Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

An Epistemological Inquiry Into The Incorporation Of Emergency Management Concept In The Homeland Security With A Post-Disaster Security Centric Focus, Mehmet Secilmis

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The historical roots of the Emergency Management concept in the U.S. date back to 19th century. As disasters occurred, policies relating to disaster response have been developed, and many statuary provisions, including several Federal Disaster Relief Acts, conceptually established the framework of Emergency Management. In 1979, with the foundation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), disaster relief efforts were finally institutionalized, and the federal government acknowledged that Emergency Management included mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities as abbreviated 'MPRR.'

However, after 2000, the U.S. experienced two milestone events - the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina …

Risk Quadruplet: Integrating Assessments Of Threat, Vulnerability, Consequence, And Perception For Homeland Security And Homeland Defense, Kara Norman Hill

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Risk for homeland security and homeland defense is often considered to be a function of threat, vulnerability, and consequence. But what is that function? And are we defining and measuring these terms consistently? Threat, vulnerability, and consequence assessments are conducted, often separately, and data from one assessment could be drastically different from that of another due to inconsistent definitions of terms and measurements, differing data collection methods, or varying data sources. It has also long been a challenge to integrate these three disparate assessments to establish an overall picture of risk to a given asset. Further, many agencies conduct these …

Simulation-Based Evaluation Of Port Evacuation Plans For Predictable Natural Disasters, Xiuli Qu, Maurice Jackson, Lauren Davis

Dr. Lauren B Davis

Effective port emergency evacuation could reduce the potential damages and losses caused by a predictive natural disaster. Thus, most U.S. ports have evacuation plans or guidelines established for predictive natural disasters, especially hurricanes. However, hurricane Katrina still revealed that these existing emergency evacuation plans may not be as effective as originally expected. The objective of this study is to provide a quantitative approach to evaluating the effectiveness of port emergency evacuation plans for hurricanes. A discrete-event simulation model is developed in this study to capture the dynamic evacuation process in a complex port environment when a hurricane approaches a port. …