208 research outputs found
An Online Decision-Theoretic Pipeline for Responder Dispatch
The problem of dispatching emergency responders to service traffic accidents,
fire, distress calls and crimes plagues urban areas across the globe. While
such problems have been extensively looked at, most approaches are offline.
Such methodologies fail to capture the dynamically changing environments under
which critical emergency response occurs, and therefore, fail to be implemented
in practice. Any holistic approach towards creating a pipeline for effective
emergency response must also look at other challenges that it subsumes -
predicting when and where incidents happen and understanding the changing
environmental dynamics. We describe a system that collectively deals with all
these problems in an online manner, meaning that the models get updated with
streaming data sources. We highlight why such an approach is crucial to the
effectiveness of emergency response, and present an algorithmic framework that
can compute promising actions for a given decision-theoretic model for
responder dispatch. We argue that carefully crafted heuristic measures can
balance the trade-off between computational time and the quality of solutions
achieved and highlight why such an approach is more scalable and tractable than
traditional approaches. We also present an online mechanism for incident
prediction, as well as an approach based on recurrent neural networks for
learning and predicting environmental features that affect responder dispatch.
We compare our methodology with prior state-of-the-art and existing dispatch
strategies in the field, which show that our approach results in a reduction in
response time with a drastic reduction in computational time.Comment: Appeared in ICCPS 201
Artificial Intelligence for Emergency Response
Emergency response management (ERM) is a challenge faced by communities
across the globe. First responders must respond to various incidents, such as
fires, traffic accidents, and medical emergencies. They must respond quickly to
incidents to minimize the risk to human life. Consequently, considerable
attention has been devoted to studying emergency incidents and response in the
last several decades. In particular, data-driven models help reduce human and
financial loss and improve design codes, traffic regulations, and safety
measures. This tutorial paper explores four sub-problems within emergency
response: incident prediction, incident detection, resource allocation, and
resource dispatch. We aim to present mathematical formulations for these
problems and broad frameworks for each problem. We also share open-source
(synthetic) data from a large metropolitan area in the USA for future work on
data-driven emergency response.Comment: This is a pre-print for a book chapter to appear in Vorobeychik,
Yevgeniy., and Mukhopadhyay, Ayan., (Eds.). (2023). \textit{Artificial
Intelligence and Society}. ACM Pres
Promoting Resiliency in Emergency Communication Networks: A Network Interdiction Modeling Approach
Emergency communication networks provide the basis for preparing for, and responding to, manmade and natural disasters. With the increasing importance of information security, emergency network operators such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local and national governmental agencies, and traditional network operators must deal with the possibility of sabotage and hacking of such networks. A network interdiction modeling approach is proposed that can be utilized for planning purposes in order to identify and protect critical parts of the network infrastructure. These critical nodes or links represent opportunities where investment or hardening of such infrastructure may reduce or prevent reductions in network traffic flows created by nefarious actors prior, during, or after an emergency or disaster
A systematic literature review on information systems for disaster management and proposals for its future research agenda
Emergency management information systems (EMIS) are fundamental for responding to disasters effectively since they provide and process emergency-related information. A literature stream has emerged that corresponds with the increased relevance of the wide array of different information systems that have been used in response to disasters. In addition, the discussion around systems used primarily within responder organizations broadened to systems such as social media that are open to the general public. However, a systematic review of the EMIS literature stream is still missing. This literature review presents a timeline of EMIS research from 1990 up to 2021. It shows the types of information system scholars focused on, and what disaster response functions they supported. It furthermore identifies challenges in EMIS research and proposes future research directions
An Empirical Examination of IT-Enabled Emergency Response: The Cases of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita
This paper reports the results of an empirical study that analyzes emergency incident response. The paper studies how information systems (IS) complement other organizational assets to help emergency responders achieve satisfactory response performance. We test the research model using empirical data collected from responses to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. The results show that IS-enabled asset allocation support directly improves emergency response performance and also positively interacts with non-IS response assets in achieving response success. The results also confirm the value of dispatch systems, interagency communications, and knowledge repositories in developing asset allocation support for an emergency response organization
Risk management in Norwegian avalanche rescue operations. Managing uncertainty, complexity, overcommitment and the long-term monitoring of accident risk
PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyIntroduction: Avalanche incidents commonly take place in adverse environmental conditions, and the expected survival time of avalanche victims is short. These situations require an immediate rescue response, which may pose a serious challenge to the safety of both rescuers and avalanche victims. Historically, the Norwegian rescue service has experienced few serious accidents, but undesirable incidents where rescuers are dangerously exposed in avalanche runout zones seem more frequent. Risk management in the avalanche rescue service is multifaceted, influenced by its multi-organizational structure. Individuals acting in this socio-technical rescue system are easily caught between two imperatives: saving lives and staying alive. The aim of risk management is to maintain equilibrium in rescue commitment. This project analysed whether the Norwegian avalanche rescue system is correctly balanced to withstand the extra load of common risk influencing factors in rescue operations.
Aim: The fundamental aim of this thesis was to contribute to new knowledge on factors that are important for risk management and performance in the Norwegian avalanche rescue service.
Methods: Mixed methods research was applied to answer the specific research questions. This implied multiple research activities in a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Study number 1 was a retrospective study to characterize Norwegian avalanche incidents and rescue response (Paper I). A comprehensive study comprising avalanche rescue statistics, cross-case analysis, factor analysis and risk modelling was conducted to gain insight into avalanche rescue performance (Paper II). In a phenomenological study to explore the concept of overcommitment, nine air ambulance crews from five bases took part in focus group interviews (Papers III and IV). Lastly, a systemic safety analysis was conducted in two separate seminars, supported by the insight of six experts in Norwegian avalanche rescue operations (Paper V). The thesis itself is a cross-paper synthesis of results.
Results: The studies returned results which contribute to justified beliefs about patient and rescuer safety in Norwegian avalanche rescue operations.
Conclusion: A synthesis of results from the various studies indicates that the Norwegian rescue service is vulnerable to common risk sources in rescue operations, affecting the safety of both rescuers and patients. The avalanche rescue system could benefit from a focus on the integrity of already established safety barriers. This implies an interorganizational effort to identify and reach common goals and system requirements. This thesis may serve as input to discussions on risk acceptance levels in the rescue service, the applicability and validity of control algorithms in rescue management and how to adjust the degree of commitment in various rescue missions
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