Phases Of Emergency Management Research Articles

Pets are family, keep them safe: a review of emergency animal management in remote First Nations communities

Planning for and considering animals is a growing area within emergency and disaster planning. As people adapt to the changing risks of disaster events that are increasing in magnitude and frequency, communities, particularly those in regional and remote areas of Australia, face challenges that are very different from other more populated areas. These communities are often home to pets, which pose unique challenges during evacuation, response and recovery phases of emergency management. Australian state and territory government emergency management plans give varied considerations to animal management. In the Northern Territory, the Territory Emergency Plan (Northern Territory Government 2022) serves as a base for animal management in disasters. However, significant reform is required to fill gaps in considerations of animals in remote communities, especially First Nations communities, given the strong socio-cultural connections within family structures and contributions to wellbeing under First Nations health worldviews and the human-animal bond. Such reform requires consultation and collaboration with First Nations Australians to promote ‘right-way’ science, build local capacity and support community resilience. Considerations of the interplay between people and their pets in disaster planning, response and recovery contributes to ongoing advances in the ‘One Health’ and ‘One Welfare’ paradigms.

Development of Interoperability Principles for Disaster and Emergency Management System of Türkiye

Due to their complex nature, disasters and emergencies require a data-intensive management system in which many actors from different sectors participate and simultaneous processes are managed. Due to this complexity, there are problems in managing and sharing process services and geographic data effectively. The key to solving these problems is the introduction of a complete interoperability model. In this context, interoperability models based on existing international standards are analyzed in this study. FEI and EIF models are taken as basis in terms of disaster and emergency management interoperability requirements. Accordingly, the interoperability reference model was created in legal, organizational, semantic and technical frameworks to meet the interoperability levels. This general framework model has been evaluated in the service and data layers that need to be fully defined in disaster and emergency management phases, and a basic model including interoperability solutions for the service and data model has been created.

Exploring the relationship between risk perception and public disaster mitigation behavior in geological hazard emergency management: a research study in Wenchuan county

Modern disaster emergency management emphasizes the collaborative participation of multiple parties. Exploring the relationship between risk perception and mitigation behaviors of the public is essential to develop the effectiveness of public disaster reduction and improve the performance of emergency management. Based on risk perception theory, a research framework on the relationship between risk perception and mitigation behaviors was constructed by selecting two phases of emergency management: pre-disaster preparation and mid-disaster emergency response. The results showed that self-efficacy positively influenced the pre-disaster mitigation behaviors and emergency evacuation behavior. Perceived severity only positively influenced the emergency evacuation behavior in mid-disaster. Additionally, pre-disaster evacuation drills positively influenced the emergency evacuation behavior and the behavior of asking for help from government departments in mid-disaster. The results indicate that pre-disaster mitigation behaviors can have a significant impact on mid-disaster behaviors only if pre-disaster mitigation behaviors provide clear guidance for the emergency phase of the disaster. Therefore, pre-disaster mitigation activities should be carried out strategically with the aim of improving the public’s emergency self-help capabilities in disasters, which provides theoretical and practical guidance for improving the effectiveness of public disaster mitigation and improving the government’s disaster emergency management system.

A Framework to Predict Community Risk from Severe Weather Threats Using Probabilistic Hazard Information (PHI)

Community assets, including physical structures and critical infrastructure, provide the essential services that underpin our communities. Their destruction or incapacitation from severe weather threats such as hail and tornadoes can have a debilitating impact on a community’s quality of life, economy, and public health. Recently, prototype Probabilistic Hazard Information (PHI) from the NOAA Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) program has been developed to reflect the rapidly changing nature of severe weather threats to support forecasters, emergency management agencies, and the public. This study develops a holistic framework to merge PHI with a geodatabase of local infrastructure and community assets to predict possible impacts during events and to assist with post-event recovery. To measure the degree of damage of each building, this study uses the predicted intensity from forecasters along with damage indicators from the Enhanced Fujita scale for a range of wind speeds associated with the predicted intensity. The proposed framework provides the possibility of (1) live prediction of risks to community assets due to local vulnerability, and (2) provision of detailed damage assessments, such as degree of damage of systems or assets, and affected areas, to emergency agencies, infrastructure managers, and the public immediately following an event. With further refinement and verification, this community risk assessment prediction may be able to better communicate possible impacts and improve community resiliency from severe weather threats by supporting multiple phases of emergency management, including preparedness, response, and recovery.

Machine Learning for Emergency Management: A Survey and Future Outlook

Emergency situations encompassing natural and human-made disasters, as well as their cascading effects, pose serious threats to society at large. Machine learning (ML) algorithms are highly suitable for handling the large volumes of spatiotemporal data that are generated during such situations. Hence, over the years, they have been utilized in emergency management to aid first responders and decision-makers in such situations and ultimately improve disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. In this survey article, we highlight relevant work in this area by first focusing on the commonalities of emergency management applications and key challenges that ML algorithms need to address. Then, we present a categorization of relevant works across all the emergency management phases and operations, highlighting the main algorithms used. Based on our review, we conclude that ML algorithms can provide the basis for tackling different activities across the emergency management phases with a unified algorithmic framework that can solve a large set of problems. Finally, through the systematic literature review, we provide promising future directions for utilizing ML algorithms more effectively in emergency management applications. More importantly, we identify the need for better generalization of algorithms, improved explainability, and trustworthiness of ML algorithms with respect to the emergency management personnel, as well as more efficient ways of addressing the challenges associated with building appropriate datasets.

Web-Based Solutions for Communication and Knowledge Management in Disaster Situations

Natural disaster situations are becoming more complex and require technology-based solutions for communication and knowledge management across the stakeholders involved. This includes interorganizational as well as internal communication. Interoperability and standards are major requirements to achieve seamless communication. In this article, we present the system and web-based services developed during the EU Horizon 2020 HEIMDALL project with particular focus on information-exchange use cases based on a scenario data structure that captures the available knowledge. For interorganizational communication, a catalog module connects users in a content-oriented federated architecture, which allows sharing of information during all phases of emergency management and enables a secure aggregation of expert knowledge. For internal communication, a drone-based networked system via satellite or mobile networks is used for monitoring, and an alerting and information service is used to enable communication with first responders on their smartphone.

Local emergency management's use of social media during disasters: a case study of Hurricane Irma.

Governments' use of social media during all phases of emergency management, especially during disasters, has increased dramatically in the past 20 years. Yet, implementation at the local government level in the United States remains haphazard. As technology and the role of social media evolve, there persists a need to understand the socio-technical aspects of social media's employment in times of disaster. This study contributes to the growing social media literature by asking the following questions: what challenges remain and what lessons learned are being institutionalised at the local level of government? A qualitative analysis of 26 after action reports on Hurricane Irma (September 2017) by county, state, and federal governments and a four-hour focus-group session revealed dominant and subdominant themes, including: push/pull information; capacity and technical issues; inconsistent messaging; one-way versus two-way communication; timing of messages; and data collection. The paper concludes by discussing lessons learned, remaining challenges, evidence of organisational learning, and recommendations for future research.

Minimum safety liquid levels for cylindrical storage tanks to prevent buckling under fluctuating wind loads

Among the diverse Natech scenarios, buckling of storage tanks under extreme winds is of particular concern due to the economical, ecological, and societal consequences the leakage of valuable, flammable, and hazardous substances in the tanks can bring about. Filling storage tanks with water has a stabilizing effect against buckling and has been adopted in practice to preserve the integrity of tanks under extreme wind loads. In previous studies, the description of wind load is mostly limited to rule-of-thumb formulas with empirical parameters, which is insufficient to make credible quantitative decisions in the prevention and preparedness phase of emergency management. In the present study, sophisticated numerical simulations of multiple correlated time histories of fluctuating wind loads and nonlinear finite element analysis allow for a technologically sound methodology for the evaluation of minimum safety liquid levels for storage tanks to prevent buckling under extreme winds. In the case studies, both the proposed methodology and the relevant Eurocode have been applied to assess the minimum safety liquid levels in more than one hundred scenarios of severe winds. It is observed that both approaches agreed that 94 scenarios were safe and 19 were unsafe. However, the remaining 13 scenarios were considered safe by the Eurocode-static-analysis approach while considered unsafe by the proposed approach indicating that the peak velocity pressure formula in Eurocode and static wind buckling analysis adopted in numerous previous studies systematically underestimate the role of fluctuating wind. The proposed methodology may be applied to help make quantitative decisions corresponding to wind disasters.

A Decision Support Tool Proposal for Public Emergency Scenarios

Every day the world is facing a possible emergency or disaster scenario that affects the basis of ordinary life as we know such as natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods, or a vast viral epidemic that alters the way we live. Public emergency scenarios shift the way of living, and ramifications of ongoing or post-emergency issues related to extraordinary circumstances affect many aspects such as sustaining everyday life, welfare, health, economy, and more that require strategic planning and management. The impacts of such emergencies are so massive and extended in almost every aspect of human lives that it is impossible to overlook. Even with the wide range of possible emergency scenarios, there is a common challenge for all: accessibility. Extraordinary circumstances cause potential difficulties for access to facilities in any case and supplying facilities in a considerably short distance. An adequate number can be a matter of life and death. Tackling the issues caused by emergencies might be challenging because each entails unique contingency plans and managing operations. However, for all the emergency scenarios, one of the most crucial common matters is the accessibility to facilities. Coming up with a good comprehensive strategy that functions as a decision support system is crucial to eliminating human factors that may affect and delay response solutions for emergencies due to workload, complexity, and time management. The study aims to overcome the inadequate number of facilities during the time of crisis in the response phase to emergencies that may occur due to the accessibility of facilities. Through identifying critical considerations for sustainable life in emergency scenarios, this paper proposes an approach to assure welfare and a sustainable daily life even in extraordinary circumstances through proposing a decision support tool. This support tool can be used for any emergency scenario to strategically allocate indispensable temporary facility structures that can be accessible for all people at a minimum possible distance according to relevant emergency conditions' necessities. It generates to provide and allocate temporary facilities for unmet demand by considering population density in the response phase of emergency management. A case of a flood is issued to demonstrate a possible scenario. The final section discusses the proposed tool's contingency plan possibilities, constraints, and feasibility.

Telemedicine for emergency patients in pre-hospital care: A scoping review

Pre-hospital care is the initial phase of emergency management for patients with acute conditions. Emergency patients' mortality rates can be lowered with appropriate pre-hospital care. The utilization of telemedicine has been increasing rapidly, and one of its applications is the provision of pre-hospital care. This study aimed to identify and evaluate published research on the use of telemedicine to facilitate emergency patient management in pre-hospital care. ProQuest, Scopus, EMBASE, and EBSCOhost databases were used for article search and PRISMA flow diagram was used to perform the articles selection. The search results obtained 443 articles. Title and abstract screening removed 347 articles, leaving 41 to be assessed for eligibility. Articles relevant to the study question and meet the criteria were 14 articles. Most of the studies were conducted in developed countries. The use of telemedicine has a significant potential to improve the quality of pre-hospital care provided to emergency patients, by aiding in diagnosis and treatment selection for patient’s better outcomes. However, to establish this system, a well-organized EMS system is required. Nevertheless, the use of this technology requires more development, and additional study is required in the future.

A digital transformation-enabled framework and strategies for public health risk response and governance: China's experience

PurposeUnder uncertain circumstances, digital technologies are taken as digital transformation enablers and driving forces to integrate with medical, healthcare and emergency management research for effective epidemic prevention and control. This study aims to adapt complex systems in emergency management. Thus, a digital transformation-driven and systematic circulation framework is proposed in this study that can utilize the advantages of digital technologies to generate innovative and systematic governance.Design/methodology/approachAiming at adapting complex systems in emergency management, a systematic circulation framework based on the interpretive research is proposed in this study that can utilize the advantages of digital technologies to generate innovative and systematic governance. The framework consists of four phases: (1) analysis of emergency management stages, (2) risk identification in the emergency management stages, (3) digital-enabled response model design for emergency management, and (4) strategy generation for digital emergency governance. A case study in China was illustrated in this study.FindingsThis paper examines the role those digital technologies can play in responding to pandemics and outlines a framework based on four phases of digital technologies for pandemic responses. After the phase-by-phase analysis, a digital technology-enabled emergency management framework, titled “Expected digital-enabled emergency management framework (EDEM framework)” was adapted and proposed. Moreover, the social risks of emergency management phases are identified. Then, three strategies for emergency governance and digital governance from the three perspectives, namely “Strengthening weaknesses for emergency response,” “Enhancing integration for collaborative governance,” and “Engaging foundations for emergency management” that the government can adopt them in the future, fight for public health emergency events.Originality/valueThe novel digital transformation-driven systematic circulation framework for public health risk response and governance was proposed. Meanwhile, an “Expected digital-enabled emergency management framework (EDEM model)” was also proposed to achieve a more effective empirical response for public health risk response and governance and contribute to studies about the government facing the COVID-19 pandemic effectively.

A Comparative Policy for the COVID-19 Emergency Management of Frontline Health Workers in Selected African Countries

Health workers are often exposed to health risks and danger in the discharge of their duties. This is especially distressing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employs a multiple case study design to investigate the COVID-19 emergency management of frontline workers in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria. The findings from the study reveal that governments in the selected countries prioritize the response phase of the emergency management theory over the mitigation and preparedness phases. The response phase was meted with inevitable consequences. Health workers feared risking their lives, and the majority threatened to abandon their jobs due to insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) and welfare support. The study concludes that the government should prioritize all the phases of emergency management instead of focusing on the response phase, which involves the use of both human and financial resources on an overwhelming pandemic. They should have prepared the frontline workers adequately and equipped their health systems in preparation for any impending epidemic.

Emergency conservation interventions during times of crisis: A case study for a threatened bird species in the Australian Black Summer bushfires

AbstractEmergency conservation interventions will be increasingly necessary to prevent extinctions or severe population bottlenecks as extreme events become more frequent. We detail the emergency extraction of the endangered Eastern Bristlebird (Dasyornis brachpterus) during the unprecedented 2019–2020 Australian Black Summer bushfires, an intervention that led to the rapid establishment of a temporary ex situ insurance population sourced from an area under immediate threat from bushfire (Croajingolong National Park, Victoria). The intervention was triggered, coordinated, and implemented within a 4‐week period, with re‐release to the wild within 2 months. We present this case study within a framework for emergency conservation interventions, based on the emergency management phases of preparation, response, and recovery, with the addition of an evaluation phase. The preparation phase involved compiling existing knowledge and capacity to facilitate the operation. The response phase consisted of (a) initiation and planning of the intervention (coordination) and (b) implementation, that is, the translocation of 15 birds from an area under threat of bushfire to a captive institution (>500 km). The recovery phase saw the insurance population re‐released to unburnt habitat after the bushfire had ceased. The evaluation phase incorporated lessons learnt from the other three phases as part of an adaptive management approach. We reflect on the Eastern Bristlebird emergency conservation intervention to explore how we can better prepare for, respond to, and recover from the large range of emergencies faced by biodiversity around the world.

Schools and disasters: examining the evidence for K-12 settings across the emergency management phases.

Disasters may have profound impacts on children and schools. We reviewed the evidence on schools and disasters, and analyzed these impacts across the four main emergency management (EM) phases. We reviewed 190 abstracts from 60 journals published between 2000 and 2019, using the definitions of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery from the National Research Council. Over 48 percent of articles fell within two or more phases, particularly when they addressed popular topics such as disaster risk reduction. School safety and mitigation efforts, curriculum development and awareness training around disaster risk reduction, and the importance of cross-sector collaborations and partnerships emerged as common themes, identifying opportunities for research and practice in the process. A natural next step could be the creation of a centralized online databank for schools and administrators who need access to resources such as survey and evaluation instruments, risk/threat assessment methodologies, cultural competency training modules, and other tool kits. Use of the EM phases increases the ability to exchange ideas and actionable approaches to EM research and policy practice for school-aged children.

Emergency preparedness in Canada: The role of recreation

Emergency management has traditionally been led by an attitude to react and respond and implement effective recovery efforts. The focus has now shifted to a preparedness perspective, promoting measures which encourage the public and responders to be better equipped leading to an increased level of resiliency. Effective use of Recreation-based stakeholders and facilities, in emergency planning, boasts a number of positive elements to all phases of emergency management. A literature review will focus on the importance of Recreation in relation to preparedness. Findings will seek to articulate how the involvement of Recreation, in the realm of preparedness, builds community resilience, enhances response and recovery operations and provides a unique leadership and knowledge base regarding the use of recreational infrastructure. This effort in turn leads to a community more capable of managing an incident and returning to normalcy.

Emergency preparedness: What is the future?

Emergency preparedness programs have evolved over the last several decades as communities have responded to natural, intentional, and accidental disasters. This evolution has resulted in a comprehensive all-hazards approach centered around 4 fundamental phases spanning the entire disaster life cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Increasing frequency of outbreaks and epidemics of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in the last decade has emphasized the significance of healthcare emergency preparedness programs, but the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has tested healthcare facilities' emergency plans and exposed vulnerabilities in healthcare emergency preparedness on a scale unexperienced in recent history. We review the 4 phases of emergency management and explore the lessons to be learned from recent events in enhancing health systems capabilities and capacities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from biological threats or events, whether it be a pandemic or a single case of an unknown infectious disease. A recurring cycle of assessing, planning, training, exercising, and revising is vital to maintaining healthcare system preparedness, even in absence of an immediate, high probability threat. Healthcare epidemiologists and infection preventionists must play a pivotal role in incorporating lessons learned from the pandemic into emergency preparedness programs and building more robust preparedness plans.

Are local offices of emergency management prepared for people with disabilities? Results from the FEMA Region 9 Survey.

To assess disaster planning of local Offices of Emergency Management (OEM) with respect to people with disabilities (PWD). A cross-sectional study of local OEM from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 9 (N = 61) was conducted using an internet-based survey. The primary outcome was the adoption of emergency management recommendations by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FEMA in applying Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). OEM implementation of ADA requirements was generally suboptimal. While 63 percent reported that plans addressed the needs of PWD, only 41 percent reported detailed operating procedures for PWD. Training of staff to ensure that they were knowledgeable on the ADA requirements for inclusivity was rarely conducted. While accessible shelters and transportation were often identified, accessible communication strategies, including emergency notifications, were often lacking; only 28 percent of OEMs reported availability of sign language interpreters at shelters. Shelters often allowed service animal access (62 percent), but fewer allowed access to personal assistants (39 percent). Engagement of the disability community, from plan development to community drills, was uncommon. While more than half (59 percent) of OEM felt clear about their responsibilities in providing equal access to PWD, only 23 percent reported having qualified staff and other resources necessary in order to meet those responsibilities. Participants cited the need for more training on the ADA requirements in order to better meet the needs of PWD. Strategies for improvement to assure inclusiveness of PWD in all phases of emergency management are needed.

A qualitative approach to investigate emergency preparedness state for the built environment in the UAE

PurposeEmergency preparedness (EP) is one of the crucial phases of the disaster management cycle for the built environment. The body of knowledge, therefore, reports on different preparedness standards adopted by developed countries such as the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), Canada, Japan and Australia. Other countries, however, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (in the absence of its preparedness framework), have long adapted the UK preparedness standards. This has called for this study to investigate the state of EP practices in the UAE to identify the limitations and challenges it has been facing during its preparedness phase when adopting the UK preparedness standards.Design/methodology/approachQualitative methods of data collection and documentation with the content analysis were adopted to identify the barriers faced by the preparedness phase of emergency management (EM) in the UAE. A Pilot study was therefore conducted to validate eight key elements of the EP phase identified from the literature. The state of EP phase and the extent to which the eight key elements of EP elements were practiced and the barriers in their implementation in the UAE were explored through interviews at federal (National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority) and local levels (local team of crisis and emergency management).FindingsThe study identified eight key elements of the EP phase and the associated barriers related to their implementation in the UAE. The barriers were ranked based on their severity by interviewing experts at both federal and local levels.Practical implicationsThis paper addresses the need to investigate the state of the EP phase, its key elements and the barriers faced during its implementation in the UAE.Originality/valueDue to the absence of any EP frameworks or systems in the UAE, this paper aims to validate the EP elements identified by adopting a qualitative approach.

Tabletop exercise to prepare institutions of higher education for an outbreak of COVID-19.

Preparing for public health emergencies is an ongoing process and involves a variety of approaches and tools. Tabletop exercises are one of the tools designed to simulate the emergence of a public health emergency and address some or all of the phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.1 They typically are designed to include participation of stakeholders from diverse and complementary backgrounds, including command, operations, logistics, planning, and finance.2 Effective tabletop exercises provide a plausible scenario that require cooperation and communication from these functional areas. Tabletops also require forward thinking and planning in a variety of scenarios. When a public health emergency occurs, decision makers may be overwhelmed with decisions that need their immediate attention. Tabletop exercises can provide a framework to help decision makers anticipate future challenges, which may provide the mental model encompassing knowledge and insights that inform both current and future decisions.

Emergency preparedness in Canada: The role of recreation

Emergency management has traditionally been led by an attitude to react and respond and implement effective recovery efforts. The focus has now shifted to a preparedness perspective, promoting measures which encourage the public and responders to be better equipped leading to an increased level of resiliency. Effective use of Recreation-based stakeholders and facilities, in emergency planning, boasts a number of positive elements to all phases of emergency management. A literature review will focus on the importance of Recreation in relation to preparedness. Findings will seek to articulate how the involvement of Recreation, in the realm of preparedness, builds community resilience, enhances response and recovery operations and provides a unique leadership and knowledge base regarding the use of recreational infrastructure. This effort in turn leads to a community more capable of managing an incident and returning to normalcy.