Emergency Management and Information Society How to improve the synergy ?

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Emergency Managementand Information SocietyHow
to improve the synergy ?

• Jean Luc WYBO
• École des Mines de Paris
• France

Harriet LONKA GAIA Group Finland
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What is an Emergency?

• An abnormal situation whose evolution is
  uncertain
• May turn into a crisis if not properly managed
• Natural/Technical, social, organizational factors

Natural factors (climatology, combustion,
hydrology, etc.)
Organizational factors (Prevention and Disaster
management)
Disaster development (flood, fire, etc.)
Socioeconomical factors (Population and values at
risk)
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Disaster management a Complex task

• Several systems
• Climate, technology, networks, means
• Many stakeholders
• Authorities, rescue services, victims,
  volunteers, media
• Several organizations
• Local communities, private sector, state agencies
• Rescue services, police, NGOs
• Aggravating factors
• Availability of information, communication
  problems
• A key factor resilience of organizations

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ICT and Emergency Management

• ICT have a great potential to improve efficiency
• In supporting the sharing of critical information
• In providing reliable communications
• ICT are designed for well documented situations
• EM practitioners face complex situations
• They use codified procedures and tacit knowledge
• ICT designers need a good knowledge of EM tasks
• How do people deal with risk issues in everyday
  life?
• What are the needs and capabilities during
  operations?
• Where are the real difficulties related to ICT?

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Emergency managers what expertise?

• Initial training, case studies, field exercises
• Continuing education, exercises, specialized
  courses
• Experience
• Gained during disaster management operations

Particles of experience
Lessons learnt
Collective Learning
Individual Learning
Disaster management
Individual Analysis
Analysis
Debriefing, narration
Mental image
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The particle of experience

• The smallest meaningful part of experience
• Mental images of practitioners  episodic
  memory 
• Corresponds to a key instant of the disaster
  development
• Contains most of the complexity in 4 phases
• Context and event natural, organizational and
  human aspects
• Analysis what may happen, what to do, which
  solutions ?
• Actions strategy, planning, decisions, commands
• Effects success or failure
• A potential for generalization
• Almost never two identical disasters
• Quite often similar contexts/events

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Collecting and sharing experience

• Data collection
• During disaster and after (logfile, sensors,
  etc.)
• Interviews of practitioners
• Different responsibilities, roles, levels of
  hierarchy
• Individual, anonymous, validated
• Search for tacit knowledge  what else could be
  done ? 
• Collective validation of the  objective truth 
• Merge individual experiences in a common story
• Involve all stakeholders in the discussion
• Learn lessons from positive negative actions

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Particles of experience Management of a
flood(France, November 99)
Before the crisis Cleaning of river banks
Procedure for heavy rains
Pre-alert
Procedure for river surveillance
Perception of an alarming situation
Prevention
Alert is confirmed
Preparation of an evacuation and public
information
Routine activity
Preventive evacuation of threatened population
Management of population sheltering
Establishment of a crisis command center
Management of media and visits of Officials
Embankment collapses
Evacuation of people endangered by the flooding
Rescue
Post-crisis management (compensations, cleaning)
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A particle of experience

•   Preventive evacuation of threatened population
   
• Context
• 0.30AM,. The Agly river begins to overflow banks
  (alert level reached at 23.30PM)
• Roads and streets are still open
• Analysis
• A part of the town is directly threatened by a
  potential flood of the river, especially a
  housing area (2000)
• Shelters are open and information means are
  available (town siren and a loudspeaker vehicle)
• If the siren is used, all the town (8000) will be
  stressed uselessly and a general panic may occur
• Actions
• The Mayor delegates the information of public to
  the cultural service. The notice is given in the
  housing with a loudspeaker vehicle in association
  with fire and rescue people who knock every door.
  Message   there is a risk of flood in your
  district. Be careful. You can evacuate and be
  sheltered . Message elaborated to reassure
  people and avoid panic and indifference.
  Systematic evacuation of disabled.
• Later on, the mayor decides to organize a new
  information round with a more urgent message.
• Effects
• It took 2 hours to inform population. Two rounds
  were needed. Telephone system was saturated by
  calls.
• 700 families, about 2000 people are threatened.
  About 1500 accept to be sheltered and evacuate
  with their cars. Duration  about 3 hours.
  Difficulties with persons in  medical beds ,
  with pets (birds, dogs, etc.).
• If evacuation was decided 2 or 3 hours later,
  there would probably have been casualties
  (drowning of people in vehicules taken by the
  flow) after the collapsing of the embankment.

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Conclusions

• ICT have a great potential to improve resilience
• Sharing of information and efficient
  communications
• Simulations, monitoring, resources tracking
• Understanding of EM complexity is a key factor
• EM Experience is an important source of knowledge
• Collecting and formalizing individual experience
• Give access to the tacit knowledge of
  practitioners
• Improve sharing of experiences between people
• Provide key knowledge to design efficient ICT
  solutions
• Contribute to increase the resilience of
  organizations