use.
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Yasir Javed, & Tony Norris. (2013). Computerized system to enhance situation awareness: Key challenges associated with the design, evaluation, and extension of a prototype. 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. 951–961). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: Successful decision making and task execution in emergency management require appropriate levels of situation awareness (SA). This paper proposes an ontology-based model for the design of a computer-based system, Situation Aware Vigilant Emergency Reasoner (SAVER) that supports the individual, shared and team SA of managers in emergency situations. SAVER is evaluated in simulated experiments that demonstrate the improvements in SA performance. The paper provides a complete description of the SAVER design, implementation, evaluation and its proposed extension from a proof-of-concept to a production environment.
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Yasir Javed, Tony Norris, & David Johnston. (2011). Ontology-based inference to enhance team situation awareness in emergency management. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose the use of an ontology-based and semantic technologies approach to improving shared situation awareness amongst teams dealing with emergency situations. We have also identified that shared and team situation awareness tends to be viewed only in terms of cooperative task completion and so we have tried to describe their important relationship with team decision making. The applicability of our approaches is demonstrated by a case study of mass evacuation in the case of a tsunami event. We show how ontology can be used to represent context-based situations and how the axioms and rules can improve team situation awareness.
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Yulia Tyshchuk, & William A. Wallace. (2013). The use of social media by local government in response to an extreme event: Del norte county, CA response to the 2011 Japan tsunami. 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. 802–811). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: Social media has become increasingly important for emergency management. One example is its current use by governmental organizations to disseminate emergency-relevant information. During disaster events, it is imperative for people in affected areas to obtain accurate information. People using social media make a conscious decision to trust, act on, propagate or disregard emergency-relevant information. However, local government, in general, has not developed agreed upon ways to use social media in emergencies. This study documents how emergency management was able to successfully partner with local media and utilize social media to develop important relationships with the affected community via social media in emergencies. The study demonstrates a way to successfully utilize social media during disaster events in several ways: by closing a feedback loop between first responders and the public, by monitoring information flow, and by providing regular updates to the public.
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Zeno Franco, Nina Zumel, John Holman, Kathy Blau, & Larry E. Beutler. (2009). Evaluating the impact of improvisation on the incident command system: A modified single case study using the DDD simulator. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This study attempted to evaluate the utility of the Incident Command System (ICS) in varying disaster contexts. ICS is mandated in the United States and practitioners assert that it is an effective organizing system for emergency management. However, researchers contend that the utility of ICS is conflated with inter-team familiarity gained during ICS exercises. A military team-in-the-loop simulator was customized to represent the problems, resources, and command structures found in civilian led disaster management teams. A modified single case design drawn from behavioral psychology was used to explore possible casual relationships between changes team heterogeneity and performance. The design also allowed for the evaluation of improvisation on performance. Further, psychological factors that may underpin improvisation were explored. In addition to some preliminary empirical findings, the successes and difficulties in adapting the DDD simulator are briefly discussed as part of an effort to achieved greater interdisciplinary integration.
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Zhenyu Yu, Chuanfeng Han, & Ma Ma. (2014). Emergency decision making: A dynamic approach. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 240–244). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: The dynamic nature of emergency decision making exerts difficulty to decision makers for achieving effective management. In this regard, we suggest a dynamic decision making model based on Markov decision process. Our model copes with the dynamic decision problems quantitatively and computationally, and has powerful expression ability to model the emergency decision problems. We use a wildfire scenario to demonstrate the implementation of the model, as well as the solution to the firefighting problem. The advantages of our model in emergency management domain are discussed and concluded in the last.
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Zvonko Grzetic, Nenad Mladineo, & Snjezana Knezic. (2008). Emergency management systems to accommodate ships in distress. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 669–678). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: As a future member of the European Union (EU), Croatia has decided to implement EU Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council binding all EU member states to define places of refuge for ships in need of assistance off their coasts, or to develop techniques for providing assistance to such ships. Consequently, the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development of the Republic of Croatia has initiated a project for developing an effective Decision Support System (DSS) for defining the places of refuge for ships in distress at sea. Such a system would include a model based upon GIS and different operational research models, which would eventually result in establishing an integral DSS. Starting points for analysis are shipping corridors, and 380 potential locations for places of refuge designated in the official navigational pilot book. Multicriteria analysis, with GIS-generated input data, would be used to establish worthiness of a place of refuge for each ship category, taking into account kinds of accident. Tables of available intervention resources would be made, as well as analysis of their availability in respect of response time, and quantitative and qualitative sufficiency.
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