Improving Disaster Management The Role of IT in Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (2007) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction and Context
1 Introduction and Context
Pages 15-33
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 15... ...
The resulting report is intended to inform federal, state, and local policy makers and public safety and emergency management professionals about future opportunities for the application of IT to disaster management. It is not intended as a comprehensive look at the complex, highly multidisciplinary topic of disaster management.
|
From page 16... ...
Throughout this report, the term "disaster" can be read as "disaster and catastrophe." This report uses the following set of definitions, adapted in part from Facing Hazards and Disasters: Understanding Human Dimensions: 2 • Disasters are non-routine events in societies, regions, or communities that involve conjunctions of physical conditions with social definitions of human harm and social disruption. The term "disaster" has significant policy implications; for example, a declaration of an event as a disaster is needed before certain resourc es are made available.
|
From page 17... ...
There are two major types of hazard mitigation: Structural mitigation involves designing, constructing, maintaining, and renovating physical structures and infrastructures to resist the physical forces of disaster im pacts. Nonstructural mitigation involves efforts to decrease the exposure of human populations, physical structures, and infrastructures to hazardous conditions.
|
From page 18... ...
The difficult nature of disaster management is well illustrated by the Catastrophic Incident Annex to the National Response Plan, which lists some of the potential problems faced in the aftermath of a disaster (Box 1.2)
|
From page 19... ...
management is typically thought of as encompassing four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.1 Reducing the exposure to an event prior to its occurrence may be 1See, for example, Board on Natural Disasters, National Research Council, "Mitigation Emerges as a Major Strategy for Reducing Losses Caused by Natural Disasters," Science 284(5422)
|
From page 20... ...
Examples of preparation include detailed response planning, positioning resources prior to the onset of an event, setting up operations centers, training responders, and creating emergency management plans. Immediate response seeks to contain the event and minimize loss of life and injuries (rescue)
|
From page 21... ...
The NRP superseded and incorporated the FRP, the National Contingency Plan, and the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan. • Issuance of the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
|
From page 22... ...
The larger human and organizational context of disaster management was the subject of a recent National Research Council study. Facing Hazards and Disasters: Understanding Human Dimensions describes research undertaken during the past three decades by social scientists on hazards and disasters and recommends a continuing research agenda.7 The report observes that the management of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery has been aided by improvements in information 5National Research Council, The Atmospheric Sciences Entering the Twenty-First Century, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1998.
|
From page 23... ...
Schneider, Information, Technology, and Coordination: Lessons from the World Trade Center Response, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, June 2004; available at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/reports/wtc_lessons/wtc_ lessons.pdf. 11Jason Dedrick, Vijay Gurbaxani, and Kenneth L
|
From page 24... ...
, and the press of routine responsibilities also represent major constraints. However, as was illustrated in testimony to the committee and in after-action reports of disaster responses, inventiveness, improvisation, and ingenuity have partially compensated for some of these shortcomings.
|
From page 25... ...
There are also many 12Board on Natural Disasters, National Research Council, Reducing Disaster Losses Through Better Information, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1999.
|
From page 26... ...
Examples of the Kinds of Information Useful in Disaster Management The first applications of IT to disasters were in the form of voice communications. Advances since then have led to many additional forms of information that have been included in disaster management practices to varying degrees, including text, geospatial data, video, sensor data, and collections of these and other types of data in databases or other electronic forms.
|
From page 27... ...
The National Research Council study Reducing Disaster Losses Through Better Information catalogs a number of potential information sources (base data, scientific data, engineering data, economic data, environmental data, response data) and major types of information held and being gathered by federal agencies (e.g., base cartographic, land-use, seismic, hazardous site, demographic, aircraft route, river flow, and meteorological information)
|
From page 28... ...
Data are also needed to inform decision making at all levels and to help form a common operational picture. Relevant data include the following: • Human observations from direct response activities.
|
From page 29... ...
Dawes, Thomas Birkland, Giri Kumar Tayi, and Carrie A Schneider, Information, Technology, and Coordination: Lessons from the World Trade Center Response, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York, 2004; available at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/reports/ wtc_lessons/wtc_lessons.pdf.
|
From page 30... ...
The Internet offers the prospect of identifying and creating information resources dynamically from a wide variety of official and non-official sources. Tactical Versus Strategic Operations Tactical operations focus on the response operations in the affected area.
|
From page 31... ...
Organizational and social context comprises the goals, metrics, priorities, and beliefs of each organization involved, as well as those of "meta-organizations" such as an incident command structure or an emergency operations center that involves multiple organizations. It is concerned with the purpose, content, and partners in communication.
|
From page 32... ...
Indeed, as noted in the report summarizing a workshop convened as part of this project, better "human organization, willingness to cooperate, and a willingness of government at higher levels to listen to those at local levels who really do the work and who are the actual responders are all critical factors in making better use of information technology for disaster management."19 As a result, many inter 19See National Research Council, Summary of a Workshop on Using Information Technology to Enhance Disaster Management, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2005, p.
|
From page 33... ...
The vision encompasses six areas of IT-enabled capabilities identified by the committee as having particularly significant potential. Chapter 3 examines mechanisms for focusing IT research and development on disasters and disaster management in a way that reflects disaster research and the experience of practitioners.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.