Emergency Response Technology Research Articles

Vulnerability Evolution Mechanism of High-Speed Railway Construction System in the Goaf Site of Qinshui Coalfield

The main reason for serious consequences caused by disasters is “insufficient emergency preparedness and obvious system vulnerability”. To ensure the safe operation and maintenance of the high-speed railway in goaf sites and achieve effective hierarchical management, the vulnerability theory was introduced, based on the system approach, to explore the characteristics of hierarchical evolution. Firstly, based on the analysis of the internal and external disturbances of the high-speed railway construction system with underlying goaf areas, the vulnerability characteristic elements were defined, and a conceptual vulnerability model was proposed. Secondly, based on the literature research, accident cases, and standards and specifications, 25 factors affecting vulnerability were identified and a two-dimensional cross matrix was used to establish a vulnerability evaluation index system. Then, ISM was used to build hierarchical relationships among indicators, analyze the vulnerability characteristics of direct factors, indirect factors and essential factors, and a vulnerability evolution analysis framework was proposed. Finally, the Taiyuan–Jiaozuo high-speed railway project was selected for hierarchical and progressive vulnerability management. The study analyzed the coupling effect and evolution mechanism of various elements of the safety management system under external disturbances, identified the weak links of the high-speed railway system in the goaf site, and provided a decision-making basis for continuous dynamic optimization and emergency response technology, which complied with the strategic policy of sustainable development.

Microcapsule Emergency Response Technology for Gas and Fire Coupling Sudden Disaster

Microcapsule Emergency Response Technology for Gas and Fire Coupling Sudden Disaster

Safety hazard inspection system during typhoon warning period to improve the disaster resistance ability of road and bridge construction site

Typhoons are frequent in coastal cities, and the vulnerability of road and bridge construction sites is high, but existing studies have not focused on the safety management of road and bridge construction sites under typhoon disasters. Traditional manual safety inspections suffer from problems such as low efficiency, high subjectivity, and incomplete coverage. Therefore, this study aims to develop an intelligent safety management system for road and bridge construction sites during the typhoon warning period, in order to achieve rapid and automated typhoon prevention and control. In this study, the automatic identification algorithm of potential safety hazards was developed based on the MATLAB platform, and then the system design of the MATLAB GUI was carried out, which ultimately forms the automatic safety hazard inspection and measure enquiry system during the typhoon warning period for road and bridge construction sites (RBS-TY). The system can realize the detection of vertical deformation, safety distance and safety height by using the point cloud data of the object to be measured. According to the identified safety hazards, it will automatically retrieve the database of typhoon safety measures in the road and bridge construction site and provide the countermeasures in the GUI interface. Experimentally verified results show that this system can assist safety management personnel to quickly guide typhoon prevention and control work during the 24-h typhoon warning period, improve the efficiency of safety management, and help to promote the development of intelligent typhoon emergency response technology at road and bridge construction sites.

Challenges in managing emergency offshore: A comparison of offshore and onshore perspectives

Three segments, which are the upstream, midstream, and downstream, make up the oil and gas business. At each stage of these oil and gas operations, there are differences in hazard and risk management that affect emergency management. Offshore emergency management presents more challenges compared to onshore emergency management, this is largely due to the remote and harsh environment, limited resources, and potential risk to human lives. The type of emergency also affects the level of challenge faced by offshore and onshore emergency management. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on effective emergency management in the oil and gas industry, requiring companies to adapt and adjust their emergency response plans, procedures, and technology to ensure the safety of personnel and the public while maintaining effective emergency management capabilities. The main objective of this study is to identify the challenges of emergency management and compare the offshore and onshore emergency management processes based on the element of effective emergency management. Document review using the PRISMA analysis was applied to compare offshore and onshore emergency management based on a review of 22 articles. The PRISMA analysis identified 22 relevant studies that covered a range of topics related to emergency management, including command structures, planning and information management, communication, situation awareness, and resources and logistics. Thereafter, the face validity method was used to examine the perspective of 10 emergency management professionals to validate these findings. Offshore and onshore facilities both possess different risks in emergency situations. Based on the results, it is essential to manage command structure, planning, information management, communication, situation awareness, resources, and logistics during disaster response and recovery stages. These five elements are critical to emergency management. Both offshore and onshore emergency management have their own unique challenges in resource constraints, weather conditions, accessibility and communication.

Modern Firefighters’ Three-Level Situation Awareness in Fire and Non-Fire Incidents

This study aimed to identify professional firefighters’ situation awareness (SA) requirements for six high-risk emergencies: i) a single-house fire, ii) an unconscious person as a medical emergency scenario, iii) a vehicle fire, iv) a gas leak incident as a hazardous material (HazMat) case, v) a passenger aircraft fire, vi) and a search and rescue operation for a collapsed building. A Goal-Directed Task Analysis (GDTA) was employed to elicit major goals, sub-goals, decisions, and three-level SA information requirements for firefighters in six different types of an incident. Findings indicate that firefighters have common goals of ensuring life safety and incident stabilization. Sub-goals were concerned with the safety of residents as well as responders’ safety. Incident stabilization meant extinguishing fire for fire events and providing medical treatment in case of a medical emergency. To build SA for different situations, firefighters indicated that they use characteristics of fire and smoke, the location and condition of residents, a person’s appearance and behavior, and building structure. These findings can inform the design of work processes and emergency response technologies for fire and non-fire operations.

Key emergency response technologies for abrupt air pollution accidents in China

Abrupt air pollution accidents can endanger people's health and destroy the local ecological environment. The appropriate emergency response can minimize the harmful effects of accidents and protect people's lives and property. This paper provides an overview of the key emergency response technologies for abrupt air pollution accidents around the globe with emphasis on the major achievements that China has obtained in recent years. With decades of effort, China has made significant progress in emergency monitoring technologies and equipment, source estimation technologies, pollutant dispersion simulation technologies and others. Many effective domestic emergency monitoring instruments (e.g., portable DOAS/FT-IR systems, portable FID/PID systems, portable GC-MS systems, scanning imaging remote sensing systems, and emergency monitoring vehicles) had been developed which can meet the demands for routine emergency response activities. A monitoring layout technique combining air dispersion simulation, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and a post-optimality analysis was proposed to identify the optimal monitoring layout scheme under the constraints of limited monitoring resources. Multiple source estimation technologies, including the forward method and the inversion method, have been established and evaluated under various scenarios. Multi-scale dynamic pollution dispersion simulation systems with high temporal and spatial resolution were further developed. A comprehensive emergency response platform integrating database support, source estimation, monitoring schemes, fast monitoring of pollutants, pollution predictions and risk assessment was developed based on the technical idea of "source identification - model simulation - environmental monitoring" dynamic interactive feedback. It is expected that the emergency response capability for abrupt air pollution accidents will gradually improve in China.

Review on loss prevention of chemical reaction thermal runaway: Principles and application

Reaction thermal runaway has been extensively characterized as a major hazard for fine chemical industry. It is necessary to develop safety technologies for controlling of reaction thermal runaway in emergency and mitigate the subsequent hazards. Up to now, the literature review on the loss prevention methods of chemical reaction thermal runaway is insufficient. In this paper, a comprehensive review is delivered to outline the progress of emergency response technologies for reaction thermal runaway in recent years, major principles and potential applications of those loss prevention methods. It is expected that this review article has certain reference value for the further understanding of thermal runaway, the design of mitigation systems, and the formulation of emergency response strategy for runaway reactions.

Route recommendation for evacuation networks using [formula omitted] queueing models

While natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes are inevitable, improving existing emergency response approaches and technology becomes critical in today’s smart city development. That is, ensuring evacuees get a fast and effective evacuation route plays a very important role in increasing survival rate and reducing damage during emergency or disaster situations for smart cities. In this research, we investigate the design and development of efficient evacuation routes. By considering the realistic response to emergency evacuations, we present a model based on the number of incoming vehicles in different periods of time. In this paper, we propose a Queueing-based Recommendation system (Q-Recomm) for dynamic route recommendations for evacuees to use at the time of a disaster. Compared with other existing studies that use static conditions, our proposed algorithms consider dynamic road conditions by using queueing theory and graph theory. Specifically, we first characterize the evacuation network of a disaster as a directed acyclic graph and then exploit an MMPP/M/1/N queueing model to derive the optimal route in terms of the minimum driving time by analyzing road congestion, vehicle wait time, and road capacity as well as vehicle arrival rates for chosen routes, using high-end sensors for dynamic data acquisition. We propose the Queueing-based Time Constrained Route Recommendation (Q-TCRR) algorithm and the Queueing-based Minimum Driving Time Route Recommendation (Q-MDTRR) algorithm for route recommendation in evacuation networks. Our experimental results validate the accuracy of Q-TCRR and Q-MDTRR, respectively, and we also demonstrate that the Q-MDTRR algorithm has a lower driving time compared with both MacroServ and the shortest path route based on Dijkstra. Thus, while edge computing in vehicular ad hoc networks becomes a promising solution for evacuation networks, our two proposed algorithms can be flexibly realized in edge computing in vehicular ad hoc networks due to their computational efficiency.

A Brain-Inspired Dynamic Environmental Emergency Response Framework for Sudden Water Pollution Accidents

Sudden water pollution accidents happen frequently in China, and the number of treated accidents is low, due to the slow response speed. In addition, there is a lack of decision support systems that can follow up the whole process instead of just giving a one-time method. This study constructs a framework suitable for China that has both the ability of quick responses and full-time dynamic decision support, such as an experienced expert, while not being affected by pressure, to be used an emergency response for sudden water pollution accidents. To allow new decisionmakers to integrate into this professional decision-making role more quickly, a brain-inspired system is realized through combining the machine learning algorithm KNN and the idea of iteration and dynamic programming. The feasibility of our framework is further tested through a major water pollution happened recently. The results show that this framework can be well connected with the emergency response technology system that has been completed before, while also supporting the rapid and robust decision making such as the decisionmaker’s second brain, reducing the demand for professional background and experience of emergency decisionmakers, thus effectively shorten the waiting period for response.

Study on the Adsorption Performance of Various Adsorbents on Hazardous and Noxious Substances

Hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) leakage from ship accidents has been one of the major sources of ship pollutions. Due to the varieties of HNS, the complexity of physical and chemical properties, the harmfulness of potential accidents, and the difficulty of accident prevention, HNS leakage could cause huge social and environmental impacts. HNS emergency response methods and technologies are currently in the early and exploring stage. As a big HNS import and export country with the increasing transportation volume, the risk of HNS pollution accidents in the ports has been significantly increasing over the recent years. However, few studies have been conducted regarding the HNS response technology, especially to the adsorption performance of various adsorbents against HNS. Therefore, this study aims to calculate the degree of adsorption of different adsorbents by selecting the representative HNS, which are commonly transported in the volume, for example, benzene, styrene, and vegetable oil. For inert substances with low saturated vapor pressure (vegetable oil and styrene), the degree and rate of adsorption of the investigated materials were found to be inversely proportional to the mass per unit area (area density). Moreover, these investigated adsorbents were shown to exhibit a good adsorption retention rate against inert substances. This study can provide the technical standard to select the most suitable adsorbents for the relevant HNS leakage.

Development Strategy of Smart Emergency-Response Technology for Disasters and Accidents by 2035

Development Strategy of Smart Emergency-Response Technology for Disasters and Accidents by 2035

Study on Domestic and Foreign Standards System for Emergency Response to Oil Spill on Waters

In order to improve the level of oil spill emergency response in China and strengthen the study on the oil spill emergency response standardization, the current situation of oil spill emergency response standards at home and abroad are summarized, and domestic and foreign standards for emergency response are compared in six aspects of risk prevention, monitoring alarm, forecast and early warning, emergency equipment, comprehensive assistance and damage assessment. The results show that the standards for oil spill emergency response technology in China still need to be improved, and there is a lack of regulations for performance testing and applications of emergency facilities. This paper points out the deficiency and development direction of the oil spill emergency standards in China. It is necessary to strengthen the preparation and revision of the oil spill emergency standards and further improve the oil spill emergency standards system.

Disaster emergency response technology based on digitization of reservoir dam

With the help of GIS, Terra Vista and MultiGen Creator platform, this paper achieves the digitalization of high precision dam, reservoir area and flood. Using DEM technology to simulate flood evolution, it analyzes flood inundation process and possible disaster area, and combines material reserve, traffic situation, and possible refuge path, and uses GIS geographic information to seek the best withdrawal. The path provides a scientific analysis way for the scientific decision of dam disaster response.

Wireless Technologies for Emergency Response: A Comprehensive Review and Some Guidelines

Disaster situations require a prompt emergency response. The failure of the legacy (wired) emergency response systems to efficiently cope in such time-critical environments has led to a great interest in wireless-based emergency response systems. In this regard, a number of wireless technologies and systems—each with its peculiar characteristics and pros and cons—have been proposed for use in various emergency response situations. This paper presents, to the best of our knowledge, the first comprehensive survey of the research on this practically important topic. We motivate the use of wireless technology for emergency response and present a comparative analysis of the available wireless technologies. After outlining the scope and requirements of emergency response systems, we provide an overview of the architectures and features of wireless-based emergency response systems and then compare different wireless technologies for different emergency settings. We provide not only details about individual emergency response systems and technologies but also expend efforts to show the forest for the trees to emergency response practitioners—in particular, we provide general high-level guidelines that can help in deciding the right technology for a particular situation, and discuss potential pitfalls from the large-scale emergency-network deployment experience of one of the authors. The emergency response operation is split into five functionalities: we present general guidelines that would help public safety agencies in choosing suitable wireless technologies for each one of them. Finally, we also highlight opportunities and identify the potential areas for further investigation.

Contamination accidents in China's drinking water distribution networks: status and countermeasures

In recent years, frequent urban drinking water contamination accidents have caused significant impacts on society in China. However, emergency measures are primarily realized as management policies lack systematic technologies especially for those within-network contamination accidents. The aim of this paper is to perform analysis on cases of contaminant accidents that occurred in water distribution networks and to propose a framework of emergency response technologies. The causes, impacts, and characteristic trends of urban water supply contamination accidents are analysed according to the data of eighteen typical contamination cases that have been publicly reported in China since 2003. The results show that the main problems for rapid response to those accidents are: (1) limited monitoring means; (2) lag in response, especially the lag in providing an explanation to the public; and (3) lag in recovery from the accident. To solve those problems, a framework of technological strategy for rapid response to contamination accidents including monitoring, identifying, evaluation, isolation and flushing is then proposed. Since drinking water contamination accidents are not a unique problem that only happens in China, the response policy and related technologies proposed in this paper are also applicable to other countries and regions that face the same problems.

Extended safety and support systems for people with dementia living at home

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexity surrounding the implementation of advanced electronic tracking, communication and emergency response technologies, namely, an extended safety and support (ESS) system for people with dementia (pwd) living at home. Results are presented from a Swedish demonstration study (2011-2012) conducted in 24 municipalities. Design/methodology/approach – It is a descriptive intervention study with a pre-post test design. Questionnaires were administered to pwd, carers and professionals at the outset and eight months later. ESS logging data were analyzed. Findings – ESS usage rates varied widely. A total of 650 alerts were triggered, mainly when the pwd was outdoors. Activities were reduced amongst pwd, most likely due to a progression of their disease. Carers noted that pwd were more independent than previously on those occasions when they engaged in outdoor activities. Staff considered that nearly half of pwd could remain living at home due to the ESS, compared with a third amongst carers. In total, 50 per cent of carers felt it was justified to equip their relative with an ESS without their explicit consent, compared to one in eight staff. Research limitations/implications – A limitation is the amount of missing data and high drop- out rates. Researchers should recruit pwd earlier in their illness trajectory. A mixed-methods approach to data collection is advisable. Practical implications – Carers played a crucial role in the adoption of ESS. Staff training/supervision about assistive devices and services is recommended. Social implications – Overall, use of ESS for pwd living at home was not an ethical problem. Originality/value – The study included key stakeholder groups and a detailed ethical analysis was conducted.

Emergency Response Technology Using Powdered Activated Carbon for Sudden Water Pollution Accidents with Petroleum Pollutants

Emergency disposal combined technology of sorbent cotton intercept and powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption was researched. The removal effects of petroleum pollutants individually treated by sorbent cotton were analyzed. The influencing factors of PAC adsorption to deal with petroleum pollutants, including PAC dosage, oscillation frequency and oscillation time, were investigated. The results showed that removal efficiency increased with increasing PAC dosage. When PAC dosage reached 50mg/L, the remaining concentration of petroleum pollutants met the standards. And after oscillated for 120min, the total removal efficiency increased to more than 99%.

On Computer Network Security Risks and Emergency Response Technology

With the acceleration of process of modernization as well as continuous development of computer network technology, the Internet application field and category are expanded. As the Internet has the characteristics of richness, high update speed and innovation, it makes people's daily life more convenient, enriches people's material and cultural life and creates a free and open social environment. However, the network is a double-edged sword that brings people both convenience and many security problems, so it is an important issue to improve network environment. This paper combines the author's work experience to analyze the security problems existing in the computer network at present, and explores specific emergency response technology to solve these problems so as to provide fellows or everybody some theoretical suggestions and basis.

Emergency Response and Control Technology for Landslides in Northern Fujian

Landslide has become the key factor that effects quality, time and safety of a project during construction process of roads and railways in Northern Fujian. The right measures of emergency response and control is very important for effectively controlling disaster, reducing the lost caused by landslide and realizing maximum in economic and social efficiency. Conversely, wrong measures would make the situation worse and even lead a danger to a disaster. In contrast with the existing landslides examples that are similar in develop mechanism, slide pattern and controlling method, the emergency response and control and emergency decision models after investigating previous cases is proposed based on mountain highway and railway landslide, which can be a useful reference to similar landslide control.

It's the Network

Viewed in traditional Amateur Radio terms, the average cellular telephone handset is not very impressive. It has limited RF power output, a fixed, built in antenna, and you can’t even select the operating frequency. These devices do though leverage billions of dollars in worldwide network investment. Until Amateur Radio starts to think beyond just home stations and at more fixed infrastructure and networking, our emergency communications capabilities, particularly in the digital arena, will be limited. One evening in mid 2002 I checked into the Minnesota Section Phone Net. It was one of those days when we had some traffica periodic military Divisional Reunion, and about five messages were being held for us. It took quite a while for these to be sent and for operators in each of the areas to be rounded up. I think we got all five or maybe four of the five messages handled in the half hour the net normally runs. Later that week, in June 2002, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal talking about how hospitals would have to improvise a response to a “dirty bomb” attack (1). While the article focused on the notion of limited emergency room capacity and shortages of decontamination facilities, the point was that we were not prepared for many types of terrorist incidents or accidents. This was before the massive build-up in Federal and other funding for terrorism response, and the widespread adoption of the Incident Command System. If there had been an incident, say in Minneapolis, it is likely Amateur Radio would have played a role. So the question was, if we had to help with a mass evacuation as an example, would we have the tools to do the job? The short answer is no. We could probably handle the message volumes needed for internal Amateur radio purposes; we would not have much if any spare capacity to provide for served agencies, which is of course a key mission for us. I have stopped showing our 1920 era radiogram form to served agencies, who have not appreciated the historical context here in light of their serious mission objectives. Most agencies are besieged with proposals from vendors and consultants for state of the art digital emergency response technology. As was stated in the Editorial in QST in September 2007, (2) the emergency management community is pushing toward a digital response, and we can either fight that and be left behind, or return, as the FCC rules suggest, to a leadership position. Home Stations There are some things we can do at an individual home station to get more digital ready. Having Internet is a start, as that is pretty universal, and is also the source of most news and software updates. If the Internet is up, being able to relay messages that way and look up information is perfectly fine. Internet linked repeaters can be accessed, and you have a range of available services. Winlink/Airmail is another good tool, which can provide in and out of region mail services. These can use the Internet, or HF. HF is great, as you can reach out of region mail servers, who may not be impacted by local Internet outages as an example. One issue though with Airmailyou are capacity constrained, and have to seek permission to send large volumes of messages. And the system is Internet basedit may be impacted by Internet issues, such as in a Pandemic Flu scenario. In Pandemic Flu, it is anticipated there will be a gradual deterioration of fixed utility infrastructure, depending on the length and severity of the infection outbreak. There is a very low cost Airmail option still available – Pactor 1.