disaster response Articles | Environmental XPRT

Improving disaster response efforts with decision support systems

As evidenced by Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005, disaster response efforts are hindered by a lack of coordination, poor information flows, and the inability of disaster response managers to validate and process relevant information and make decisions in a timely fashion. A number of factors contribute to current lacklustre response efforts. Some are inherent to the complex, rapidly changing ...

Nov. 14, 2006

By Inderscience Publishers

Disaster planning and response: Considering the needs of the frail elderly

The world's population is expanding with more individuals living beyond their sixth decade of life. These changing demographics present a challenge for emergency management professionals. While there is diversity among older adults worldwide, unique common factors influence the ability of the frail elderly to maintain their health and well-being when faced with a disaster. Numerous factors need ...

Jul. 19, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

An overview on the use of satellite communications for disaster management and emergency response

In disaster situations, communication is vital to organise and coordinate Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. In some disasters it may not be possible to use the existing terrestrial communication network due to damaged infrastructure, broken cables and/or energy sources, overload on the network, or non–existing communication network. To overcome the damaged/congested network problem and support ...

Jan. 27, 2013

By Inderscience Publishers

An examination of interdependencies among major barriers to coordination in disaster response

This paper reports two exploratory research studies conducted to identify major barriers to coordination in disaster response and to understand causal relationships among those barriers. In the first study, two expert panels (emergency operations centre directors and firefighters) participated in a Delphi survey to identify and prioritise major barriers. In the second study, five focus group ...

Jan. 27, 2013

By Inderscience Publishers

An overview of the use of satellite navigation for disaster management and emergency response

Navigation satellites provide three main datasets for effective and efficient rescue operations: localisation, navigation and timing services. Three–dimensional (3D) coordinates can be obtained by using these satellites. Navigation feature helps rescue teams to get to a disaster area and rescue location faster, easier and safer. Highly accurate time information is used for synchronisation of ...

May 27, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

Disaster response: Community mental health service capacity in the USA

Following a natural disaster such as a major hurricane or flood, the ability of community mental health facilities to respond during the recovery stage of the disaster with adequate resources and capacity to meet community needs is critical to the recovery process. Community mental health agencies have a critical role to play in preparing for and responding to large-scale disasters, such as ...

Jul. 19, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Coordination in complex systems: increasing efficiency in disaster mitigation and response

Coordination in multi-organisational settings is extraordinarily difficult to achieve. This article examines the problem of inter-organisational coordination in the context of public administration theory and practice. The authors present the concept of complex adaptive systems as a theoretical framework that explains the dynamic processes involved in achieving coordinated action among multiple ...

Sep. 26, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

Disaster preparedness and response: a challenge for hospitals in earthquake-prone countries

An effective and immediate response from hospital personnel is critical to meet the needs of affected populations at the time of an earthquake disaster. Hospitals need to develop, practise and continuously update an effective disaster/emergency medical response plan. Communities and impacted regions cannot depend on immediate medical and humanitarian aid from other outside sources to meet medical ...

Nov. 21, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

A disaster response management system based on the control systems technology

A networked Critical Infrastructure (CI) system performs functions critical to national economy and security. It is a complex system in the sense of a social-technical system with time-varying boundary and topology, and there are dynamic, uncertain and stochastic factors throughout a whole disaster management process. In this paper, we first present a study aimed at developing a general ...

Mar. 9, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

Emergency management international: Improving national and international disaster preparedness and response

Since 1998, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been responsible for managing activities of the Civil Military Emergency Preparedness (CMEP) programme, in Europe and Central Asia. CMEP supports international partner nations' national and regional strategies related to disaster preparedness and consequence management for all hazards including the development and exercise of national and ...

Jul. 19, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Brokerage roles in disaster response: Organisational mediation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

When one organisation serves as an intermediary for twoother organisations which are not in direct contact, that organisation is saidto engage in brokerage behaviour. Using the case of the Hurricane Katrinadisaster, this study demonstrates the use of formal brokerage measures to studycommunication among the responding organisations. We apply the brokeragerole typology put forth by Gould and ...

Jul. 19, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Disaster mitigation and communications research in Canada: towards a responsive innovation agenda

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new conceptual framework for communications policy research pertaining to disaster mitigation in Canada. It claims that mitigation-oriented policy research must expand its agenda to focus on the deep social roots of risk and vulnerability in Canadian society and that such a re-orientation in theory can provide the foundation for the reform of public policy ...

Jun. 7, 2007

By Inderscience Publishers

Emotions in crisis management: an analysis of the organisational response of two natural disasters

The impact of emotions on organisational performance during crisis response is examined. Data are drawn from the after action reports of individuals in two American Red Cross teams, one faced with responding to Hurricane Hugo and the other to the Loma Prieta Earthquake. Based on the texts generated by individuals in the American Red Cross who took part in these situations, we examine whether the ...

Feb. 10, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

Modelling of cascading effects and efficient response to disaster spreading in complex networks

In order to assess cascading effects in directed networks, we present a model for the dynamics of failure spreading. The model combines network nodes as active, bistable elements and delayed interactions along directed links. Through simulations, we study the dynamics behaviour of generic sample networks. Besides evaluating the failure cascades, for which we observe a critical threshold for the ...

Jan. 13, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

Data Mining Disaster

Computer technology that can mine data from social media during times of natural or other disaster could provide invaluable insights for rescue workers and decision makers, according to an international team writing in the International Journal of Emergency Management. Adam Zagorecki of the Centre for Simulation and Analytics, at Cranfield University, Shrivenham, UK and David Johnson of Missouri ...

Mar. 26, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

Planning for disaster recovery

Q: When is a business disaster not a complete disaster? A: When you have a disaster recovery system in place, of course. The dictionary defines disaster as “an occurrence that causes great distress or destruction”. Any business can be affected by natural disasters, like recent weather patterns, contrived disasters such as the credit crunch, or even physical disasters like the loss of your ...

Aug. 31, 2008

By IMSM Ltd

'We have to think about the children': parenting responses in chronic natural disasters

In a chronic risk environment such as a community near an active volcano, uncertainty intertwines with fear and can seriously damage people's physical and emotional health, and stress family interpersonal conditions. In the case described here, we present information about families' responses to living around an active volcano in Ecuador, South America. This information was obtained through ...

May 22, 2013

By Inderscience Publishers

DUMBONET: a multimedia communication system for collaborative emergency response operations in disaster-affected areas

This article describes an emergency communication network platform based on a hybrid combination of Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) and a satellite IP network operating with conventional terrestrial internet. It is designed for collaborative simultaneous emergency response operations deployed in a number of disaster-affected areas. The architecture of the network, called DUMBONET, and our ...

Nov. 12, 2007

By Inderscience Publishers

Rhode Island disaster initiative

The Rhode Island Disaster Initiative (RIDI) is providing research in the areas of readiness, technology and training to address the significant gaps that remain in real-time medical response to events involving the use of weapons of mass destruction; terrorist use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive devices; mass casualty incidents and toxic industrial chemical and ...

Sep. 22, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

A tale of three cities: water disaster policy responses in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Metro Manila

Floods and typhoons are two of the greatest water disasters affecting South East Asia, causing misery and death to people, damaging properties, infrastructure and crops, and causing disruption to commerce and industry. In many cases the impact can be widespread, affecting not only individual households but also large parts of a country including agriculture areas, towns and cities, and sometimes ...

Mar. 26, 2015

By IWA Publishing

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