Title:

Sahana: Overview of a Disaster Management System

Abstract:
Large scale disasters bring together a diversity of organizations and produce massive amounts of
heterogeneous data that must be managed by these organizations. The lack of effective ICT solutions can lead to a lack of
coordination and chaos among these organizations, as they track victims' needs and respond to the disaster. The result can
be delayed or ineffective response, the potential wastage of pledged support, imbalances in aid distribution, and a lack of
transparency. ICT solutions to manage disasters can potentially improve efficiency and effectiveness. Sahana is a free and
open source software (FOSS) application that aims to be a comprehensive solution for information management in relief
operations, recovery and rehabilitation. This paper addresses the alignment between FOSS development and humanitarian
applications, it then describes the anatomy of the Sahana system. We follow up with a case study of Sahana deployment
and lessons learned.

Title:

Geo-ICT for Risk and Disaster Management

Abstract:
There is no doubt about the importance of Geo-ICT in risk and disaster management. Systems that make
use of geo-information are used in all activities before, during and after the occurrence of a disaster. In this chapter we
address the use of Geo-ICT before and during disasters. Special attention will be given to the use of geo-information, such
as risk maps, topographical maps, etc. A brief analysis of current risk maps and of their limitations sets the stage for
research that could overcome some of the present unsatisfactory aspects of risk maps. Access to and provision of spatial
information is examined with respect to the needs of emergency response systems and the challenges in the use of geoinformation for disaster management are discussed.
Title:

Using SDI and web-based system to facilitate disaster management

Abstract:
Spatial data and related technologies have proven to be crucial for effective collaborative decision-making
in disaster management. However, there are currently substantial problems with availability, access and usage of reliable,
up-to-date and accurate data for disaster management. This is a very important aspect to disaster response as timely, upto-date and accurate spatial data describing the current situation is paramount to successfully responding to an emergency.
This includes information about available resources, access to roads and damaged areas, required resources and required
disaster response operations that should be available and accessible for use in a short period of time. Any problem or delay
in data collection, access, usage and dissemination has negative impacts on the quality of decision-making and hence the
quality of disaster response. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize appropriate frameworks and technologies to resolve current
spatial data problems for disaster management.
This paper aims to address the role of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) as a framework for the development of a web-based
system as a tool for facilitating disaster management by resolving current problems with spatial data. It is argued that the
design and implementation of an SDI model and consideration of SDI development factors and issues, together with
development of a web-based GIS, can assist disaster management agencies to improve the quality of their decision-making
and increase efficiency and effectiveness in all levels of disaster management activities.
The paper is based on an ongoing research project on the development of an SDI conceptual model and a prototype webbased system which can facilitate sharing, access and usage of spatial data in disaster management, particularly disaster
response.

Title:
Abstract:

Advances in multi-agency disaster management: Key elements in disaster research

Multi-agency disaster management requires collaboration among geographically distributed public and
private organizations to enable a rapid and effective response to an unexpected event. Many disaster management
systems often lack the capability to cope with the complexity and uncertainty. In this introduction to the special issues on
advances in multi-agency disaster management we discuss the role of information, enterprise architecture, coordination

and related human efforts aimed at improving multi-agency disaster management. The paper concludes that although
there is a common body of knowledge, disaster management is still an under-developed area. There is a need to relate
practice and theory by using human-centered approaches such that disaster management can realize its full potential.

Title: A scenario-based study on information flow and collaboration patterns in disaster management
Abstract:
Disaster management (DM) is a continuous, highly collaborative process involving governments, DM
organizations, responders, the construction sector, and the general public. Most research approaches to DM include the
development of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support the collaboration process rather than the
creation of a collaboration process to provide information flows and patterns. An Intelligent Disaster Collaboration System
(IDCS) is introduced in this paper as a conceptual model to integrate ICT into DM and the mitigation process and to
enhance collaboration. The framework is applicable to the collaboration process at the local, regional and national levels.
Within this context, the deployment of ICT tools in DM is explored and scenario-based case studies on flooding and
terrorismexamples of natural and human-induced disasters, respectivelyare presented. Conclusions are drawn
regarding the differences found in collaboration patterns and ICT used during natural and human-induced disasters and the
differences between currently available ICT and proposed ICT.
Title:

Disaster management and community

collaboration and ICT innovation.

warning

systems:

inter

organizational

Abstract:
Emergency Services Agencies (ESA) are required to co-operate and collaborate on a regular basis to
provide their communities with warning information about disasters and incidents. Community Warning (CW) systems are a
vital component of ESA operations as there are many different types of disasters and emergency scenarios of varying
complexity and uncertainty, which in turn directly influence the type of CW systems that should be employed by an ESA for
any particular incident. This paper outlines research conducted into CW systems in New South Wales (NSW) state
government ESA. This research highlights a unified collaborative approach to the assessment, development, deployment
and use of CW systems that is based on crisis management theory. This approach could be utilized by governments at
federal, state and local levels for cross border and jurisdictional management of ESA informational, ICT and process
resources. Such an approach would assist government in better targeting expenditure on CW systems and using ICT in an
innovative manner. Results also highlight that when developing and deploying CW systems, there should be careful
consideration of a number of background contextual issues such as: stakeholder involvement, incident complexity;
utilization of multi-ICT delivery platforms for economies of scale; integration of multi-ESA operational, community,
communication and ICT requirements for shared direction; and development of an ICT architecture for building learning
capabilities and skills of stakeholders.
Title:

Developing Spatial Data Infrastructure to Facilitate Disaster Management

Abstract:
The role of spatial information and related technologies in disaster management has been well-known
worldwide. One of the challenges concerned with such a role is access to and usage of reliable, accurate and up-to-date
spatial information for disaster management. This is a very important aspect to disaster response as timely, up-to-date and
accurate spatial information describing the current situation is paramount to successfully responding to an emergency. This
includes information about available resources, access to roads and damaged areas, required resources, required
responding operations, etc., and should be available and accessible for use in a short period of time. Sharing information
between involved parties in order to facilitate coordinated disaster response operations is another challenge in disaster
management. This paper aims to address the role of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) as a framework for facilitating
disaster management. It is argued that the design and implementation of an SDI model as a framework and consideration of
SDI development factors and issues can assist the disaster management agencies in such a way that they improve the
quality of their decision-makings and increase their efficiencies and effectiveness in all level of disaster management
activities. The paper is based on an ongoing research project in Iran regarding the development of an SDI Model for
disaster management. This includes the development of a prototype web-based system which can facilitate sharing, access
and use of data in disaster management and especially disaster response.

Title:

Intelligent disaster management system based on cloud-enabled vehicular networks

Abstract:
The importance of emergency response systems cannot be overemphasized today due to the many
manmade and natural disasters in the recent years such as September 2001 and the recent Japan earthquake and tsunami
disaster. The overall cost of the Japan disaster alone is estimated to have exceeded 300 billion USD. Transportation and
telecommunications play a critical role in disaster response and management in order to minimize loss of human life,
economic cost and disruptions. Our research is concerned with developing emergency response systems for disasters of
various scales with a focus on transportation systems which exploit ICT developments. In this paper, we leverage Intelligent
Transportation Systems (ITS) including VANETs (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks), mobile and Cloud computing technologies to
propose an intelligent disaster management system. The system is intelligent because it is able to gather information from
multiple sources and locations, including from the point of incident, and is able to make effective strategies and decisions,
and propagate the information to vehicles and other nodes in real-time. The effectiveness of our system is demonstrated
through modeling the impact of a disaster on a real city transport environment and comparing it with the case where our
disaster management system was in place. We report great benefits derived from the adoption of our proposed system in
terms of improved and balanced traffic flow and smooth evacuation.
Title:

Finding community through information and communication technology in disaster

response

Abstract:
Disasters affect not only the welfare of individuals and family groups, but also the well-being of
communities, and can serve as a catalyst for innovative uses of information and communication technology (ICT). In this
paper, we present evidence of ICT use for re-orientation toward the community and for the production of public goods in the
form of information dissemination during disasters. Results from this study of information seeking practices by members of
the public during the October 2007 Southern California wildfires suggest that ICT use provides a means for communicating
community-relevant information especially when members become geographically dispersed, leveraging and even building
community resources in the process. In the presence of pervasive ICT, people are developing new practices for emergency
response by using ICT to address problems that arise from information dearth and geographical dispersion. In doing so,
they find community by reconnecting with others who share their concern for the locale threatened by the hazard.
Title:

A next generation emerging technologies roadmap for enabling collective computational

intelligence in disaster management

Abstract:
Much work is underway within the broad next generation emerging technologies community on issues
associated with the development of services to foster synergies and collaboration via the integration of distributed and
heterogeneous resources, systems and technologies. In previous works, we have discussed how these could help coin and
prompt future direction of their fit-to-purpose use in various real-world scenarios including but not limited to disaster
management, healthcare, vehicular networking and knowledge cities. In this exploratory paper, we brief and then build upon
our previous works and specifically, we present a roadmap highlighting the possible use of next generation emerging
technologies for enabling collective computational intelligence in managing disaster situations. A relevant scenario is used
to illustrate the model architecture, as well as to detail the proposed roadmap.

MSIT 3
Philosophical Foundations of Technology

10 Articles about ICT on Disaster Risk Reduction Management

LIONEL C. BABALCON

ENGR. VINCENT MONTAO