Abstract: Crisis responders are increasingly using social media, data and other digital sources of information to build a situational understanding of a crisis situation in order to design an effective response. However with the increased availability of such data, the challenge of identifying relevant information from it also increases. This paper presents a successful automatic approach to handling this problem. Messages are filtered for informativeness based on a definition of the concept drawn from prior research and crisis response experts. Informative messages are tagged for actionable data – for example, people in need, threats to rescue efforts, changes in environment, and so on. In all, eight categories of actionability are identified. The two components – informativeness and actionability classification – are packaged together as an openly-available tool called Emina (Emergent Informativeness and Actionability).

Abstract: We report on an initial assessment of a grassroots tool developed within the Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) community to support the coordination of efforts between the diverse network of relief organizations on the ground following a disaster. We look first at the problems that led to its development and the volunteer principles embodied in the tool. We then present an overview of the primary workflows and processes used to capture and manage work orders within this system. We discuss some of the benefits of centralized coordination of work across this network, opportunities for future growth, and some of the barriers that are inhibiting further growth of this tool. Finally, we conclude with opportunities for future research.

Abstract: The ability to learn from crises is vital in order to strengthen the capability of societies to manage severe events. This paper presents the initial analysis of a systematic literature review regarding capability assessment of inter-organizational crisis management systems. Inter-organizational crisis management capability is a diverse concept, touching on several related concepts such as resilience, situation awareness and operational performance. During a systematic review process 73 publications were identified. The different aspects of crisis management capability found in the publications were clustered, using an exploratory approach. Nine thematic clusters were identified: interaction, relationships, coordination/C2, system performance, preparedness, situation awareness, resilience, decision making and information infrastructure. A conclusion is that crisis response capability encompasses a multitude of aspects associated with a wide range of assessment methods. The identified publications to a large extent explored aspects of collaboration and coordination, while the actual outcome (system performance) was less explored.

Abstract: Successful emergency response and control center operations rely on a great number of information sources. The importance of said information becomes immediately obvious if it is not available when required during an emergency situation. This can be described as the criticality of information, signifying a potential need for action to prepare for functional failures. The concept described in this paper approaches the criticality via an analysis that examines various combinations of information sources and situations in order to identify weaknesses and improve existing procedures. The proposed semi-quantitative assessment was developed taking several attributes and characteristics of criticality into account and afterwards conducted in close cooperation with emergency response institutions.

Abstract: Man-made and natural disasters have affected people worldwide. Mass casualty incidents would create a surge in demand for medical services. Medical service needs are the basis of medical strategic readiness plan. In recent years, international actions have been criticized for being ill-adapted to dominating health needs of the affected region. The “Scenario-Response” modeling is an important method in disaster prediction. This research established a medical service needs scenario model with two different levels of ambition: a disaster scenario, in which casualty figure, composition of injuries are constrained by the types of the disaster as well as the degree of the damage, and a country scenario, in which the healthcare needs are constrained by the health coverage and the health condition of local people. Armed conflicts in Yemen and Syria Arab Republic were analyzed by this model. The results showed that the outcome of this model fit the reality.

Abstract: Even though there are approaches for responsible research and innovation and recommendations on how to use IT, there is a lack of standardisation and guidance that integrates the perspectives of researchers, technology developers, end users, and society at large. In this paper we describe is-IT-ethical?, a European knowledge and service hub we are developing for diverse parties involved in crisis and disaster risk management with a commitment to European values and fundamental rights. The overarching rationale of the initiative is to support European societies' need to effectively balance the benefits of IT with values of democracy and fundamental rights, especially privacy and data protection. The initiative builds on more than seven years of research with practitioners, academic, and commercial IT designers. This paper describes our motivations and a prototype.

Abstract: Trends over the past decades when coupled with recent disaster events call into serious question whether our typical reactions to natural disasters will be sufficient for what we can expect in the future. This paper summarizes current events and scientific understanding of our planet to provide insights of the authors into what should be the basis for future policies and plans.

Abstract: Quantitative evaluations are valuable in the strive for improvements and asserting quality. However, the field of Command & Control (C2) evaluations are hard to navigate, and it is difficult to find the correct measurement for a specific situation. A comprehensive Scoping Study was made concerning measurements of C2 performance and effectiveness. A lack of an existing appropriate framework for discussing C2 evaluations led to the development of the Crisis Response Management (CRM) Matrix. This is an analysis tool that assigns measurements into categories, and each category display unique strengths, weaknesses and trends. The analysis yielded results proving to be too rich for a single article, thusly, this is the first of two articles covering the results. In this article, the Practitioners Guide focus on results valuable for someone interested in evaluating C2. Each evaluation has specific requirements that, for best result, ought to be reflected in the chosen measurement.

Abstract: In disaster situations like earthquakes and hurricanes, people have difficulties accessing shelter and requesting help. Many smartphone applications provide behavioral advice or means to communicate during such situations. However, to what extent a person is affected by a disaster is often unclear, as these applications rely on the user's subjective assessment. Therefore, detecting a user's situation is key to provide more meaningful information in such applications and to allows first responders to better assess incoming messages. We propose a predictive model that recognizes four normal and ten disaster-related activities achieving an average f1-score of up to 90.1\%, solely based on sensor readings of the subject's mobile device. We conduct an extensive measurement-based evaluation to assess the impact of individual model parameters on the prediction accuracy. Our model is orientation-independent, position-independent, and subject-independent, making it an ideal foundation for future context-aware emergency applications.

Abstract: Sensitive products supply chain and supply chain facing crisis management share several aspects. In both cases, several decision makers have to choose the best options most of the time under pressure, often in emergency and need to access numerous information from the field. This shared monitoring aspect put forward the visualization need to consider in each decision all the crisis potential impacts. Unfortunately, for the transportation steps we focus on, the current transport management systems do not reach these requirements. In this paper, focusing on supply chains during crisis situations, we present a new monitoring system with adapted functionalities. The added value is to connect in real time and relevant way the data from the field to the information on a shared model used to make reliable decisions. We use the French Blood Establishment supply chain to illustrate the proposition.

Abstract: In a disaster, the main agencies of healthcare and relief are usually health and disaster management organisations. Although these two disciplines share the same vision of care provision to disaster victims, experience shows that poor communication between them can negatively impact the collaboration needed to ensure the quality and coordinated delivery of effective healthcare. This paper presents the current findings of an on-going investigation to determine and reduce the barriers to smooth and effective communication and information exchange.

Abstract: Emergency managers continue to struggle with a lack of staff, information processing tools, and sufficient trust in citizen-reported information to coordinate the use of social media in their communities. To understand possibilities for overcoming these barriers, we conduct interviews with emergency managers using scenarios describing the projective activities of community volunteers disseminating and monitoring social media. We find that coordinating social media use in communities requires alignments with local incident management systems and, in particular, existing sociotechnical infrastructure for managing citizen-reported information. These alignments open limited roles for community volunteers, notably coordinating the redistribution of official information; and stand to reshape the workflows and infrastructures of incident management systems by pushing emergency dispatchers to proactively process indirect reports of incidents obtained on social media, and integrate tools that can access hyperlocal data, curate incident and situational reports, and facilitate sensemaking among officials confronted with multiple information sources.