Event-Cloud Platform to Support Decision- Making in Emergency Management

The challenge of this paper is to underline the capability of an Event-Cloud Platform to support efficiently an emergency situation. We chose to focus on a nuclear crisis use case. The proposed approach consists in modeling the business processes of crisis response on the one hand, and in supporting the orchestration and execution of these processes by using an Event-Cloud Platform on the other hand. This paper shows how the use of Event-Cloud techniques can support crisis management stakeholders by automatizing non-value added tasks and by directing decision- makers on what really requires their capabilities of choice. If Event-Cloud technology is a very interesting and topical subject, very few research works have considered this to improve emergency management. This paper tries to fill this gap by considering and applying these technologies on a nuclear crisis use-case

Internet of things

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Digital Earth was born with the aim of replicating the real world within the digital world. Many efforts have been made to observe and sense the Earth, both from space (remote sensing) and by using in situ sensors. Focusing on the latter, advances in Digital Earth have established vital bridges to exploit these sensors and their networks by taking location as a key element. The current era of connectivity envisions that everything is connected to everything. The concept of the Internet of Things(IoT)emergedasaholisticproposaltoenableanecosystemofvaried,heterogeneous networked objects and devices to speak to and interact with each other. To make the IoT ecosystem a reality, it is necessary to understand the electronic components, communication protocols, real-time analysis techniques, and the location of the objects and devices. The IoT ecosystem and the Digital Earth (DE) jointly form interrelated infrastructures for addressing today’s pressing issues and complex challenges. In this chapter, we explore the synergies and frictions in establishing an efficient and permanent collaboration between the two infrastructures, in order to adequately address multidisciplinary and increasingly complex real-world problems. Although there are still some pending issues, the identified synergies generate optimism for a true collaboration between the Internet of Things and the Digital Earth

Why tracing a locality's networked governance is worthwhile

The transition from government to governance brings about a shift in performance evaluation. The focus can no longer be on an individual entity, but must extend into considering how a collective of government and non-government institutions achieves the outcomes sought. How can this evaluation task proceed? While applying the formal methods of social network analysis (SNA) to measuring, analysing and managing networked governance may seem obvious to some, such a solution seems to have been avoided over many decades. SNA tools that non-experts can use have been released in recent past, providing opportunities in learning-by-doing among practitioners and scholars with responsibilities or interests in public sector management. The overarching aim in this paper is to promote adoption of an open-source software tool - NodeXL - as one pathway toward understanding and improving networked governance situations, and toward communicating results to others. It begins by establishing three areas of information needs held by Australia's local governments, where undertaking a pilot study could be useful. They are, local government's real positioning with other decision-makers in the networked governance that is Australian federalism; world better practice in risk governance, given the significant exposure of Australian councils to natural disaster events; and measuring change over time in governance capital, as a component in the capitals approach to measuring sustainable development. Establishing functional and spatial boundaries was a key step in design, with the choice being environment protection and natural resources management in the 350km2 catchment area of the Wonboyn Lake estuary on the far south coast of New South Wales. A Web search of documents containing the terms 'Wonboyn Lake' or 'Wonboyn River' then followed. One hundred and twenty nine documents were retrieved. Analysing their contents led to identifying over two hundred institutional actors either transmitting or receiving knowledge relevant to the locality. Some 420 communications taking place between 1967 and 2011 were identified, and tagged according to year of transmission. The decision-making level within which each institutional actor operated; and whether industry, regulator, external researcher or stakeholder were other characteristics recorded. A 421 x 2 matrix of Wonboyn data was then pasted into the NodeXL template operating on MS Excel 2007/2010. Resource materials downloaded from the Web supported the learning-by-doing element of the pilot study. Four visualisations on networked environmental governance are provided. The first shows unmodified data as a graph in random layout. Its purpose is to provide a benchmark against which some of the SNA procedures available for analysing data can be compared. Then follow three graph layouts, each designed to meet the areas of information need established at the study's beginning. Results suggest, in the author's opinion, any time invested in learning-by-doing with NodeXL will reward those wishing to understand, manage and communicate the complexity that is networked governance. Suggestions on how the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government, and practitioners in local councils, could be early adopters of this innovation by using data already available to them are offered, so that they may undertake similar pilot studies

Towards a Common Language of Infrastructure Interdependency

Infrastructure systems can exist interdependently with one another either by design, necessity or evolution. There is evidence that interdependencies can be the source of emergent benefits and hazards, and therefore there is value in their identification and management. Achieving this requires collaboration and communication between infrastructure stakeholders across all relevant sectors. Recognising, developing and sharing multiple understandings of infrastructure interdependency and dependency will facilitate a wide range of multi-disciplinary and cross-sectorial work and support productive stakeholder dialogues. This paper therefore aims to initiate discussion around the nature of infrastructure interdependency and dependency in order to establish the basis of a useful, coherent and complete conceptual taxonomy. It sets out an approach for locating this taxonomy and language within a framework of commonplace stakeholder viewpoints. The paper looks at the potential structural arrangements of infrastructure interdependencies before exploring the qualitative ways in which the relationships can be characterised. This builds on the existing body of knowledge as well as experience through case studies in developing an Interdependency Planning and Management Framework for Infrastructure

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2011

Highlights examples of preparedness programs and capacities at risk of federal budget cuts or elimination, examines state and local public health budget cuts, reviews ten years of progress and shortfalls, and outlines policy issues and recommendations