Enabling Disaster Relief Supply Chain Visibility (SCV) and Supply Chain Coordination (SCC)

In disaster relief–humanitarian logistics (DRHL), supply chain visibility (SCV) and supply chain coordination (SCC) remain crucial to supply chain performance, when demand and lead times are volatile. Many DRHL solutions based on operations research or other such models in the literature, rely on SCV and SCC. However, there is a paucity of literature on how to enable SCV and SCC immediately after disasters strike. This paper proposes decentralised, peer–to–peer (P2P) systems architecture (SA) that augments existing information systems and communications networks in use. This architecture has additional capabilities that enable a ‘low cost version’ of SCV and SCC. By identifying antecedents and characteristics of agile and quick response supply chain and introducing them into DRHL, we lay the framework for enabling SCV and SCC in DRHL. Based on this completed research on the systems architecture and framework, this paper outlines briefly, an implementable version of an artefact for such deployment

Analysing the role of privacy impact assessments in technological development for crisis management

The ability to harness technology in crisis management has enabled an increase in wide-scale interagency collaboration. This development has occurred alongside a move to accumulate and analyse crowdsourced responses. Given the scale and the nature of the information accessed and collected, there is a pressing need to ensure that technology is developed in a way that protects the interests of end-users and stakeholders. Privacy impact assessments (PIAs) are increasingly used, in certain jurisdictions legally mandated, in projects to foresee risks to privacy and to plan strategies to avoid these. Once implemented, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation will, in certain circumstances, require the need for a PIA. This study focuses upon the PIA process in an EU-funded project with the aim of developing cloud-based disaster response technology. It introduces the project and then gives a background to the PIA process. Insights and observations are then made relating to how the PIA operates, with the aim of drawing conclusions that can both improve the current project and be transferable to other crisis management-focused projects