Bot-Based Emergency Software Applications for Natural Disaster Situations

Upon a serious emergency situation such as a natural disaster, people quickly try to call their friends and family with the software they use every day. On the other hand, people also tend to participate as a volunteer for rescue purposes. It is unlikely and impractical for these people to download and learn to use an application specially designed for aid processes. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of including bots, which provide a mechanism to get inside the software that people use daily, to develop emergency software applications designed to be used by victims and volunteers during stressful situations. In such situations, it is necessary to achieve efficiency, scalability, fault tolerance, elasticity, and mobility between data centers. We evaluate three bot-based applications. The first one, named Jayma, sends information about affected people during the natural disaster to a network of contacts. The second bot-based application, Ayni, manages and assigns tasks to volunteers. The third bot-based application named Rimay registers volunteers and manages campaigns and emergency tasks. The applications are built using common practice for distributed software architecture design. Most of the components forming the architecture are from existing public domain software, and some components are even consumed as an external service as in the case of Telegram. Moreover, the applications are executed on commodity hardware usually available from universities. We evaluate the applications to detect critical tasks, bottlenecks, and the most critical resource. Results show that Ayni and Rimay tend to saturate the CPU faster than other resources. Meanwhile, the RAM memory tends to reach the highest utilization level in the Jayma application.Fil: Ovando Leon, Gabriel. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; ChileFil: Veas Castillo, Luis. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; ChileFil: Gil Costa, Graciela Verónica. Universidad Nacional de San Luis; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Marin, Mauricio. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; Chil

Master of Science

thesisThe 2012 Great Utah Shakeout highlighted the necessity for increased coordination in the collection and sharing of spatial data related to disaster response during an event. Multiple agencies must quickly relay scientific and damage observations between teams in the field and command centers. Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework that directly supports information discovery and access and use of the data in decision making processes. An SDI contains five core components: policies, access networks, data handling facilities, standards, and human resources needed for the effective collection, management, access, delivery, and utilization of spatial data for a specific area. Implementation of an SDI will increase communication between agencies, field-based reconnaissance teams, first responders, and individuals in the event of a disaster. The increasing popularity of location-based mobile social networks has led to spatial data from these sources being used in the context of managing disaster response and recovery. Spatial data acquired from social networks, or Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI), could potentially contribute thousands of low-cost observations to aid in damage assessment and recovery efforts that may otherwise be unreported. The objective of this research is to design and develop an SDI to allow the incorporation of VGI, professional Geographic Information System (GIS) layers, a mobile application, and scientific reports to aid in the disaster management process. A secondary goal is to assess the utility of the resulting SDI. The end result of combining the three systems (e.g., SDE, a mobile application, and VGI), along with the network of relevant users, is an SDI that improves the volume, quality, currency, accuracy, and access to vital spatial and scientific information following a hazard event

ICTs and Public Health in the Context of COVID-19

The globe is currently gripped by the deadliest and most widespread pandemic it has faced in over a century. Confronted by accelerating death tolls and widespread fear, societies around the world have also been forced to acknowledge points of stress in their economic and social fabrics that had long gone overlooked. In the midst of this turmoil, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has played an essential role in facilitating the safe relief and treatment of affected populations. ICT has also shown itself to be essential both to bolstering long-term resiliency against future pandemics and to resolving the secondary challenges that emerge within a socially distanced environment. However, involving ICT in pandemic relief and prevention carries with it its own set of challenges involving transparency, accountability, and privacy. Governments which apply ICT must ensure that far-reaching crisis measures do not become permanently entrenched in society, and that measures which are taken are deemed fair, proportional and just

Applying the User-Centered Design approach for Prototyping the Interfaces of an Intelligent Emergency Management System

In today’s disaster management context, decision-making and information management is a crucial aspect, given the complexity of the tasks the decision-maker has, as well as the sheer influx of information coming in at any given time. As such there is a need to develop a system that can aid both the decision makers in the command post but can also collect the information gathered by the responders on the field. This system should also aid the decision maker by providing counselling according a set of rules, giving the system an intelligent aspect. Thusly THEMIS is born, an intelligent system to support decision making in crisis scenarios. As any given system must have an interface, the usability and user experience are a concern, but given the nature of crisis scenarios, this aspect of user interfaces becomes much more critical. It is in this context that this dissertation’s goal becomes clear: design and test the interface prototype of an emergency management intelligent system, following the User-Centered Design framework. With this goal in mind, the steps of the framework were followed, by beginning to understand the user, the context of use, resulting in understanding the user’s needs. From here, the system requirements emerged, and paper prototyping began. After validation with experts and possible users, the interfaces were prototyped digitally for both the desktop and mobile system applications. This was followed by usability tests, using the Cognitive Walkthrough method, the System Usability Score and the User Experience Questionnaire. In order to complement the testing phase, eye tracking data was gathered during the desktop version’s usability tests, which gave further insight about user behaviour. As such, it was concluded that prototypes scored highly both for usability and user experience, and there was an overall improvement on the various versions of both the desktop and mobile apps. The tests with eye tracking also allowed to identify a few issues that otherwise couldn’t be detected, namely key items the users were missing on the interfaces

Challenges in stakeholders self-organising to enhance disaster communication

Purpose - This paper combines disaster risk reduction (DRR) and communication management literature to investigate the challenges and opportunities encountered when stakeholders spontaneously self-organise communication efforts during a disaster. The 2017 Knysna Fire Disaster in South Africa is used as context. Research methodology - The qualitative, exploratory research was supported by data obtained through thematic analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews and the Facebook page created by the community. Information from the disaster debrief was also included. Findings - The findings suggest that disaster information needs to be sent every 30 seconds to a minute to coordinate rescue and relief efforts. The challenges for disaster management teams to manage this mammoth task and the role that the self-organising community played in assisting the communication process was found not to be recognised in disaster management policies or systems. This adversely affected the work of the disaster management team and stakeholder relationship. Research limitations - This study focussed on one disaster. Future studies could possibly compare various disaster examples to provide even greater insight into the self-organising communicative behaviour of those affected by disasters. Originality/value - The research gives one of the first clear indications of the scope of disaster communication needed during a disaster. It also highlights the community’s ability to contribute to communication management during a disaster, and which is not catered for in the practice, guidelines, or management systems used for disaster management

Characterizing Logistics Operations Within a Federal Staging Area for Hurricane Response: A Qualitative Analysis of Federal, State and Local Perspectives

A successful deployment of logistics operations following a disaster is a collective contribution of federal, state, and local entities to ascertain an efficient and effective response. This research analyzes data from interviews with disaster response logistics experts from these entities. The objective is to investigate the information sources and planning processes used in these organizations to plan vehicle routes for critical resource deliveries to impacted areas. Special attention is directed to the impacts of incomplete knowledge of infrastructure status, such as road disruptions due to debris or flooding. Supported by both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the study finds that incomplete knowledge of infrastructure status poses serious critical transportation risks such as delivery delays in disaster relief distribution. This research reveals both similarities and differences in logistical decision-making among these organization types and emphasizes the need for improved information sharing and coordination among emergency response organizations. The findings of this research are expected to guide future initiatives aimed at disaster relief routing thereby enhancing emergency response capabilities and outcomes

Characterizing Logistics Operations Within a Federal Staging Area for Hurricane Response: A Qualitative Analysis of Federal, State and Local Perspectives

A successful deployment of logistics operations following a disaster is a collective contribution of federal, state, and local entities to ascertain an efficient and effective response. This research analyzes data from interviews with disaster response logistics experts from these entities. The objective is to investigate the information sources and planning processes used in these organizations to plan vehicle routes for critical resource deliveries to impacted areas. Special attention is directed to the impacts of incomplete knowledge of infrastructure status, such as road disruptions due to debris or flooding. Supported by both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the study finds that incomplete knowledge of infrastructure status poses serious critical transportation risks such as delivery delays in disaster relief distribution. This research reveals both similarities and differences in logistical decision-making among these organization types and emphasizes the need for improved information sharing and coordination among emergency response organizations. The findings of this research are expected to guide future initiatives aimed at disaster relief routing thereby enhancing emergency response capabilities and outcomes

Disaster Response in Asia and the Pacific: A Guide to International Tools and Services

Disaster Response in Asia and the Pacific: A Guide to International Tools and Services is designed to help disaster managers in national Governments gain basic knowledge of how to use international tools and services.The guide is not prescriptive. It aims to support the growing disaster response and disaster response preparedness capabilities that exist at national level across Asia and the Pacific.The guide concentrates on key tools and services that can be helpful to disaster managers during the response and response preparedness phases of the disaster programme cycle. It does not include tools and services encompassed by disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts, nor does it cover longer-term disaster recovery instruments. The guide includes some entries relevant to conflict situations. It does not include tools or services that are being developed.The guide has three main sections: [I] International Humanitarian Architecture; [II] Tools and Services for Disaster Response; and [III] Tools and Services for Disaster Response Preparedness. The reverse chronological order of the guide - response before response preparedness - is intentional. It deliberately profiles tools and services for response before those for response preparedness to offer a better understanding of the utility of certain response preparedness activities and how they support response efforts.It has been produced in response to a call by UN Members States and other humanitarian stakeholders at the 2011 Regional Humanitarian Partnership Workshop for the AsiaPacific Region held in Shanghai, China for a handbook to guide disaster managers in understanding the interaction between national, regional and international humanitarian response mechanisms

Culture and disaster risk management - stakeholder attitudes during Stakeholder Assembly in Rome, Italy

This report provides a summary of the topics discussed and the results of the CARISMAND Second Stakeholder Assembly conducted in Rome, Italy on 27-28 February 2017. In order to promote cross-sectional knowledge transfer, as in the CARISMAND First Stakeholder Assembly held in Romania in the previous year, the audience consisted of a wide range of practitioners that are typically involved in disaster management, e.g., civil protection, the emergency services, paramedics, nurses, environmental protection, Red Cross, fire-fighters, military, the police, and other non-governmental organisations. Further, these practitioners were from several regions in Italy, e.g., Rome and Lazio, Toscana, Emilia-Romagna, and Valle D’Aosta. The participants, who varied between 40 and 60, were recruited via invitations sent to various Italian organisations and institutions (at the national, regional and local levels), and via direct contacts of the Protezione Civile Comune di Firenze who are one of the Italian partners in the CARISMAND Consortium. The event consisted of a mix of presentations, working groups, and panel discussions for these participating practitioners, in order to combine dissemination with information gathering (for the detailed schedule/programme please see Appendix 1). After an initial general assembly where the CARISMAND project and its main goals were presented, the participants of the Stakeholder Assembly were split into small groups in separate breakout rooms, where over the course of the two days they discussed the following topics: 1) Working Group 1. “Culture & Risk”: Practical Experience of Cultural Aspects Disaster Communication between Practitioners and Citizens; 2) Working Group 2. “Media Culture & Disasters”: The Use of Social Media and Mobile Phone Applications in Disasters; 3) Working Groups 3. “Social Cohesion & Social Corrosion”: Cultures, Communities, and Trust. After each working group session, panel discussions allowed the participants to present the results of their working group to the rest of the audience. After each panel discussion, keynote speakers gave presentations related to the respective working group’s topic. This time schedule was designed to ensure that participants are provided with detailed information about recent developments in disaster management, e.g. related to the use of mobile phone apps and social media, but without influencing their attitudes and perceptions expressed in the working groups. The main focus of the working groups was the relationships between culture and risk/disaster communication, the role of social media and smartphone apps, and trust between citizens and disaster managers and/or authorities. These topics, and the questions discussed within each working group, were chosen: following the findings of the CARISMAND First Stakeholder Assembly held in Bucharest, in particular regarding the disconnection between citizens’ risk perception and cultural factors in disasters; 1) the results of the CARISMAND First and Second Citizen Summits held in Bucharest and Malta respectively, specifically taking up the participants’ suggestions regarding vulnerable groups and groups that are seen to be potentially helpful in disaster situations; 2) the results of Work Package 3 ‘Cultural Factors and Technologies’, in particular regarding the increasing interest in mobile phone apps compared to social media usage; 3) the literature review provided in Work Package 4 ‘Risk Perception and Risk Cultures’, particularly regarding the ambivalent of role of trust in disaster preparedness, response and recovery; 4) the preliminary findings of Work Package 7 ‘Citizens Empowerment’, in respect to community cohesion and specific opportunities for citizen empowerment; and 5) topics highlighted in Work Package 8 ‘Risk Communication and the Role of the Media in Risk Communication’ regarding disaster communication practices (particularly in connection with social media/apps usage as identified in Work Package 3 ‘Cultural Factors and Technologies’). These topics were also chosen in order to provide a sound basis for the next round of CARISMAND events (Third and Fourth CARISMAND Citizen Summits held, later, in Rome and Frankfurt in June 2017), i.e. exploring issues of risk perception and culture in the context of disasters at the very point, where practitioners and citizens interact. The location of the Second Stakeholder Assembly was selected to make use of the extensive local professional network of the Protezione Civile, but also due to Italy being a location where various “types” of hazards are prevalent, and disasters were occurred in the very recent past. All documents related to the Working Groups, i.e. discussion guidelines and consent forms, were translated into Italian. Accordingly, all presentations as well as the group discussions were held in Italian, aiming to avoid any language/education-related access restrictions, and allowing participating practitioners to respond intuitively and discuss freely in their native language. For this purpose, researchers from the Laboratory of Sciences Citizenship in Rome, one of the CARISMAND Consortium members, were used as Working Group moderators, alongside simultaneous interpreters and professional local moderators contracted via a local market research agency (RFR International), who also provided the transcripts and translations into English for all Working Group discussions. It is important to note that the discussions within these working groups reflect the participants’ perceptions and may or may not reflect the realities of how communication actually occurs in disaster situations.The project was co-funded by the European Commission within the Horizon2020 Programme (2014-2020).peer-reviewe