Anticipate vulnerability, and communicate to the public

Description

Boost the public information function. Develop a specific communication strategy to maintain credibility, including social media.
Shift of focus needed, from minimizing potential damages to reduce vulnerability for the final scenario, considering different values. Focus on key, relevant information. Anticipate relevant changes. Anticipate alternative scenarios, and contingency plans.
Psychological support for rescuers.
Integrate feedback from community.

#informationofficer #riskanalyst #decisionmaking #pscicologicalcare #forensics #credibility #callcenters #predictivetools

Possible Solutions

Name	Provider (company, project, organization)	Short description
COSMIC project (The COntribution of Social Media In Crisis management)	https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/108073_en.html	Identify the most effective ways to utilise new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in crisis situations for the protection of ordinary citizens
MEDI@4Sec project: Understanding of the opportunities, challenges and ethical consideration of social media use for public security	http://media4sec.eu/	Understanding of the opportunities, challenges and ethical consideration of social media use for public security
‘It’ll never happen to me’	Burningham, Kate; Fielding, Jane (2008); Thrush, Diana; Disasters, 32(2), 216–238	Following the severe flood events of 1998 and 2000, the United Kingdom’s Environment Agency prioritised the need to increase public flood risk awareness. Drawing on data collected during research undertaken for the Environment Agency, this paper contributes to understanding of one aspect of flood awareness: people’s recognition that their property is in an area that is potentially at risk of flooding. Quantitative analyses indicate that class is the most influential factor in predicting flood risk awareness, followed by flood experience and length of time in residence. There are also significant area differences. Our qualitative work explores how those defined as ‘at risk’ account for their lack of awareness or concern about their risk status. We conclude that the problem is often not simply a lack of awareness, but rather, assessments of local risk based on experience that underestimate the impact of rare or extreme events. We underline the importance of engaging with local perspectives on risk and making local people part of ‘awareness-raising’ processes.
Disaster management, crowdsourced R&D and probabilistic innovation theory	Callaghan, Christian William (2016); International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 17, 238–250	General agreement exists effective disaster management faces constraints related to knowledge sharing and a need for real-time research responses. Extreme case examples of disasters especially vulnerable to these challenges are global pandemics, or disease outbreaks, in which data required for research response are only available after the start of an outbreak. This paper argues the developing field of probabilistic innovation (innovation increasing probability of solving societal problems through radically increasing coordination of volumes of problem-solving inputs and analysis), and its methodologies, such as those drawing from crowdsourced R&D and social media, may offer useful insights into enabling real time research capabilities, with important implications for disaster and crisis management. Three paradigms of disaster research are differentiated, as literature is related to theory offered by post normal science, Kuhnian ‘normal science’ and Lakatosian ‘structural science,’ and the goal of achieving real time research problem solving capacity in disaster crisis situations. Global collaborative innovation platforms and large-scale investments in emerging crowdsourced R&D and social media technologies together with synthesis of appropriate theory may contribute to improved real time disaster response and resilience across contexts, particularly in instances where data required to manage response is only available after disasters unfold. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
E-Government Challenge in Disaster Evacuation Response	Chatfield, Akemi; Wamba, Samuel Fosso; Tatano, Hirokazu (2010); Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Vol Vii: Software Technology Track, 1772-	While geographic information systems (GIS) can provide information on the static locations of critical infrastructure and evacuation routes, they do not provide the dynamically changing locations of things and people on the move. In contrast, radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless network technology can automatically identify and track the movement of assets (le, fire engines, ambulances, and rescue workers) and vulnerable citizens on the move (i.e. the elderly and the disabled), and hence providing local governments and communities with real-time information and enhanced decision-making capabilities, during chaotic disaster response operations (i e., evacuation). Although the potential high impact and strategic value of integrating RFID into e-government development and government’s comprehensive natural disaster management policy for improved preparedness. response, recovery, and mitigation, very little has been written in the e-government literature regarding the adoption, use, and impact of RFID in building safe and secure local communities for citizens and businesses This position paper, which is based on a review of the literature and a field case study, intends to contribute to the definition of the e-government research priorities needed to build regional disaster preparedness, as an integral part of e-government development policy
Citizen Communications in Crisis	Palen, Leysia; Liu, Sophia B. (2007); Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vols 1 and 2, 727–736	Recent world-wide crisis events have drawn new attention to the role information communication technology (ICT) can play in warning and response activities. Drawing on disaster social science, we consider a critical aspect of post-impact disaster response that does not yet receive much information science research attention. Public participation is an emerging, large-scale arena for computer-mediated interaction that has implications for both informal and formal response. With a focus on persistent citizen communications as one form of interaction in this arena, we describe their spatial and temporal arrangements, and how the emerging information pathways that result serve different post-impact functions. However, command-and-control models do not easily adapt to the expanding data-generating and -seeking activities by the public. ICT in disaster contexts will give further rise to improvised activities and temporary organizations with which formal response organizations need to align.
Twitter Floods when it Rains	Saravanou, Antonia; Valkanas, George; Gunopulos, Dimitrios; Andrienko, Gennady (2015); Www’15 Companion: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web, 1233–1238	Twitter is one of the most prominent social media platforms nowadays. A primary reason that has brought the medium at the spotlight of academic attention is its real-time nature, with people constantly uploading information regarding their surroundings. This trait, coupled with the service’s data access policy for researchers and developers, has allowed the community to explore Twitter’s potential as a news reporting tool. Finding out promptly about newsworthy events can prove extremely useful in crisis management situations. In this paper, we explore the use of Twitter as a mechanism used in disaster relief, and consequently in public safety. In particular, we perform a case study on the floods that occurred in the United Kingdom during January 2014, and how these were reflected on Twitter, according to tweets (i.e., posts) submitted by the users. We present a systematic algorithmic analysis of tweets collected with respect to our use case scenario, supplemented by visual analytic tools. Our objective is to identify meaningful and effective ways to take advantage of the wealth of Twitter data in crisis management, and we report on the findings of our analysis.
Information sharing in interteam responses to disaster	Waring, Sara; Alison, Laurence; Carter, Grace; Barrett-Pink, Chloe; Humann, Michael; Swan, Lauren; Zilinsky, Tomas (2018); Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 91(3), 591–619	Research demonstrates that information sharing is facilitated by familiarity, and having a common understanding of problems, use of lexicon, and semantic meaning. These factors can be difficult to develop within extreme environments such as disasters as members of the multi-agency system that responds often have limited experience of working together. Public inquiries repeatedly highlight the impact of information sharing difficulties on public safety, but limited academic research has focused on identifying concrete behaviours that facilitate interteam information sharing within such environments. This paper presents a case study of a national disaster response exercise involving 1,000 emergency responders. Data consist of structured observations, recordings of interteam meetings, and interviews with emergency responders. Results of mixed-method analysis indicate that interteam information sharing is delayed by limited situation awareness and poor articulation. Conversely, adopting behaviours that promote common frames for understanding interteam capabilities and information requirements improves information sharing and potentially reduces cognitive effort required to process information. Findings contribute to interteam communication theory by highlighting that in complex, time-constrained environments, having a shared understanding of responsibilities and information requirement is important for minimizing redundant deliberation and improving relevance and speed. Practitioner points Facilitating the exchange and interpretation of relevant information is important for improving situation assessment, decision-making, and the implementation of appropriate actions for addressing risks. Interteam information sharing can be particularly challenging when teams are comprised of members from across different organizations with different language and cultures that must form ad hoc to rapidly respond to problems in extreme environments. Adopting communication strategies that develop common frames-of-reference can facilitate information sharing and interteam responses to disasters.
Public Organization Adaptation to Extreme Events	Zhang, Fengxiu; Welch, Eric W.; Miao, Qing (2018); Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 28(3), 371–387	The study responds to the growing call for a more systematic approach to research on organizational responses to extreme events. It develops and tests an integrated framework based on the organizational adaptation and learning theory to shed light on how public organizations manage exposure and vulnerability to extreme events. The analysis uses data from a 2016 national survey of top managers in the largest fixed-route public transit agencies in the United States and from other institutional sources to test hypotheses that link exposure to extreme events, impact, risk perception, and adaptive responses. We apply a structural model to disentangle the direct effect of exposure on adaptation as well as its indirect effects through impact and risk perception. Findings underscore the critical role that organizational risk perception has in converting environmental stimuli to organizational adaptive responses and point to a perception-mediated learning model of adaptation.