Focus on sustainability of safe operations

Description

  • Identify quickly, zone and plan safe access in hostile environment, and maintain situation awareness.
  • Adapt efforts and tempos to forecasted available capacities, forecasted changes in the scenario, and to sustainability of operations.
  • Build trust inside crews with different specialities, between crews and with commanders.
  • Appoint a safety officer at highest level of decision.

#windowofopportunity #commandpost #timeofarrival #integralcontrolofresources #restwork #extendcommunicationcoverage #medicalcare #mobilelocation #SafetyOfficer

 

Possible Solutions

Name Provider (company, project, organization) Short description
COPE (Common Operational Picture Exploitation) project http://cope.vtt.fi/index.htm integrate COTS solutions and novel technologies to achieve a step change in information flow both from and to the first responder in order to increase situational awareness across agencies and at all levels of the command chain; the project will realise and trial mobile technologies to support first responders by giving them: – the ability to share ground truth with the COP -increased cognitive situational awareness to enhance decision making -support for multi-agency co-operation and communication -the ability to localise personnel, to navigate and to generate maps -the capability to monitor safety issues, tasking, as well as post crisis audit
DITSEF (Digital and Innovative Technologies for Security and Efficiency of First Responders operation) project https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/93079_de.html Self organising robust ad-hoc communications where the existing infrastructure may be compromised, allowing communication between the First Responders and between them and their command level.
– Accurate novel 3D positioning in indoor environments.
– Sensors that offer a reliable overview of the situation and of the potential threats (explosives, chemicals, fire, etc.)
– Enhanced vision for the FR in visually -impaired conditions, trough ingenious and unprecented HMIs consisting of sensors-based visual elements, showing spatial features and thermal imagery overlaid on the direct perception of the First Responder
PROFITEX (Providing Fire Fighters with Technology for Excellent Work Safety) project https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/92737_de.html system that supplies mission-relevant information without overwhelming the fire fighter
The ProFiTex system comprises electronic devices like an infrared camera, localisation sensors and a human-computer interface device integrated into the fire fighters jacket.
HELIOS (Second Generation Beacon for GALILEO/EGNOS EGNSS Search And Rescue applications) project http://helios-gsa-project.eu/ Innovative aviation, maritime and outdoor search and rescue distress beacons
SAT406CM project: physiological monitoring application https://www.sat406m-gsa-project.com/ Enhanced communication capability to serve different applications, yet in the scope of this project, one specific application is developed: monitoring the PLB user’s physiological status and reporting that to the Rescue Coordination Center (RCC).
EASeR project (Enhancing Assessment in Search and Rescue) https://www.easerproject.eu/ identify all the relevant elements to overcome USAR assessment problems and to enhance response capacity in a complex emergency scenario due to catastrophes (i.e. earthquake).
DHRS-CIM project (Distributed Human-Robot System for Chemical Incident Management) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/100615_en.html
http://www.2020-horizon.com/DHRS-CIM-Distributed-Human-Robot-System-for-Chemical-Incident-Management%28DHRS-CIM%29-s3535.html
Deliver, through a strategic and intersectoral exchange of researchers, an intelligent decision support system for humans to manage chemical incidents.
Toxi-triage project: operational, technological, ethical and societal dimensions of CBRN response and recovery http://toxi-triage.eu/about concept of operations that envisages accelerated delivery of situational awareness through an ensemble of embedded sensors, drones, standoff detectors (including cameras), artificial intelligence for processing sensor signals and web-traffic from social media, and centralised command and control. Wireless traceability of casualties provides dynamic mapping including medical care.
Distinctive technological attributes of TOXI-triage include:
• Rapid non-invasive assessment of exposure/ injury through monitoring metabolic markers of injury
• Managing and exploiting the semantic web
• Traceability by design
• Aptamer-based biosensing
• Casualty-to-discharge system integration
• Integrated environmental and stand-off hazard designation
Asymmetric synchronous collaboration within distributed teams Ashdown, M.; Cummings, M. L. (2007); Semantic Web – Iswc 2014, Pt Ii, 4562, 245- The terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center led to the greatest loss of life from a criminal incident in the history of the United States. There were 2,801 persons killed or missing at the disaster site, including 147 dead on two hijacked aircraft. Hundreds of buildings sustained direct damage or contamination. Forty different agencies responded with command and control exercised by an incident command system as well as an emergency operations center. Dozens of hazards complicated relief and recovery efforts. Five victims were rescued from the rubble. Up to 1,000 personnel worked daily at the World Trade Center disaster site. These workers collectively made an average of 270 daily presentations to health care providers in the first month post-disaster. Of presentations for clinical symptoms, leading clinical diagnoses were ocular injuries, headaches, and lung injuries. Mechanical injury accounted for 39% of clinical presentations and appeared preventable by personal protective equipment. Limitations emerged in the site application of emergency triage and clinical care. Notable assets in the site management of health issues include action plans from the incident command system, geographic information system products, wireless application technology, technical consensus among health and safety authorities, and workers’ respite care.
Site management of health issues in the 2001 World Trade Center disaster Bradt, D. A. (2003); Academic Emergency Medicine, 10(6), 650–660 Command and control environments ranging from transport control rooms to disaster response have long been of interest to HCI and CSCW as rich sites of interactive technology use embedded in work practice. Drawing on our engagement with disaster response teams, including ethnography of their training work, we unpack the ways in which situational uncertainty is managed while a shared operational ‘picture’ is constituted through various practices around tabletop work. Our analysis reveals how this picture is collaboratively assembled as a socially shared object and displayed by drawing on digital and physical resources. Accordingly, we provide a range of principles implicated by our study that guide the design of systems augmenting and enriching disaster response work practices. In turn, we propose the Augmented Bird Table to illustrate how our principles can be implemented to support tabletop work.
Building a Birds Eye View Fischer, Joel E.; Reeves, Stuart; Rodden, Tom; Reece, Steven; Ramchurn, Sarvapali D.; Jones, David; Chi (2015); Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Chi Conference on Human Factors    in Computing Systems, 4103–4112 The increasing scope and severity of disasters has led to the wide adoption of collaborative practices through networks in the field of emergency management. Networks are most effective when they can be sustained over time. This study develops a model of the factors that influence network sustainability in emergency management. Using data from a national survey of county emergency managers in the United States, the study finds that convergence of organizational goals, utilization of information and communication technology, and, most important, interorganizational trust are all significant influences on network sustainability in emergency management. The results indicate the significant role of trust-building among emergency managers in sustaining an emergency management network.
SUSTAINING NETWORKS IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT A Study of Counties in the United States Kapucu, Naim; Garayev, Vener; Wang, Xiaohu (2013); Public Performance & Management Review, 38(1), 104–133 Background: Although disasters and major incidents are difficult to predict, the results can be mitigated through planning, training and coordinated management of available resources. Following a fire in a disco in Gothenburg, causing 63 deaths and over 200 casualties, a medical disaster response centre was created. The center was given the task to coordinate risk assessments, disaster planning and training of staff within the region and on an executive level, to be the point of contact (POC) with authority to act as “gold control,” i.e. to take immediate strategic command over all medical resources within the region if needed. The aim of this study was to find out if the centre had achieved its tasks by analyzing its activities. Methods: All details concerning alerts of the regional POC was entered a web-based log by the duty officer. The data registered in this database was analyzed during a 3-year period. Results: There was an increase in number of alerts between 2006 and 2008, which resulted in 6293 activities including risk assessments and 4473 contacts with major institutions or key persons to coordinate or initiate actions. Eighty five percent of the missions were completed within 24 h. Twenty eight exercises were performed of which 4 lasted more than 24 h. The centre also offered 145 courses in disaster and emergency medicine and crisis communication. Conclusion: The data presented in this study indicates that the center had achieved its primary tasks. Such regional organization with executive, planning, teaching and training responsibilities offers possibilities for planning, teaching and training disaster medicine by giving immediate feedback based on real incidents.