Information Technology and Emergency Management

2010 ◽  
pp. 112-135
Author(s):  
Christopher G. Reddick
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
State Government ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
It Adoption ◽  
Management Information ◽  
Emergency Responders ◽  
Role Of It

Section 214 of the E-Government Act of 2002 called on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in consultation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ensure that IT is studied to enhance crisis preparedness and response as a consequence of natural and manmade disasters (Rao, Eisenberg, and Schmitt, 2007). This important e-government legislation demonstrates the vital role of IT in emergency management. E-emergency management is especially critical to understand given the important role that the different levels of government play in disasters. This chapter will show that there is a need to be comprehensive in IT and emergency management. For effective emergency planning there is a need to use IT to leverage planning efforts. Federalism mat-ters when doing emergency lanning and should be taken into account in these efforts. Citizens play a critical role in emergency management. Information that is timely, and of high quality, is essential for emergency management. The digital divide matters in planning for emergency management and there is an importance of public libraries in the event of a disaster to serve those populations impacted from the disaster. This chapter first examines the four functions of emergency management to determine how these functions relate to IT. Emergency planning and its application to IT adoption is discussed in this chapter. The intergovernmental aspects of emergency management are discussed to set the context of the environment that emergency responders work under. The role that citizens play in emergency management is discussed to determine the important influence they have over the process. The chapter also examines the impact of management information systems on emergency management. This chapter examines the important organizational, societal, and technology issues of IT and emergency management. There are results from a survey of state government directors of emergency management to determine what impact that IT has had on their departments. Finally, a conclusion summarizes the important findings of this study.

Does Voluntary Organizations’ Preparedness Matter in Enhancing Emergency Management of County Governments?

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung Wook Kim ◽  
Kyujin Jung
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Volunteer Management ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
County Governments ◽  
The Relationship

While voluntary organizations have played a critical role in preparing for and responding to disasters, few have intentionally examined the preparedness of voluntary organizations, which are fundamentally required to enhance local emergency management. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between the preparedness of voluntary organizations and their effectiveness on local emergency management. By using a survey data collected among county governments in the United States, this research tests the effect of voluntary organizations’ preparedness on local emergency management. The results show that the voluntary organizations' preparedness behaviors such as their participation in local emergency planning as well as training, education, and resources for local emergency management positively affect their effectiveness on local emergency management. The findings imply that systemic volunteer management can build more effective emergency management systems through cohesive and comprehensive collaboration between public and voluntary organizations.

Exploring the Rationale for Emergency Management Information Systems for Local Communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-37
Author(s):  
Niklas Hallberg ◽  
Jonas Hallberg ◽  
Helena Granlund ◽  
Rogier Woltjer
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Design Patterns ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Management Information Systems ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Management Information ◽  
Emergency Responders

Emergency responders at the local community level are the prime actors concerning emergency management. It has been claimed that information systems have considerable potential to support emergency management. However, development of such systems is demanding, due to the complexity of emergency management. The ability to be able to reveal the stakeholders' needs for support are essential for successful system developments. The objective of this paper is to explore the rationale for emergency management information systems at the local community level. This was accomplished by an extensive needs assessment based on 49 governing documents and 12 interviews with representatives for local as well as regional emergency response organizations. The analysis uncovered eleven areas where emergency management information systems could enhance the capability of local communities' to manage emergencies. The identified needs categories are proposed to constitute a foundation for design patterns for the development of emergency management information systems for local communities.

Animals in disaster: The emergency planning process of Heartland Humane Society, Corvallis, Oregon

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
LTjg Christopher Dorsey, USN
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
Human Animal Bond ◽  
Local Support ◽  
Human Animal

Animals play a major role in people’s lives. Humans interact with animals in the food chain, train them for entertainment, and often accept them as integral members of their families. Recent disasters have shown the strength of the human-animal bond; for example, a number of people have refused to leave flooded homes without their pets.Organizations that deal with animal control can play a vital role during disasters. This case study highlights the employment of emergency management principles at a community animal shelter. The study follows the project from initial assessments through the development of an initial emergency program. Key elements in this process include a realistic risk assessment, training, and available local support, as well as economic concerns. Although this does not display a finished product, it demonstrates the initial steps involved in creating an emergency management program for a small public service organization.

Emergency responders’ experiences of and expectations regarding decontamination

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Elisabeth Carter ◽  
John Drury ◽  
G. James Rubin ◽  
Richard Williams ◽  
Richard Amlôt
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Emergency Responders ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – There is an assumption in emergency planning that the public will “panic” or refuse to comply in the event of mass decontamination. This assumption has serious implications for how the public will be managed. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The authors carried out semi-structured interviews with 13 emergency responders, six of whom had experience of incidents involving decontamination. The authors asked them, first, about their experiences of these events and, second, about their expectations for decontamination involving a large crowd. The aim was to explore the extent to which responders perceived non-compliance and anxiety as (crowd) problems during decontamination, and if so, how they felt that they could be addressed. Findings – Responders with experience of decontamination perceived non-compliance and excessive anxiety to be rare, and suggested that orderly behaviour was more common. However, the majority of emergency responders with no experience of decontamination said they expected panic and non-compliance. They therefore emphasised the importance of “controlling”, rather than communicating with, the public. Research limitations/implications – The authors argue that “control”-based emergency management strategies can impact negatively on the relationship between the public and responders, and hence hinder effective management of an incident. It would therefore be beneficial to provide training for emergency responders on likely public behaviour during incidents involving decontamination. Originality/value – This research extends previous research by facilitating a detailed understanding of emergency responders’ experiences and perceptions of managing incidents involving decontamination, and showing how these experiences and perceptions can affect the way in which such incidents are managed.

COVID-19 and emergency planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Winter
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
Global Society

As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, George Winter discusses emergency strategies, lessons from past epidemics and the vital role that healthcare managers can play in shaping responses to infectious diseases in today's global society.

scholarly journals Drosophila Gut—A Nexus Between Dietary Restriction and Lifespan

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 3810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Lian ◽  
Qi Wu ◽  
Brian Hodge ◽  
Kenneth Wilson ◽  
Guixiang Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Digestive Tract ◽  
Dietary Restriction ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Intestinal Epithelial ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Accumulation Of Damage

Aging is often defined as the accumulation of damage at the molecular and cellular levels which, over time, results in marked physiological impairments throughout the organism. Dietary restriction (DR) has been recognized as one of the strongest lifespan extending therapies observed in a wide array of organisms. Recent studies aimed at elucidating how DR promotes healthy aging have demonstrated a vital role of the digestive tract in mediating the beneficial effects of DR. Here, we review how dietary restriction influences gut metabolic homeostasis and immune function. Our discussion is focused on studies of the Drosophila digestive tract, where we describe in detail the potential mechanisms in which DR enhances maintenance of the intestinal epithelial barrier, up-regulates lipid metabolic processes, and improves the ability of the gut to deal with damage or stress. We also examine evidence of a tissue-tissue crosstalk between gut and neighboring organs including brain and fat body. Taken together, we argue that the Drosophila gut plays a critical role in DR-mediated lifespan extension.

scholarly journals Cul4-Ddb1 ubiquitin ligases facilitate DNA replication-coupled sister chromatid cohesion through regulation of cohesin acetyltransferase Esco2

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitao Sun ◽  
Jiaxin Zhang ◽  
Jingjing Zhang ◽  
Zhen Li ◽  
Qinhong Cao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Replication ◽  
Ubiquitin Ligase ◽  
Sister Chromatid ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
E3 Ubiquitin Ligase ◽  
Ubiquitin Ligases ◽  
Sister Chromatid Cohesion ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Chromatid Cohesion ◽  
Evolutionarily Conserved

AbstractCohesin acetyltransferases Esco1 and Esco2 play a vital role in establishing sister chromatid cohesion. How Esco1 and Esco2 are controlled to achieve this in a DNA replication-coupled manner remains unclear in higher eukaryotes. Here we show that Cul4-RING ligases (CRL4s) play a critical role in sister chromatid cohesion in human cells. Depletion of Cul4A, Cul4B or Ddb1 subunits substantially reduces normal cohesion efficiency. We also show that Mms22L, a vertebrate ortholog of yeast Mms22, is one of Ddb1 and Cul4-associated factors (DCAFs) involved in cohesion. Several lines of evidence suggest a selective interaction of CRL4s with Esco2, but not Esco1. Depletion of either CRL4s or Esco2 causes a defect in Smc3 acetylation which can be rescued by HDAC8 inhibition. More importantly, both CRL4s and PCNA act as mediators for efficiently stabilizing Esco2 on chromatin and catalyzing Smc3 acetylation. Taken together, we propose an evolutionarily conserved mechanism in which CRL4s and PCNA regulate Esco2-dependent establishment of sister chromatid cohesion.Author summaryWe identified human Mms22L as a substrate specific adaptor of Cul4-Ddb1 E3 ubiquitin ligase. Downregulation of Cul4A, Cul4B or Ddb1 subunit causes reduction of acetylated Smc3, via interaction with Esco2 acetyltransferase, and then impairs sister chromatid cohesion in 293T cells. We found functional complementation between Cul4-Ddb1-Mms22L E3 ligase and Esco2 in Smc3 acetylation and sister chromatid cohesion. Interestingly, both Cul4-Ddb1 E3 ubiquitin ligase and PCNA contribute to Esco2 mediated Smc3 acetylation. To summarise, we demonstrated an evolutionarily conserved mechanism in which Cul4-Ddb1 E3 ubiquitin ligases and PCNA regulate Esco2-dependent establishment of sister chromatid cohesion.

scholarly journals Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) Bill of Materials (BOM) for FEMIS Version 1.4.6

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy R Downing ◽  
Patricia M Fangman ◽  
Brian J Homer ◽  
Daniel M Johnson ◽  
Ranata L Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Management Information System ◽  
Management Information ◽  
Bill Of Materials

scholarly journals Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) System Administration Guide for FEMIS Version 1.4.6

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A Arp ◽  
John C Bower ◽  
Robert A Burnett ◽  
Richard J Carter ◽  
Timothy R Downing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Management Information System ◽  
Management Information ◽  
System Administration
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