Emergency Management Community Research Articles

CAS Theory Perspective of Community Emergency Management Factors and Coping Strategies

With the rapid development of community culture and economy, people pay more attention to the frequent occurrence of community accidents. In order to protect the life and property safety of community residents and establish a safe and harmonious community, how to carry out rapid and effective emergency management of community accidents has become the focus of every community manager must think. Based on the theory of complex adaptive system, this paper discusses how to form the characteristic emergency management system for community by taking the gas explosion of Shenyang hotel as an example. The results show that in the community emergency management, in addition to the four management elements of human, material, environment and system, a dual emergency mode should be established with the community emergency response team as the leader and the fire medical support force to improve the emergency handling and response capacity of community accidents, and effectively reduce the loss of life and property of residents.

Flood Markup Language – A standards-based exchange language for flood risk communication

Floods are one of the most frequently occurring natural disasters. There are numerous studies devoted to comprehending and forecasting flooding in order to aid in preparedness and response. It is critical to share and communicate datasets generated by various systems and organizations for flood forecasting and modeling. The majority of organizations share limited metadata and details for flood risk data to support research and operational activities. However, there is no standardized way for various stakeholders and automated systems to exchange flood forecast and alert data. This article proposes the Flood Markup Language (FloodML) as a data communication specification for extensively describing and exchanging flood forecasts and alerts with corresponding stakeholders. FloodML is applicable to a broad range of data sharing use cases and requirements for emergency management, the research and modeling communities, and the general public.

Study of Urban Community Emergency Management in Huizhou, China

This paper focuses on the study of urban community emergency management in Huizhou, China. An index system for urban community emergency management evaluation which has two levels is established in the study. The index system consists of six primary indicators and twenty-two secondary indicators. The weights of the indicators are determined by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The established evaluation system is used to evaluate the emergency management ability of a community called Xuefu Community in Huizhou, China. Purpose sampling is used in the evaluation. A questionnaire with twenty-three questions is designed and all community staff are invited to answer the questionnaire. Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation method is adopted to calculate the scores and resulted are analysed. Suggestions are given to the Xuefu Community and local government based on the analysis.

Storms of a feather tweet together: An exploratory study examining Houston-area emergency management communication on Twitter in Hurricane Harvey.

The 2017 hurricane season was particularly troublesome in the Atlantic Ocean Basin. Two storms in particu-lar-Hurricanes Harvey and Irma-severely affected the southeastern United States and Gulf Coast, causing over $175 billion in damage and killing over 200 people. This study seeks to examine Twitter content that emerged from a Houston-area emergency management account during Hurricane Harvey. Specific emphasis is placed on the quantity of emergency management retweets, linguistic characteristics and similarities, and the emergence of opinion leaders in this disaster discussion. Results are discussed with respect to future risk communication in weather events, in addition to comparing with other recent disasters.

Challenges for the disaster workforce during a compound hurricane-pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new workforce considerations for emergency management community in addressing cumulative and cascading disasters. This research identifies how emergency management planning for both the changing dynamics of COVID-19 and the upcoming hurricane season may change under a compound threat. Many jurisdictions have faced challenges in providing adequate staffing of shelters before the pandemic. Now, fatigue among staff further exacerbates these challenges as resources are stretched thin. Six workshops, involving 265 national, state, and local leaders, staff, experts, and advocates from 22 states, and a range of disciplines (disaster planning, public health, social services, academia, and healthcare), were convened to identify concerns and potential strategies to address staffing, training, logistics, and support. Strategies proposed to increase the number and skill set of staff available involve increased reliance upon volunteers and nonprofit organizations. Mental health resources, personal protective equipment, sanitation supplies, and defining roles within emergency shelters were recommended to reduce fatigue and redistribute responsibilities. Findings illuminate additional research avenues regarding assessing the underlying stressors contributing to the planning process and effective means of implementing these interventions to bolster emergency management shelter operations during a prolonged pandemic and in the future.

Research status and hotspot analysis of literature metrology in artificial intelligence field

It is of great significance to describe the innovation track of emergency management digital research through metrology for better grasping the theoretical system and subject frontier, and promoting the practice of emergency management digital. In this paper, artificial intelligence (AI) papers published in the world from 2010 to 2019 in the SCI database of Web of Science are taken as the research object to explore the influence of countries in the field of AI research and the current hot areas, so as to provide data support and decision-making reference for AI policy making. It is found that in the process of the development of the digitalization of emergency management from scratch, a novel and complete research system has been formed, which takes the digitalization of emergency management technology as the core and takes the digitalization of emergency management organization, the digitalization of emergency management environment and the digitalization of emergency management objects as the foundation. Further studies have found that digital frontier including emergency management in large data, mobile Internet, Internet of things, technology innovation, and AI as the representative of volunteers to digital citizens in emergency management, digital and digital community, represented by the main body of innovation, and to no one digital dynamic emergency management and the digitization of emergency management as a representative of management innovation. Finally, the study concludes that the digital integration of emergency management consists of two parts: risk information and emergency response.

The new normal: A catalyst for leadership adaptation in a tumultuous world-Let's stop applying 20th century solutions to 21st century problems in emergency management.

The COVID-19 Pandemic continues to be one of the most formidable public health challenges in modern history. Amidst the backdrop of new variants of the SARS CoV-2 virus, the pandemic that everyone thought would be over in a year shows little signs of abatement. Concurrently, the emergency management community globally have responded to an unprecedented number of crisis events. From March 2020 to September 2021, there have been sizeable disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes and tropical storms, earthquakes, and flooding. In addition, cyberattacks and terrorist activity have required additional manpower, management resources, and both the talent and funding to adequately study and train differently than we have to date.

Evaluation of emergency management capability of urban community based on entropy weight and multi-layer fuzzy

At present, various public emergencies occur frequently around the world, and the world has entered the stage of a “high-risk society”. Urban community as the carrier of all kinds of public emergencies, its role has become increasingly prominent and become the focus of the current research, but in the urban community emergency management capacity evaluation system, the related studies are still less. To more effectively identify the key internal and external factors that affect the emergency management ability of the urban community, and evaluate scientifically and effectively, on the basis of the existing studies, the evaluation index system of community emergency management capability was established according to the emergency management cycle theory. In view of the complexity and fuzziness of the emergency management capability of the urban community, a multi-layer fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model based on entropy weight was established, and the emergency management capability evaluation of community was carried out under the background of the public emergency event of COVID-19 epidemic. The results show that the evaluation results and improvement suggestions of the multi-layer fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model based on entropy weight are consistent with the actual situation, indicating that the index system and the selected method are reasonable and effective. This study provides a new decision-making idea and method for the evaluation of urban community emergency management capability, and has high application value.

Why CJEM?


 
 In today’s turbulent, complex, and uncertain environment it’s necessary for disaster and emergency management communities to be able to prevail against disruption and change just over the horizon. This requires us to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
 

Improving Communication for Older Adults During Disaster Events

Management of any disaster event (i.e., hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, viral pandemic) is a complicated task. An important and frequently overlooked aspect of efficient disaster response is effective information exchange among emergency managers, aging and social service providers, and those impacted by the disaster. Breakdowns in communication are regularly cited as failures in actual emergency situations. Older adults have unique challenges to effective communication during a disaster event. Further, messaging platforms may be inaccessible to older adults. Given the lack of data collected on the role of effective communication for older adults in a disaster event, we developed this symposium to highlight lessons learned for facilitating disaster communication among older community members and discuss how policy can further disaster communication efforts. The first presentation highlights the advantages of using targeted marketing communication channels to encourage older adults to prepare and recover from a disaster, as well as the value of collaborative partnerships in this communication. The second presentation introduces results from research collected from older adults on their use of social media to stay informed before and after Hurricane Matthew. The third presentation explores whether assisted living communities in Florida’s affected counties evacuated or sheltered in place in the context of emergency management communications concerning evacuation. The fourth presentation highlights the experiences of older persons in Houston’s communication post-Hurricane Harvey from an aging service provider’s perspective. The final presentation discusses disaster literacy and how this model can be used to enhance outcomes at all phases of a disaster. Disasters and Older Adults Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

Evacuation or Shelter in Place in Assisted Living: Adherence to Emergency Evacuation Orders for Hurricane Dorian

Hurricane Dorian devastated parts of the Bahamas in 2019 with 185-mph winds. As it moved toward Florida, the state went on alert. This paper examines whether assisted living communities (ALCs) in affected counties evacuated or sheltered in place in the context of emergency management communications concerning evacuation. In 16 coastal counties, 66 ALCs were under mandatory evacuation orders, but 12 sheltered in place. Of 603 ALCs not under orders, 17 evacuated. Seven ALCs evacuated contrary to orders in one county, which issued a mandatory order Sept. 1, delayed it to Sept. 2 as Dorian weakened, and lifted it Sept. 4. Interviews with ALC administrators and emergency managers will be used to understand more about their decisions. Given prior findings that evacuation (versus sheltering in place) increases the mortality and morbidity risk of long-term care (LTC) residents, this research suggests a need for clearer LTC evacuation standards and communication. Part of a symposium sponsored by Disasters and Older Adults Interest Group.

Disaster communication ecology in multiethnic communities: Understanding disaster coping and community resilience from a communication resource approach

ABSTRACT The challenge for multiethnic communities to recover from disasters is well noted. Yet, research on which types of resources can help communities recuperate remains scarce. The current study explores how community-level communication resources—including interpersonal connections, local media storytelling, community-based organizations, and official emergency management communication—may function as a resource network for residents from diverse backgrounds to navigate the strenuous process of post-disaster recovery. Results based on a community survey confirm the positive link between disaster communication ecology and individuals’ disaster-coping outcomes. Findings further identify ethnicity-based divergence where certain communication resources play a more important role than others.

Community risk governance research review at home and abroad

Community safety is related to everyone. This article first analyzes the related concepts of community risk and understands the specific differences. Then by summarizing the current situation of community risk and emergency management at home and abroad, and comparing the research status at home and abroad, we can get the characteristics of community emergency management in China.

MCDA handling uncertainties

Work package 6 (WP) of the European project CONFIDENCE focussed on decision support for stakeholders in nuclear emergencies especially considering uncertainties in such scenarios. A well-suited method for collaborative decision support is the Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). It provides a transparent approach for choosing a suitable strategy from a pool of strategies taking into account the different preferences of the involved stakeholders. One goal of WP 6 was to provide this method as a software tool to the nuclear emergency management community. However a default MCDA is not capable of handling uncertainties as input parameters. We embedded an existing MCDA tool in an ensemble evaluation framework to overcome this limitation and to process probabilistic input parameters. Within this framework random deterministic MCDAs are generated from the probabilistic MCDA and their results are combined into a single result reflecting this uncertainty. The enhanced MCDA tool provides user interfaces for defining probabilistic input parameters for impact values and criteria weights, as well as graphical components to communicate the results to the stakeholders. The tool was presented in several workshops to the potential stakeholders where it was applied to fictitious scenarios. The feedback was used to improve the tool in several iterations.

Emergency management communication: The paradox of the positive in public communication for preparedness

Government emergency management agencies use public communication to inform and educate around risks such as floods, fires, storms, and earthquakes with the aim to help communities understand how to prepare for these emergency events. This study of government communication relating to emergency management preparedness examines an Australian context to understand the types of messages preparing community members for natural hazards. Findings suggest that agencies employ a two-track approach combining warranting and engagement messages. Yet a deeper look at the messages suggests a “paradox of the positive” that overemphasizes the capacity of local agencies to respond to crises and underemphasizes citizen shared responsibility. Implications for the paradox of the positive in other national contexts and public relations theory building are also discussed.

Turning mismanaged crisis into opportunity: Developing a municipal emergency communication plan for Puerto Rico

Three years after Hurricane Maria, rural municipalities of Puerto Rico find themselves as vulnerable as before the category 4 storm dwindled the Island’s resources. The town of Aguas Buenas is among the rural municipalities struggling to prepare for the next natural disaster. This pilot study provides a plan for activating the community with the purpose of forming the first community emergency management team (CEMT) in coordination with local officials. Through in-depth interviews with the people living in Aguas Buenas, the study presents a situation analysis followed by recommendations on how to train the community leaders and turn the crisis into an opportunity for collaborative engagement.

Developing community disaster resilience through preparedness

Disasters have the potential to cause great devastation, such as significant human, material and environmental loss. Due to the increase in disaster frequency and impacts, there has been a shift in focus from disaster recovery and response to disaster prevention. Preventative disaster management is essential in reducing and eliminating community disaster risk exposure. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of three past events including the 2011 Queensland floods, the Harrietville Community Emergency Management Plan and the Christchurch and Japan earthquakes. By combining the existing literature, secondary qualitative data analysis, a conceptual model of disaster management has been developed. The findings of this research include; the development of a conceptual model that present new concepts to improve the community resilience capabilities; identification of effective methodologies for developing community resilience; the potential implementation of social media as a preparedness strategy; and discussion on community empowerment and a shared responsibility amongst all agencies.

Using the National Weather Service’s impact-based decision support services to prepare for extreme winter storms

In recent years, the National Weather Service (NWS) increased its focus on providing decision support services to the emergency management community and other core partners to help them understand its forecasts and take appropriate actions in the face of upcoming extreme events. In 2011, the Weather-Ready Nation Strategic Plan began to formalize the NWS approach to impact-based decision support services (IDSS). NWS recognizes IDSS as a primary service and is working to fully and more effectively provide it to federal, state, local, and tribal decision-makers. To do so, it is important that NWS understands how users are benefiting from existing IDSS, even as they look to improve it. This article aims to provide emergency managers (EMs) with an understanding of the efficacy of IDSS. The authors define IDSS and describe the IDSS products and services available during each stage of the emergency-management cycle: preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. To demonstrate the role of IDSS for the emergency management community, the authors use a case study analysis to compare two winter storms in the New York City area with similar characteristics but differing in their implementation of IDSS: the December 2010 winter storm (no formal IDSS) and the January 2016 winter storm (formal IDSS). In comparing the winter storm case studies, the authors find that formal IDSS provides EMs and other core partners with accurate, actionable, and consistent weather information and support that allows them to respond to winter storms in a way that reduces impacts to lives and livelihoods.

Generating evacuation task plans for community typhoon emergencies: an integration of case-driven and model-driven approaches

In community emergency management, it is crucial to generate evacuation task plans (ETPs) to help reduce risks in complex disaster situations. Case-driven and model-driven approaches have their respective advantages in generating ETPs, which can complement each other. With case-driven approach, historical experience can be fully used to establish the relationship between typhoon scenarios and historical ETPs. Through model-driven approach, the continuity of ETPs can be guaranteed when required information to operate the plans is missing. This study aims at proposing an integrated approach that can combine the benefits of both case-driven approaches and model-driven approaches. Based on the structural modeling of evacuation tasks, this paper proposes an integrated approach to generate ETPs for community typhoon emergencies. Finally, a case that is based on actual problems is provided to verify the reasonability and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The next generation core competencies for emergency management.

The Next Generation Core Competencies (NGCC) guide the professional development of future emergency managers. Once familiar roles are evolving as the world grows more interdependent; at the same time, disaster risk factors are intensified by the changing interactions between the social, built, and physical environments. The updated edition of emergency management core competencies is particularly important for refining the trajectory of the emergency management discipline and developing capacities requisite to reducing disaster risk and building resilient communities in the midst of a turbulent, complex, and uncertain future. The NGCC project was a multiphase study conducted by a FEMA-sponsored focus group. Oriented toward future needs, the competencies have been built on the current emergency management competencies, a review of related competencies and global risk trends, a multiphase Delphi study, and wider emergency management community listening sessions. Behavioral anchors and key actions for measurement accompany the new core competencies. The overarching goal of the work is to establish the next generation emergency management core competencies, which are likely to underpin the emergency management workforce of 2030 and beyond. The 13 core competencies fall into three nested categories that are interrelated, but have attributes that build the individual, the practitioner, or relationships.