Crisis Management Information Systems Research Articles

Agile ethics: an iterative and flexible approach to assessing ethical, legal and social issues in the agile development of crisis management information systems

This paper reassess the evaluation of ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) in relation to the agile development of information systems in the domain of crisis management. The authors analyse the differing assessment needs of a move from a traditional approach to the development of information systems to an agile approach, which offers flexibility, adaptability and responds to the needs of users as the system develops. In turn, the authors argue that this development requires greater flexibility and an iterative approach to assessing ELSI. The authors provide an example from the Horizon 2020 EU-funded project iTRACK (Integrated system for real-time TRACKing and collective intelligence in civilian humanitarian missions) to exemplify this move to an iterative approach in practice, drawing on the process of undertaking an ethical and privacy impact assessment for the purpose of this project.

The analysis of crisis management information system in the selected states

This paper focuses on crisis management information systems in the selected states. The aim of this article is to analyse the selected information systems and prepare a comparison of them. The first part of the article deals with the concept of crisis management information systems in different countries. Secondly, the paper deals with the idea of crisis management information systems in different countries. Thirdly, the article deals with information systems of crisis management in the Czech Republic. These systems are further solved using a suitably chosen method. Fourthly, the paper deals with information systems in three selected countries abroad. These states were intentionally selected according to their type and according to the diversity of territories and threatening events in these states. Next part describes the suitably chosen methods of work. Heuristic usability analyses are among the most significant. This analysis is focused on detecting the strengths and weaknesses of tested systems. The following chapter aims to introduce the results of the tested crisis management information systems. The last section summarizes the entire paper and suggests solutions for these systems.

Assessment of emergency supply of healthcare facilities as a module of the crisis management information system

This paper focuses on assessing the crisis preparedness of healthcare facilities as a new module of crisis management information systems. The crisis is widespread around the world, and it is essential that the medical facility is ready. The first part of the thesis deals with the introduction to the given issue and the crisis preparedness of the population. The second part of the paper deals with the analysis of extraordinary events and crisis situations around the world. The impact of emergencies on healthcare facilities is described in this part. The third part of the thesis deals with the emergency survival of the population. The following part describes the methods used in this research. The heuristic analysis of preparedness is one of the most valuable methods. The next section presents the results of the work according to the chosen method. In this section, we will find the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluated medical facilities. At the end of the thesis is proposed a new module for evaluation of medical facilities. This module can be applied as part of crisis management information systems.

The Use of Crisis Management Information Systems In Rescue Operations of Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic

The article deals with the use of crisis management information systems in rescue and disposal operations of Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic. The first part of the article defines the selected information systems. Furthermore, the systems are closely specified and their main use in rescue and disposal operations of Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic is described. The second part of the article deals with the heuristic and comparative analysis of the selected information system. All findings are evaluated in the final part.

Learning crisis management information system from open crisis data using hybrid soft computing

Crisis management is being dealt extensively with reliable data sources that are being collected continuously by na- tional and local authorities. These open data creating a radical opportunity for the successful prediction of crisis. At the same time, it poses some challenges to the researchers for its heterogeneity, real time and massive data. Recently, soft computing based data mining plays a very vital role as a source of innovation in crisis information management, in obtaining more valuable information. In this paper, we propose to use neural network based forecasting for obtaining post crisis scenario. Further, we use hybrid soft computing methodologies by combining attribute selection with PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization), GA (Ge- netic Algorithm) and EA (Evolutionary Algorithm); hybrid classification by fuzzy-rough VQNN (Vaguely Quantified Nearest Neighbor) and MLP (Multilayer perceptron neural network). We use three open datasets such as: rival crisis, dyadic and global terrorism data collected from World Bank for our experimentation. Finally, we conclude with encouraging results obtained from EA based VQMLP that provides best prediction in terms of various performance measures considered, for all crisis scenarios which will help us in understanding to take future course of action in such a situation.

Designing for Networked Community Resilience

Communities have been described to be at the heart of the preparedness for and the response to disasters. The increasing connectedness has made communities more vulnerable for their dependence on a complex network of critical infrastructures. At the same time, this very connectedness has the potential to enable communities to self-organise, engage, and connect with other communities to improve their resilience. While the pathway to more resilience is promising and has many advocates, the response to crises and disasters, time and again reveals the challenges related to (i) ad-hoc switching from preparedness to response; (ii) ad-hoc connecting professional responders, communities, volunteers, and local authorities; and (iii) designing systems and tools that are tailored such that the feedback from local communities can be taken into account for coordination and planning. Therefore, a paradigm shift is needed in designing crisis and disaster management information systems linking ad-hoc response to longer-term planning, in which networks of communities are at the core of the process. This paper sets out to provide a critical review on community-resilience literature. From there, it develops a research design principles for information systems to improve community resilience.

Evaluating Design Principles for Temporality in Information Technology for Crisis Management

This work evaluates a set of design principles for temporality in crisis management information systems by reflecting on the design principles based on two national crisis management information systems. Interviews were used as data collection method where: crisis managers discussed how the interface supports the design principles, crisis managers demonstrated common tasks in the system, and information from past crisis management activities was used as an indication of how the system is used in actual crisis management. The evaluation indicates that the design principles: 1) can be used to identify interface flaws, 2) can be a foundation for discussing temporality in design, and 3) can be used to explore temporality in general, including temporality found in: work tasks, the crisis context, and the interaction between crisis manager and information system. In addition, the evaluation suggests two new design principles as a complement to the original six principles.

Temporal aspects in crisis management and its implications on interface design for situation awareness.

Temporality should be considered in the design of information technology support for crisis management (CM), both because crises are dynamic events and because time is a part of situation awareness (SA). This study has used group interviews to explore how different temporal aspects of CM can be considered in CM design and how they can influence crisis managers SA. A prototype and a scenario were used as mediating materials. The result consists of two parts. The first part is comprised of the participants’ reflections on how timelines can be used to display information in CM information systems. According to the participants, timelines should present: deadlines, information sent to the public, incoming and outgoing information, an overview of where the current activities belong in the CM process and what has been going on since the last shift during shift changes. Timelines should not only display the listed information, but also provide functionality for adjusting the timescale so that information can be presented in alternative temporal perspectives. The second part of the result contains several obstacles that might influence the crisis managers’ ability to obtain SA. Obstacles elicited from the group discussions are: information overflow, fast changes of SA due to incoming information, difficulties to share SA with actors outside the CM centre, forgetting things that need attention and that SA depends on the quality of incoming information. The two parts of the result have been compiled into six design principles for how temporality can be considered in CM systems in order to support SA.

Influence of user participation during the development of crisis management information systems in Tunisian firms

Participative decision theory suggests that a development process based on users participation can led to the success of computerised applications, such as crisis management information systems, developed in the firm. Facing controversies of research results, Igbaria et al. (1996), Anandarajan et al. (2002) and Hartwich and Barki (1994) had suggested that user’s involvement has a mediating effect in the relation between users participation and applications success. Lind et al. (1990) and Hunton and Gibson (1999) have introduced the effect of user’s cognition on applications success. Therefore, the objective of this research is to examine the mediating effect of user’s involvement and user’s cognition in the relation between user’s participation during the development of the crisis management information systems and the success of these applications. Based on a sample of 50 users of 32 computerised applications, empirical findings show that increasing users’ participation during the development of crisis management information systems affect their perceptions of the development process’s fairness witch improve the use of these systems and enhance users’ satisfaction.

A Proposed Framework for Developing a National Crisis Management Information System

A conceptual design representing basic modules of National Crisis Management Information System NCMIS is developed. The conceptual design provides a general foundation that can be transferred to a detailed design and implementation of an application. The concept of NCMIS meets the initial specifications that are validated using a case scenario. The relative percentage of the total score that each module contributes to the design is evaluated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process AHP and the Quality Function Deployment QFD technique.

Socio-Technical Design Approach for Crisis Management Information Systems

This article describes research in progress of a design approach for crisis management information systems. A qualitative study was designed to gather data from four municipalities in northern Sweden, which all have responsibility for crisis management in each local environment. The purpose with the article is to discuss broad but strongly related information issues to crisis management and from that suggest a socio-technical oriented approach for crisis management information systems design. The preliminary design approach suggests that a network of knowledge, IT management and information integration is a promising base for design in the area. Considering that responsible actors in crisis environments have great knowledge in crisis planning and operation indicate that such an environment can be understood as a network of knowledge that account for both the social and technical dimension during crises. Theories from IT management and information integration provide input to the technical dimension of the suggested design approach.

Using Computers To Manage Crisis Information Across An Organization

ABSTRACT Recognizing the importance of good communications in emergency response and crisis management (ER/CM), Amoco has built a communications infrastructure that provides crisis communications at several levels. It facilitates information flow from field response teams to supporting management while allowing interested company personnel to monitor the situation. The resulting system, known as the Crisis Management Information System (CMIS), is based on Lotus Notes 4.5 and can be accessed via Lotus Notes or a web browser from any site with access to Amoco's computer network. CMIS consists of data (Plans, Personnel, and Resource databases), actual crisis management capability (Incident database), and training (Exercise database). It is designed to provide universal access to timely and consistent information. Designed for the infrequent user, CMIS can be edited, updated, shared, or responded to with minimal training. CMIS has been successfully demonstrated in several recent real events and exercises. Opportunities for improvement have also been noted.