Disaster Operations and Decision Making
Abstract
Immediate Actions and Personal Planning Checklists for Emergency Managers and Elected OfficialsPersonal Immediate Actions for the Emergency Manager and Emergency Operations Center StaffImmediate Actions for Elected OfficialsSuggested Community ActionsSuggested Community Profile InformationDisaster Facility and Vehicle Immediate Action KitsHospital Status ReportDecontaminateEmergency System SupportFacility Shelter in Place CapabilitySuggested Actions for Prepositioned Resources to Support Regional EvacuationsSuggested Actions for Contaminated Public Water SupplySuggested Actions for Large Scale Search and Rescue Operations with outside Agencies/VolunteersSuggested Actions Volunteer ManagementSuggested Actions for use of Military PersonnelSuggested Actions for Wide Spread Destruction Fire Station/Police Sub-Station UseSuggested Actions for Post Disaster Prioritization of Hazardous Materials CallsSuggested Actions for Post Disaster Prioritization of Emergency Medical Service CallsSuggested Actions for Post Disaster Demobilization MilestonesSuggested Pre-Scripted Press ReleasesSample Notification of outside AgenciesSample Press ReleaseAdditional Press ReleaseSamples of Incident Information Tracking FormsEmergency Operations CenterIncident Status ReportESF Shift Change BriefSituation ReportPandemic/Bioterrorist Incident Status ReportEmergency Operations Center Request and Notification FormsNotification of Contaminated RemainsNotification of Contaminated PatientsRequest AssistanceState Public Works Mutual Aid Resource RequisitionState Firefighting Mutual Aid Resource RequisitionState EMS/Health and Medical Resource RequisitionState Law Enforcement Special Response RequisitionSuggested Incident Command Field Operations WorksheetsIncident CommanderHazardous Materials Incident Commander WorksheetFIRE Incident CommanderEmergency Medical Services Incident CommanderLaw Enforcement Incident Commander
... Disaster response systems are systems of collective action composed of diverse organizations from different sectors and jurisdictions that are designed to achieve a common goal (Comfort, 1999;Eller, Gerber, & Branch, 2015). Research suggests that the performance of a disaster response system is related to its capacity to facilitate collective action and build a common operating picture in the face of events that disrupt normal operating conditions (Comfort & Haase, 2006;Comfort, Oh, Ertan, & Scheinert, 2010;Huder, 2012). In a disaster environment, however, information and resources may be distributed across individual organizations. ...
... Second, during a disaster response situation, inter-organizational communication enables the organizations in the response system to operate collectively (Comfort, 2007). The literature recognizes that information technology facilities the information exchange and sharing needed to make command and control and coordination possible during a disaster response (Huder, 2012). Information technology, however, is more than the hardware, software, and instruments individuals use to communicate. ...
... 54 Disasters can have political consequences therefore, the decision to evacuate a hospital is influenced by potential for negative political outcomes. 55 Hershy emphasized that EHE-related legal challenges are the main concerns of hospital managers. 56 Furthermore, EHE prerequisites affect the required time estimation. ...
Background:
The evidence shows that the need for emergency evacuation in hospitals has arisen. Designing an emergency evacuation decision making tool increases the confidence of hospital managers in the decision made. Therefore, this study was aimed at the development, and the psychometric properties, of the decision-making scale for emergency hospital evacuation in disasters.
Methods:
This study was done in 2 phases of qualitative study and literature review and designing and psychometric properties of the instrument. After development of the primary item pool, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated. In this regard, face and content validity, internal consistency (Alpha's Cronbach), reliability (ICC), and stability were assessed.
Results:
In the validity stage of the instrument, 4 items were removed. Also, 4 items were modified and 2 items were merged. The number of items was thus decreased to 64. After CVI calculation, 5 items were removed, 4 items were modified, and 2 items were merged. As a result of this, the number of items decreased to 58 items. The scale has good reliability and stability.
Conclusion:
It seems that the instrument could be useful in decision-making for emergency hospital evacuation in disasters.
... Previous research has revealed a number of reasons why planning in the aftermath of disasters is extremely difficult, including the volatility and uncertainty of the situation (Larsson, Ekenberg, and Danielson 2010;Johnson et al. 2011), high stress and time pressure (Cosgrave 1996), and various operational impediments, such as resource shortages, conflicting objectives and damage to critical infrastructure (Pauchant, Mitroff, and Lagadec 1991;Flin and Slaven 1996;McEntire 2006;Moynihan 2009). Moreover, the sheer number of different responding organizations and the existence of multiple decision-making centers combined with rapid information flow can rapidly paralyze a response system (Salmon et al. 2011;Huder 2012;Rimstad et al. 2014). Although collaboration and a common operational picture are necessary for achieving speed, unity of effort and interagency coordination, horizontal decision-making often takes more time (Buck, Trainor, and Aguirre 2006;Stambler and Barbera 2011;Boersma, Wagenaar, and Wolbers 2012;Groenendaal, Helsloot, and Scholtens 2013;Curnin and Owen 2014;Jensen and Waugh 2014). ...
Disasters create overwhelming demands to affected communities and pose unique problems that complicate efforts of orchestrating the response. It is in such environments of uncertainty, operational friction, time-constraints and the need for interagency coordination that disaster and crisis managers are required to develop incident plans to address multiple demands. Based on observations from 50 disaster exercises, we have identified twenty critical points in incident planning, that is, those incident planning activities which are most challenging for emergency managers, are poorly implemented or otherwise constitute an area for improvement. The most challenging components of the incident planning process were information gathering from the field, running estimates of the situation, response-generated demands, resource capabilities and mobilization time, course of action development and analysis, and decision-making under uncertainty. In addition, this study identified three good practices in incident planning. First, the process is iterative and planners revisit several steps in a back-and-forth fashion. Second, both rational and intuitive decision-making processes are likely to be used during the course of any one incident, based on the time available for planning. Third, better plans are produced when flexibility is built into courses of action to address expected developments of situation or when decision-making is decentralized.
... The changes of models of Public Administration were analyzed by Pollitt, Bouckaert 2011;Wong 2013;Stout 2010;Andrews et al. 2013;Wiesel et al. 2014. In the field of disaster management research the following authors as Coppola 2015 ;Schneider 2008;Saban 2014;Huder 2012;Busch et al. 2013 should be mentioned. While analyzing ratio of research of disaster management and public administration the article by Petak 1985 should be highlighted, where he tried to define disaster management as a challenge to public administration system. ...
The article is devoted to the research and assessment of the development of the triple partnership between the participants of innovation systems - universities, business, and government in the Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus cross-border region which consists of Latvia's regions (Latgale region), Lithuania's regions (Vilnius region, Alytus region, Utena region, Panevezys region, Kaunas region), Belarus's regions (Vitebsk region, Grodno region, Minsk region, Mogilev region). The lack of attention to the above problems typical of this cross-border region determined the relevance of the research. Innovations are one of the key factors both on the macro-level and on the micro-level that influence the sustainable economic development of the region as well as the innovation potential of the enterprise. The stable development and efficient function of the territorial innovation system is the main condition for this. The study is based on a survey of 620 entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized businesses in the cross-border region.
... Unfortunately, most of those disaster situations cannot be detected on time, causing populations to be unable to evict the area, to be unable to be ready for this kind of situations and to have problems avoiding a large number of human and animal casualties. When a disaster occurs, it is really important to have a solid contingency procedure as explained in the work presented in [2] which shows how the first hours and initial days are the most important in the rescue of survivors. Taking this into account the use of networked heterogeneous robots to collaborate the rescuers in a disaster area can improve the chance of survive for the people trapped in it. ...
This paper presents a control strategy for multiple heterogeneous robots oriented to the assistance in situations of search and rescue from two complementary perspectives, the real time control and the discrete task allocation. The real time control laws are in charge of the correct execution of the tasks assigned by the reallocation algorithm respecting constraints in the connectivity range, the collision avoiding and the full completion of each task. The considered tasks are exploration of the mission environment, search and identification of victims, delivery of medical supplies to victims unable to move and evacuation of victims capable to move. During the development of each task, the robots take routes optimized considering distance metrics based on the breath-first search algorithm and an exploration algorithm for non-convex environments. In order to assign the tasks to the robots thorough the mission, we present an optimized task reallocation algorithm focused on the minimization of the time required to attend all the victims in the mission environment. This algorithm allows to assign each of the robots to an appropriate task considering that the robots may differ in the capability of completing each task as well as in their moving capabilities. This complete framework allows a team of autonomous robots to bring a valuable assistance in a search and rescue situation and its behavior is presented in a non-trivial simulation scenario.
... The changes of models of Public Administration were analyzed by Pollitt, Bouckaert 2011;Wong 2013;Stout 2010;Andrews et al. 2013;Wiesel et al. 2014. In the field of disaster management research the following authors as Coppola 2015 ;Schneider 2008;Saban 2014;Huder 2012;Busch et al. 2013 should be mentioned. While analyzing ratio of research of disaster management and public administration the article by Petak 1985 should be highlighted, where he tried to define disaster management as a challenge to public administration system. ...
A good knowledge of terrain characteristics and movement possibilities within it are crucial conditions for operations success. If a commander and his staffhave enough information about the terrain, he can optimize a combat formation and its movement in an open terrain. Such as optimization can finally spare manpower as well as equipment and decrease probability of loss of life. This paper deals with a complex mathematical model of terrain passability, which respects both geographical and meteorological conditions in the terrain and with its adaptation to calculation in the environment of geographic information systems (GIS). Such a model can be directly implied into command and control system to support decision-making processes. The main problem of an off-road vehicle movement in an open terrain consists in considering the properties of a given surface; also, technical properties of a particular off-road vehicle have to be considered. The model of terrain passability is based on measurable factors that characterize the natural environment, which is possible to calculate using the data saved in GIS databases. While calculating parameters for a complex model, it is necessary to consider data quality, which influences the level of vagueness of the resulting calculations. In order to express this level of vagueness, a method of fuzzy functions was selected and applied while calculating the individual deceleration coefficients given by the natural factors. The method of cost map was selected for the final evaluation of possibilities of vehicles movement. The complete procedure was debugged in the environment of ArcGIS 10.
... This is critical to safeguard lives and facilitate prompt assistance to those who require it. In disaster events, it is important to have access to a solid contingency procedure, as explained in the work presented by Huder in [4], which discusses the first hours and critical initial days that take place during disaster responses. It is in the first hours and initial days when the robot action can be crucial to save lives. ...
An important application of cooperative robotics is search and rescue of victims in disaster zones. The cooperation between robots requires multiple factors that need to be taken into consideration such as communication between agents, distributed control, power autonomy, cooperation, navigation strategy, locomotion, among others. This work focuses on navigation strategy with obstacles avoidance and victims localization. The strategy used for navigation is based on swarm theory where each robot is an swarm agent. The calculation of attraction and repulsion forces used to keep the swarm compact is used to avoid obstacles and attract the swarm to the victim zones. Additionally, an agent separation behavior is added, so the swarm can leave behind the agents, who found victims so these can support the victims by transmitting their location to a rescue team. Several experiments were performed to test navigation, obstacle avoidance and victims search. The results show how the swarm theory meets the requirements of navigation and search operations of cooperative robots.
... The changes of models of Public Administration were analyzed by Pollitt, Bouckaert 2011;Wong 2013;Stout 2010;Andrews et al. 2013;Wiesel et al. 2014. In the field of disaster management research the following authors as Coppola 2015 ;Schneider 2008;Saban 2014;Huder 2012;Busch et al. 2013 should be mentioned. While analyzing ratio of research of disaster management and public administration the article by Petak 1985 should be highlighted, where he tried to define disaster management as a challenge to public administration system. ...
The article is devoted to the research and assessment of the development of the triple partnership between the participants
of innovation systems – universities, business, and government in the Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus cross-border region which consists of
Latvia’s regions (Latgale region), Lithuania’s regions (Vilnius region, Alytus region, Utena region, Panevezys region, Kaunas region),
Belarus’s regions (Vitebsk region, Grodno region, Minsk region, Mogilev region). The lack of attention to the above problems typical of
this cross-border region determined the relevance of the research. Innovations are one of the key factors both on the macro-level and on
the micro-level that influence the sustainable economic development of the region as well as the innovation potential of the enterprise.
The stable development and efficient function of the territorial innovation system is the main condition for this. The study is based on a
survey of 620 entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized businesses in the cross-border region.
Keywords: innovations, Triple Helix Model, cross-border region, sustainable development
Typical approaches to test soil compaction, along with technical possibilities are assessed with a purpose of scaling best approaches in production. Modern soil works related technologies, GPS accuracy aspirations for precision agriculture are addressed. Two most popular technologies in Ukraine to measure soil compaction are «The Top Soil Mapper» and «CTS-1000», although they function differently, most commonly are used independently. Simple mathematical calculations bringing together timing needed to gather reliable data to form variable depth soil ripping machinery and scale of Ukrainian production demonstrate irrelevance of applying typical mechanical methods. At the same time, sensor technologies have their own limitations. Thus, this article introduces the benefits of the mutual use of «The Top Soil Mapper» and «CTS-1000». Soil compaction models presented in the article include: 1. Smallest possible grid approach of soil compaction data presentation and interpolation for further use to create variable depth soil works assignment proves to provide a very good set of results and can be used as a standard, but at the same time it consumes so much time that production scaling is not achievable. As an example we can state that a grower with 1000 fields would need about 3 years to test all the fields, when production needs are to test all the fields within two or three months (depending on weather and crop rotation). 2. Small, midsize and large grid approach of soil compaction data presentation and interpolation for further use to create variable depth soil works assignment proves to vary from being still time inefficient to having gaps to gather enough data as main approach of any data processing for further interpolation makes an unproven assumption that the sample location is a center of a zone. In case with a smallest possible grid, that difference would be minimal, with a larger distance difference can be significant. 3. Depending on detecting zones to test compaction based other parameters does not prove to work and lacks scientific background. Thus it has been suggested to combine use of «Top Soil Mapper» and «CTS-1000».
Context: Disasters are increasing worldwide, with more devastating effects than ever before. Hospitals must maintain their normal functions or have an evacuation plan due to the rate of damages at the time of a sudden disaster. The present study was conducted to determine the effective determinants and components in hospital evacuation decision- making. Evidence Acquisition: In this systematic review study, which was conducted in 2016, bibliographies, citation databases, and other available records such as international guidelines, documents and reports of organizations and academic dissertations were used to find an answer to the following question: What are the effective components in hospital evacuation decision- making? Finally, 34 articles were included in this systematic review. This systematic review article was checked with PRISMA checklist. Results: The common factors affecting hospital emergency evacuation decision-making were classified into 4 general categories and 40 subcategories, which have been explored during thematic analysis. These 4 categories included hospital infrastructure consequences, threat, internal factors, and external factors. Level of risk was the most important component of threat category and it was mentioned in most of the reviewed literature. Loss of electricity and water, communication and transportation, resources such as staff, and removing patient devices were the most mentioned factors in hospital infrastructure consequences, external factors, and internal factors, respectively. Conclusions: Different variables affect the process of hospital emergency evacuation decision-making. Thus, further studies are needed to develop a decision-making tool for hospital emergency evacuations in Iran.
The purpose of this research is to study and explore the importance of hospitals in natural disaster events and identifying some impacts on the hospitals in natural disaster events. A disaster is an unforeseen event, which can overwhelm the capacity of the affected people to manage its impact. Many people are periodically exposed to natural disasters in their life, and most disasters, or more correctly hazards that lead to disasters, cannot be prevented. However, their effects can be mitigated. Disaster management efforts aim to reduce or avoid the potential losses from hazards, assure prompt and appropriate assistance to the victims of a disaster, and achieve a rapid and effective recovery. It is crucial that hospitals remain safe and functional during and after disasters. Health facilities at all levels deserve special attention in the case of natural disasters as they must continue the work of current patient treatment within their facilities and provide care for persons injured by the disaster event. Disaster management becomes even more important for hospitals as the health sector has been particularly vulnerable to the damage caused. For this study, secondary information was retrieved from the Internet on sudden-onset natural disasters in different parts of the world. This study found some barriers and deliverables for disaster managers that can mitigate the risk of a natural disaster's impact on a hospital. Accordingly, this paper evaluates the importance of disaster management for hospitals and the challenges that need to be considered during the disaster response.
Anotacija Straipsnyje nagrinjami nepaprastj situacij valdymo teoriniai aspektai trij viešojo administravimo modeli kontekste. Pirmoje straipsnio dalyje analizuojama tradicinio viešojo administravimo komponent – hierarchinio, centralizuoto valdymo, orientacijos procedras, ilgalaiks valstybs tarnybos, teisini metod, racionalumo, kaip vertybs, dominavimo – svarba nepaprastj situacij valdymo sriiai. Antroje straipsnio dalyje vertinama naujosios viešosios vadybos princip – decentralizacijos, orientacijos ekonominius rezultatus, tarpinstitucins konkurencijos, sutari su valstybs tarnautojais sistemos – reikšm nepaprastj situacij valdymui. Treioje dalyje atskleidžiama galima besiformuojanio naujojo viešojo valdymo komponent sveika su nepaprastj situacij valdymu. Straipsnyje atskleidžiama, kad viešojo administravimo modeli evoliucijai bdingos skirting valdymo bruož derinimo tendencijos, todl siloma, norint valstybje turti išvystyt nepaprastj situacij valdymo sistem, derinti daugel ši paradigm aspekt, išlaikant centrins koordinacijos, hierarchini ryši, bendradarbiavimo ir lyderysts aspektus. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: nepaprastj situacij valdymas, viešojo administravimo modeliai, viešojo sektoriaus reformos.
Anyone who watches the television news has seen images of firefighters rescuing people from burning buildings and paramedics treating bombing victims. How do these individuals make the split-second decisions that save lives? Most studies of decision making, based on artificial tasks assigned in laboratory settings, view people as biased and unskilled. Gary Klein is one of the developers of the naturalistic decision-making approach, which views people as inherently skilled and experienced. Since 1985, Klein has conducted fieldwork to find out how people tackle challenges in difficult, nonroutine situations. Sources of Power is based on observations of humans acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions. In addition to providing information that can be used by professionals in management, psychology, engineering, and other fields, the book presents an overview of the research approach of naturalistic decision making and expands our knowledge of the strengths people bring to difficult tasks.