Humanitarian Assistance And Disaster Relief Research Articles

Is there a case for gridshell structures in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts?

This article focuses on the core concerns of shelter and settlement, and more specifically focuses on large-span shelters in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) efforts. Furthermore, this article introduces the audience to novel large-span structures called gridshells. This paper presents a parametric, computational study that quantifies the efficacy of bracing orientation and arrangement on the load carrying capacity of gridshells. The varied parameters include the grid density (“16 by 16” to “30 by 30”) and the bracing scheme (unbraced, continuous fully-braced, discontinuous fully-braced, continuous half-braced, and discontinuous half-braced). Four load cases were analyzed, namely a symmetric distributed load, an asymmetric distributed load, a centered point load, and an off-centered point load. The results of the study provide designers with trends and basic design options upon which they can base further analysis depending on the requirements of the final structure.

Leveraging explainable AI for enhanced decision making in humanitarian logistics: An Adversarial CoevoluTION (ACTION) framework

This study examines the potential of AI-enabled wargames to enhance strategic decision-making in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). We introduce an Adversarial CoevoluTION (ACTION) framework, which showcases AI’s capacity to evolve adaptable policies capable of responding to dynamic changes and adversarial actions in HADR wargame scenarios. The framework presented employs a grammar-based genetic programming algorithm to evolve intelligent and interpretable player policies. We apply the ACTION framework to a HADR wargame case study, commonly used by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group for research purposes. The case study centres on a hypothetical disaster relief scenario in the fictional Joadia Islands, struck by a tsunami, necessitating the evacuation of dispersed civilians. Experimental results illustrate that the ACTION framework can evolve policies that adapt to environmental uncertainties and respond effectively to adversarial actions. This study offers evidence of the potential and practical application of AI-enabled technology in real-life humanitarian situations. Our findings suggest practical guidelines for humanitarian practitioners to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics planning for humanitarian aid, ultimately leading to improved outcomes in HADR scenarios.

Enhancing the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Response Capability of 15th Strike Wing (15SW)

Enhancing the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Response Capability of 15th Strike Wing (15SW)

Enhancing the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Response Capability of 15th Strike Wing

Enhancing the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Response Capability of 15th Strike Wing

SRI LANKA NAVY THROUGH THE VOYAGE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The development of human resource management has alarmed the enhancement of performance outcomes. Employee job performance is one main consequences of employee engagement. Employee engagement is all about employee’s head, heart and hand involvement of his/her job as well as his/her organization. Therefore employee engagement has become a buzz word in the management circles. Other than the employee job performance, engaged employee is loyal, creative, innovative and a good team players. They are the people who take extra effort in-order to achieve the organizational goals. In the military context these characteristics are crucial. Consequently engaged employee is vital to the military context as well. National security, diplomatic relations and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) are the traditional roles of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Sri Lanka due to its island geography, Sri Lanka Navy has an especial responsibility for maritime defence. The Identified research gap is that, there is no empirical evidence about the level of employee engagement in the Sri Lanka Navy. Through a thorough quantitative study, the identified empirical and population gap was bridged. This is a descriptive study. Unit of analysis is individual i.e. officers in Sri Lanka Navy. The sample size is 108 Navy officers. Extent of the researcher interference with the study is minimal. Study setting is non-contrived. Type of investigation is correlation. Cross-sectional is the time horizon of the study. An instrument with 12 statements was used. Reliability of the instrument is also ensured. Actively/highly engaged, engaged, moderately engaged, dis-engaged and actively disengaged are the five levels of employee engagement. The results indicate that the level of employee engagement in the Sri Lanka Navy belongs to level ‘four’ on a five-point scale, which is ‘Engaged’.

Military humanitarian and disaster governance networks in Southeast Asia: framework and analysis.

Behind humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) efforts are governance networks of actors working together to facilitate, coordinate, and deliver joint aid and response initiatives. Militaries are key stakeholders in these networks because of their unique capabilities, particularly in Southeast Asia. This paper explores the role of military governance networks in shaping HADR affairs. It presents a framework for examining military-to-military relational structures in humanitarian and disaster contexts using network theory and social network analysis. It also assesses the nature of military ties and their influence on two capability areas essential to humanitarian activities in the region: (i) the distribution of military assets and equipment used in HADR; and (ii) the coordination of HADR exercises and training. This paper seeks to provide insights into how governance network features and properties affect the capacity of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) militaries to use available resources efficiently and to achieve shared objectives in regional disaster response.

Enabling civil–military collaboration for disaster relief operations in smart city environments

To address the aftermath of ever more frequent natural disasters striking highly-populated urban areas, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations increasingly involve the coordinated efforts of multiple agencies and in particular Civil–Military Cooperation (CIMIC). In such scenarios, rescuers operate in a disrupted environment, must maintain a high operational tempo, and need to quickly make high-impact decisions. Effectively supporting emergency responders through IT services that implement accurate situation awareness presents a formidable set of challenges, including the discovery and integration of surviving IT assets with purposely deployed ones; effective information prioritization; resilient communications; and secure information sharing. We believe that in the highly digital modern urban environment, often referred to as smart cities, these challenges can be effectively addressed only by integrating by design HADR support into the smart city middleware. This paper presents Aceso — a proof-of-concept smart city middleware that provides location- and context-sensitive services with full support for HADR operations. Aceso provides a set of functions, ranging from resource discovery to secure information sharing, that can be quickly activated in case of unpredictable and adverse events to facilitate HADR operations. Furthermore, Aceso leverages the Value-of-Information (VoI) methodology to handle the processing and dissemination of mission-critical information. To validate the capabilities of Aceso, we devised a fictional HADR scenario, set in the city of Helsinki, Finland, that involves the collaboration of multiple responder teams with different roles. The validation results confirm Aceso’s usefulness in prioritizing the processing and dispatching of critical information and in realizing federation-wide sharing of this information among HADR teams.

Naval humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) operations in the Indo-Pacific region: need for fresh thinking

ABSTRACT Natural disasters are increasing globally. Geographically, the Indo-Pacific region is the world’s most vulnerable region and navies here have been called upon frequently to provide humanitarian assistance. Thus, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) missions have emerged as a key role for the regional navies. However, recent studies in disaster management indicate that disaster risk mitigation needs a greater focus on development issues and preparedness than post-disaster humanitarian response. This paper posits that navies too must expand their focus beyond HA/DR to contribute to other aspects of disaster management and promote collaboration with other stakeholders which could help overall to mitigate risks from natural disasters.

A case for gridshell structures in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts

This article focuses on the core concerns of shelter and settlement, and more specifically will focus on large-span shelters in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) efforts. Furthermore, this article will introduce the audience to novel large-span structures called gridshells. This paper presents a parametric, computational study that quantifies the efficacy of bracing orientation and arrangement on the load carrying capacity of gridshells. The varied parameters include the grid density (“16 by 16” to “30 by 30”) and the bracing scheme (unbraced, continuous fully-braced, discontinuous fully-braced, continuous half-braced, and discontinuous half-braced). Four load cases were analyzed, namely a symmetric distributed load, an asymmetric distributed load, a centered point load, and an off-centered point load. The results of study provide designers with trends and basic design options upon which they can base further analysis depending on the requirements of the final structure.

Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR): The Legal Frameworks

Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) is one of the most crucial factors for a successful humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operation. It is important to foster the relationship between these two sectors to pursue effective outcomes for the operation. Therefore, a developed mechanism for civilian-military coordination including clear CIMIC frameworks is needed. This paper explores the frameworks/guidelines on CIMIC in HADR issued by three international organizations, namely the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The focus of this study will be on the operation at the operational phase. The CIMIC fundamentals and principles of the foreign military sector will be scrutinized. Consequently, the analysis would help identify the essential subjects for policymakers to consider and issue the proper national framework for CIMIC in HADR.

Analysis of vertical lift capabilities of US Navy (USN) in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)

PurposeVertical lift (VL) assets are vital and expensive resources in humanitarian missions. What and where supplies are needed evolves in short time following a disaster. The purpose of this paper is to offer analysis to understand the range of capabilities of these assets.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use scenario analysis to investigate the tradeoff between two key capabilities of VL, agility and speed. The authors do this by generating loads and distances randomly, based on historical data. In post hoc analysis, based on different factors, the authors investigate the impact of configuration of Expeditionary Strike Force (ESG) on providing disaster relief.FindingsThe authors find the most effective deployment of VL in a HADR mission is in supplying essentials to victims in a focused region. Delivering sustainment requirements leads to substantial shortfall for survival needs. If the configuration of the ESGs were changed for HADR, it would better-meet the demand.Research limitations/implicationsCargo capacity is modeled assuming every aircraft type was equal, in terms of mean and variance of cargo-capacity utilization. Detailed information on cargo-bay configurations was beyond the scope of our model and data. However, this means the benefit of standardizing cargo load-outs and the variability associated with randomized load-outs may be understated in the results.Practical implicationsThe analysis presents decision-makers with projections of VL asset performance in the early stages of disaster relief, to assist in planning and contingency planning.Originality/valueThis research deals exclusively with the most critical but expensive capabilities for HADR: VL. The in-depth analysis illustrates the limitations and benefits of this capability.

Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the perspective of Indonesia Defense Policy

The development and progression in humankind’s understanding of the world and life, ensured a continuous evolution in the response to events threatening our livelihoods. Humankind also developed techniques to deal with natural hazards, either by aiming to contain the forces of nature, or by altering human own behavior. The humanitarian assistance and disaster relief are crucially important in order to protect the nations. This research employed literature review method. The results showed that every nation should prepare and manage their capabilities in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), both in protection for own countries or in providing aids for the others. Military Operation Other Than War (MOOTW) does not involve the use or threat of violence but prioritizes the provision of HADR. In MOOTW, military forces synergize with other institutions/organizations, especially those related to diplomacy, economy, government, even politics and religion. Moreover, in handling disasters, especially in Indonesia, the combination between civilians and the military is crucial in realizing Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) and Civil-Military Coordination (CMCoord). Under certain mechanism, the military power is only used to support civilian institution in HADR.

INDIA AND THE QUAD: OPPORTUNE GEOPOLITICS OR INCONSEQUENTIAL COOPERATION?

The tragic death of Shinzo Abe and the inception of the Maiden West Asian QUAD, the recent rollout of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), and the 'Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the Indo-Pacific' and the QUAD’s recent announcement of an extension of 50 Billion USD to bridge infrastructural lacunae and debt obligations in the Indo-Pacific have all pummelled the diplomatic alliance under the limelight and back into the microscopic scrutiny of scholars, political thinkers and strategists. Having displayed exceptional collaborative results in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the QUAD is seen reorganising itself, with more structure, a concrete goal, defined ambitions and convergent interests.The alliance, growing in determination, resources and effectiveness has been criticised by being equated to an Asian NATO by a disgruntled China, whose Belt and Road Initiative is being systematically undone and countered by the QUAD and their strategic policies, be it Indo-Pacific monitoring or a competitive module of vaccine diplomacy. However, despite diligent and extensive contribution in the QUAD’s undertakings, India has been termed ‘the weakest link’ in the QUAD. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyse whether the QUAD is the future or past of regional geopolitics—whether it has the will, resources, and strength to spearhead international action and cooperation in the pursuit of its agendas—and where the balance of interest lies in India's membership in the QUAD.

Defence Diplomacy: Battling for the Heart of the Pacific

As the Pacific region has become more strategically contested, regional powers have intensified their use of defence diplomacy. As a result, the number and scale of military Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) deployments, exercises and cooperative security ventures being undertaken in the South Pacific have dramatically increased. Yet despite the assumption that defence diplomacy has furthered the political objectives of initiating states and benefitted Pacific Island Countries (PICs), few studies have examined the reality of these claims. This lack of research is concerning, particularly considering the long term impacts these activities may have on regional development, stability and security in the South Pacific. In this paper, we evaluate defence diplomacy in the South Pacific. Comparative case studies were undertaken on Australia, China and New Zealand, as these countries have recently expanded their defence presence in the region.

Saving people or saving face? Four narratives of regional humanitarian order in Southeast Asia

ASEAN member states have invested substantially in cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). Despite broad support for the idea of ‘localizing’ HADR governance, the rise of regional agency has in practice led to uncertainty and frictions between humanitarian stakeholders. The article makes sense of these tensions by investigating the narratives through which intra- and extraregional agents construct the role of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre). Based on the assumption that narratives are central legitimating practices when new agents enter a governance arena, it analyzes textual material produced by different humanitarian organizations that operate in Southeast Asia, as well as interviews with representatives from these organizations. Their accounts of the AHA Centre’s role can be grouped into four narratives that are bound up with competing ideas about regional humanitarian order: an affirmative one, a skeptical one, a critical one and a transformative one. The article thus rejects characterizations of regional HADR as a rationally designed ‘architecture’ and instead defines it as a deeply political arena where different conceptions of order are asserted, contested and negotiated.

Civil-military coordination of public health response to urban disasters in Malaysia

Introduction. Direct and indirect impacts of disasters and emergencies on public health and health care systems, and the use of health outcomes as indicators of the effectiveness of disaster management activities highlight the importance of the role health sector plays in all phases of disaster management cycle. In Malaysia, several gaps have been identified with regards to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations, including lack of coordination between agencies, and most of the agencies focusing on the preparedness and response phases. 
 The purpouse of this narrative review was to obtain a broad appreciation of the extent of the research literature on the role of civil-military coordination during the disaster events in urban settings, particularly in the context of public health response to disasters and emergencies, and a broad understanding of any clear evidence which may have policy implications for KL, Malaysia.
 Materials and methods. This study is a narrative review of literature on civil-military coordination of public health response to urban disasters in Malaysia. The databases that were individually searched included PubMed, PsychINFO and Pre-CINAHL. Google Scholar was also searched.
 Results. The results of this study highlighted the importance of developing proactive approaches to public health and disasters as opposed to a general reactive approach. Ultimately, by establishing efficient partnership with the military as one of the key stakeholders, through civil-military coordination, an enhanced response to public health implications of disasters and emergencies can be achieved. 
 Conclusions. Optimizing multi-sectoral approach, interoperability and coordination of civil-military capabilities to address health-related impacts of disasters is especially important in the dense and complex urban setting of Kuala Lumpur (KL) metropolitan area.

Tradeoffs among Attributes of Resources in Humanitarian Operations: Evidence from United States Navy

This study offers a utility framework to identify assets for deployment into humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations. We focus on attributes of the hard assets: capabilities for humanitarian missions, proximity to the affected area, and cost to the organization. We demonstrate the importance of this framework using the case of the United States Navy (USN). On a broader level, we offer a strategy for the decision makers to deploy appropriate assets for executing HADR smartly. Such a method, when employed with relevant data, can enhance efficiency for various organizations involved in HADR, whether military or not. We collected a large amount of data on the assets, specifically ships, of the USN. This collected data alone are a contribution to the literature. We use factor analysis to reduce the dimensionality and make the dataset manageable while simultaneously retaining the variation and maximal information in the data. Our results, in this case, show that planners need to consider costs to truly maximize utility, especially in cases where two assets, or a combination of them, have similar utility ratings but significantly different costs. Our findings also demonstrate that asset capabilities, proximity, and the duration of an HADR response matter. Finally, we employ our framework to illustrate how HADR responses to the 2010 Haiti and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes could have been conducted more effectively and efficiently.

Rationale for Military Involvement in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.

Good relations and trust are the foundation of soft power diplomacy and are essential for the accomplishment of domestic interventions and any bilateral or multilateral endeavor. Military use for assistance and relief is not a novel concept, but it has increased since the early 1990s with many governments choosing to provide greater numbers of forces and assets to assist domestically and internationally. The increase is due to the growing lack of capacity in global humanitarian networks and increasingly inadequate resources available to undertake United Nations humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions. In response, the military has been more proactive in pursuing the improvement of military-to-military and military-to-civilian integration. This trend reflects a move towards more advanced and comprehensive approaches to security cooperation and requires increased support from the civilian humanitarian sector to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Military assistance is progressing beyond traditional methods to place a higher value on issues relating to civil cooperation, restoring public health infrastructure, protection, and human rights, all of which are ensuring a permanent diplomatic role for this soft power approach.

Impact of China’s decision-making processes on international cooperation: cases of peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief

ABSTRACTInternational cooperation on peacekeeping operations, and on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations, is important in tackling global non-traditional security threats. It also helps China address its ‘trust deficit’ problem. While both operations seem ‘low hanging fruit’ for international cooperation, the ways in which China undertakes peacekeeping and HADR cooperation differ – the former encompasses not only cooperation for technical and capacity development but also cooperation for policy harmonisation, while China’s HADR cooperation is limited to technical and capacity development. This paper asks, ‘why the difference?’, despite the fact that they both address similar policy problems. It argues that the difference corresponds to the level of holisticity/fragmentation of China’s decision-making process. The more holistic China’s decision-making process, the deeper the international cooperation. The nature of China’s decision-making processes has international policy implications, because the fragmented nature of those processes maintains cooperation at a functional level only, and hinders the deeper development of cooperation into policy harmonisation.

Image-building as Impetus for the Growth of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s Engagement in International Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR) Operations

Abstract The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) engagement in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) enables China to reassure the international community and change perceptions of its global intentions. Natural disasters are expected to increase worldwide, requiring greater PLA involvement in international HA/DR missions. However, maximising the public relations benefits of participating in such missions will require leadership to avoid short-term irritations and political speculation that often accompany China’s foreign intervention, hampering Beijing’s soft-power initiatives.