Emergency and Disaster Management Commons^™

Proactive Distributed Emergency Response With Heterogeneous Tasks Allocation, Justice Darko, Hyoshin Park

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Traditionally, traffic incident management (TIM) programs coordinate the deployment of emergency resources to immediate incident requests without accommodating the interdependencies on incident evolutions in the environment. However, ignoring these inherent interdependencies while making current deployment decisions is shortsighted, and the resulting naive deployment strategy can significantly worsen the overall incident delay impact on the network. The interdependencies on incident evolution in the environment, including those between incident occurrences and those between resource availability in near-future requests and the anticipated duration of the immediate incident request, should be considered through a look-ahead model when making current-stage deployment decisions. This study develops …

Breaking The Yoke: A Systematic Unmasking Of Challenges To Sustainable Rural Development In South Sudan, Gai Chol Paul

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

South Sudan, a young nation grappling with the legacy of protracted conflict, faces significant challenges in fostering sustainable rural development. While the immense potential of its vast agricultural lands remains largely untapped, the persistent triple threat of insecurity, deficient infrastructure, and the absence of robust government policy actively hinders progress. The ongoing armed conflict, characterized by inter-communal violence and sporadic attacks, casts a long shadow over rural areas in South Sudan. Thus, I developed this mixed-method multiple-case study, grounded in the sustainable livelihoods framework, to explore challenges that hinder sustainable rural development in South Sudan. I collected data through document …

Neuro-Symbolic Ai For Deep Analysis Of Social Media Big Data, Vedant Khandelwal, Manas Gaur, Ugur Kursuncu, Valerie Shalin, Amit P. Sheth

Faculty Publications

This tutorial introduces a neuro-symbolic AI framework to analyze big data from social media platforms. Integrating human-curated knowledge through symbolic AI with the pattern recognition capabilities of neural networks enhances the adaptability and efficiency of traditional neural network approaches. Knowledge-guided zero-shot learning techniques enable swift adaption to new linguistic contexts and emerging events [6]. Participants will explore how to design, develop, and utilize these models in specific domains, such as public health surveillance, that require dynamic adaptation to new terminologies. This session The tutorial aims to equip attendees with practical skills and a deep understanding of how to apply neuro-symbolic …

Harnessing Social Media For Disaster Response: Intelligent Identification Of Reliable Rescue Requests During Hurricanes, Wael Khallouli

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Hurricanes pose a significant threat to both human lives and infrastructure. Decision-makers face substantial challenges during such events, as they must act quickly to address victims’ needs. Social media platforms provide a valuable source for quick and real-time information. Recent hurricane events have shown that people turn to social media to call for help when official communication channels, such as 911, are overwhelmed. However, extracting actionable information from the massive number of messages posted on social media is challenging. Furthermore, verifying social media messages posted by the public is a critical concern for disaster response practitioners, making them hesitant to …

A Dedicated Lane Analysis For Supply Chain Resilience In The U.S.-Mexico Border: Cost-Comparison And Simulation Models, Carlo A. Zorola Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Supply chains have been actively developing and implementing strategies to enhance resilience in response to various disruptive events like the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, geopolitical tensions, and climate change. These strategies aim to address demand and supply imbalances, logistical challenges, and policy restrictions encountered in transborder commerce. One area significantly impacted by such disruptions is cross-border trade between the US and Mexico. Understanding these strategies is crucial for achieving supply chain resilience, defined as the ability of a supply chain to quickly adapt to sudden disruptions without affecting the flow of goods. In both the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders …

Developing More Useful Equity Measurements For Flood-Risk Management, Adam Pollack, Casey Helgeson, Carolyn Kousky, Klaus Keller

Dartmouth Scholarship

Decision-makers increasingly invoke equity to motivate, design, implement and evaluate strategies for managing flood risks. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on how analysts can develop measurements that support these tasks. Here we analyse how equity can be defined and measured by surveying 167 peer-reviewed publications that explicitly state an interest in equity in the context of flood-risk management. Our main result is a taxonomy that systematizes how equity has been, and can be, defined and measured in flood-risk research. The taxonomy embodies how equity is a pluralistic and unavoidably ethical concept. Despite this, we find that most quantitative studies fail …

Silence Is Not Golden: Exploring The Trade-Offs Between Transparency And Burden In Dirs Reporting, Katie Nelson

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the United States federal government's Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), which is an instrument that is used during emergencies to gather information on what five communication avenues are not actively working at the time of the emergency or during the recovery process. The synthesis provides a framework for characteristics that cite the necessities for this study on DIRS. Examining DIRS will help us understand its strengths, limitations, and potential improvements. Evaluating the details of historical and global research on emergency communications are gathered. The analysis provides insights into DIRS's past, present, and future. Bring to light future …

Exploring The Diffusion Potential Of A Collaborative Mobile Platform For Disaster Management And Relief, Joao De Mendonca Salim

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis describes the creation of a collaborative digital platform for disaster management and relief, focusing on the case study of the city of Petrópolis natural disaster in February 2022. The frequency and intensity of natural disasters are rising, necessitating efficient and timely disaster response efforts. This thesis details the development of a software application that fosters collaboration among governmental agencies, emergency services, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society to enhance logistical planning and situational awareness during disasters. The proposed platform harnesses the power of social networking and leverages the ubiquitous presence of smartphones equipped with cameras, GPS, and sensors …

Immersive Visualization In Infrastructure Planning: Enhancing Long-Term Resilience And Sustainability, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Infrastructure decisions today significantly impact future generations' quality of life, especially as severe storms and rising sea levels increasingly threaten communities across the United States. Decision-makers at all levels, including those involved in disaster prevention and response, must address climate change. However, those in infrastructure design and construction often prioritize immediate gains over long-term resilience. Engineering teams typically employ decision tools to manage complexity, but these methods may not highlight the long-term consequences of their choices. This study tests whether integrating Virtual Reality (VR) technology with engineering decision-making tools, can enhance engineers’ ability to visualize the future impacts of their …

Compound Flooding Hazards Due To Storm Surge And Pluvial Flow In A Low-Gradient Coastal Region, Sunghoon Han, Navid Tahvildari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Flood risk analyses often focus on a single flooding source, typically storm surge or rainfall-driven flooding, depending on the predominant threat. However, hurricanes frequently cause compound flooding through significant storm surges accompanied by heavy rainfall. This study employs a hydrodynamic model based on Delft3D-Flexible Mesh that couples flow, waves, and rainfall-driven flow to simulate five historical tropical cyclones in Virginia's southeast coastal region. These storms produced varying intensities of storm surge and rainfall in the study area. Model simulations, incorporating rainfall through a rain-on-grid approach, account for the dynamic interaction between storm tides, and pluvial flow and enable the definition …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Lean Six Sigma Body Of Knowledge For Healthcare Industry Administrators: Implementation Of Lessons Learned In Applied Engineering, Mohammed Ali

Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this paper is to propose a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) course curriculum for healthcare administration and management majors. It identifies the relevant opportunities and challenges for the application of LSS within the healthcare industry. The paper also discusses the cultural changes necessary to provide an appropriate climate for its long-term success. This work contains a comprehensive description of the body of knowledge in LSS, which were successful in applied engineering. Additionally, the paper describes how LSS may be applied in the hospital setting to improve processes in patient-care services. Upon successful completion of the course, the healthcare …

Rattus Norvegicus As A Biological Detector Of Clandestine Remains And The Use Of Ultrasonic Vocalizations As A Locating Mechanism, Gabrielle M. Johnston

Master's Theses

In investigations, locating missing persons and clandestine remains are imperative. One way that first responder and police agencies can search for the remains is by using cadaver dogs as biological detectors. Cadaver dogs are typically used due to their olfactory sensitivity and ability to detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds produced by biological remains. Cadaver dogs are typically chosen for their stamina, agility, and olfactory sensitivity. However, what is not taken into account often is the size of the animal and the expense of maintaining and training the animal. Cadaver dogs are typically large breeds that cannot fit in …

Trace Dna Detection Using Diamond Dye: A Recovery Technique To Yield More Dna, Leah Davis

Master's Theses

This study aspires to find a new screening approach to trace DNA recovery techniques to yield a higher quantity of trace DNA from larger items of evidence. It takes the path of visualizing trace DNA on items of evidence with potential DNA so analysts can swab a more localized area rather than attempting to recover trace DNA through the general swabbing technique currently used for trace DNA recovery. The first and second parts consisted of observing trace DNA interaction with Diamond Dye on porous and non-porous surfaces.

The third part involved applying the Diamond Dye solution by spraying it onto …

Hampton Roads' Building Resilient Communities Flood Game, Gul Ayaz, Katherine Smith, Rafael Diaz, Joshua G. Behr

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

As rising sea levels and subsequent recurrent flooding disproportionately affects coastal areas, it is crucial to develop a heightened awareness of the impacts of natural disasters on communities and the environments they live in. The Hampton Roads’ Building Resilient Communities (BRC) Flood Game is a simulation role-playing game designed to allow players to increase their understanding of the impact of various community response interventions to sea level rise and recurrent flooding. Players will examine and assess the tradeoffs of resiliency investments, the impact policies may have on the population, and the amount of time return on investment takes. The BRC …

U-Net Based Multiclass Semantic Segmentation For Natural Disaster Based Satellite Imagery, Nishat Ara Nipa

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

Satellite image analysis of natural disasters is critical for effective emergency response, relief planning, and disaster prevention. Semantic segmentation is believed to be on of the best techniques to capture pixelwise information in computer vision. In this work we will be using a U-Net architecture to do a three class semantic segmentation for the Xview2 dataset to capture the level of damage caused by different natural disaster which is beyond the visual scope of human eyes.

Team And Skill Matching For Disaster Recovery Operations, Emily B. Frahm

Theses and Dissertations

United States Air Force (USAF) bases are key power projection platforms that ensure mission readiness and help bring humanitarian aid to locations in need. Recovering airfields after attack or natural disaster is a key mission of USAF civil engineers, and accomplishing this repair as swiftly as possible is key to maintaining our position in the global order. Accomplishing a disaster recovery project is a set of teams, each assigned to a specific task, and made up of a series of personnel. The question answered within this paper is: how do we match the right person with the appropriate skills to …

Social Media-Based Crisis Communication: Analysis Of Twitter Data From Local Agencies During Hurricane Irma, Naiyara Noor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

As social media platforms have become vital means of communications, it has become imperative for emergency managers and policy makers to understand how people are interacting with different agencies on these platforms for enhancing community response coordination during disasters. Although many public agencies have already adopted social media platforms for crisis communication purposes, empirical evidence on whether and how these agencies are effectively engaged on these platforms is lacking. This research aims to examine crisis communication activities of a variety of agencies on Twitter in response to Hurricane Irma in 2017. In this study, we analyzed 13,353 hurricane-related tweets posted …

An Ioe Blockchain-Based Network Knowledge Management Model For Resilient Disaster Frameworks, Amir Javadpour, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour, Arun Kumar Sangaiah, Weizhe Zhang, Forough Ja'far, Ashish Singh

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The disaster area is a constantly changing environment, which can make it challenging to distribute supplies effectively. The lack of accurate information about the required goods and potential bottlenecks in the distribution process can be detrimental. The success of a response network is dependent on collaboration, coordination, sovereignty, and equal distribution of relief resources. To facilitate these interactions and improve knowledge of supply chain operations, a reliable and dynamic logistic system is essential. This study proposes the integration of blockchain technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the Internet of Everything (IoE) into the disaster management structure. The proposed disaster …

The Rise Of Terrorism In Africa And What It Means For U.S. Policymakers, Bridget Mary Hughes

Master's Theses

This thesis utilizes three case studies to measure the rise of terrorism in Africa. This qualitative data leads the reader to one ultimate question: what does the rise in terrorism in Africa mean for the United States (U.S.) and U.S. policymakers, National Security academia, students in National Security, if anything at all? The answer is: if civilian and military compounds are being targeted by these violent extremists, as these three case studies demonstrate, it is my recommendation that U.S. policymakers cease sending troops to the African theater and, instead, allocate funding to the citizens and nonprofits of the countries whom …

Impact Of Operational And Restoration Interdependencies On Cost And Disruptive Effect In Multilayered Infrastructure Networks, Brigham A. Moore, Steven J. Schuldt, Ramana V. Grandhi, David R. Jacques

Faculty Publications

Network-based modeling and simulation of interdependent infrastructure systems has traditionally modeled 1 to 2 interdependency subtypes within a given model. Typically, different interdependency subtypes are modeled with special sets, variables, and parameters rather than integrated into the model as a standard feature. The most thorough current modeling efforts have modeled only four of the nine interdependency subtypes identified throughout academic literature. This paper presents the first model to incorporate all nine of the identified interdependency subtypes in a multiobjective mixed-integer program. The model is tested using a simulated flood event and a modified interdependent infrastructure dataset representing a medium- to …

Towards Public Vaccination Data Resilience During Natural Disaster Using Blockchain-Based Decentralized Application, Riri Fitri Sari, Mokhammad Rizqi Herdiawan, Muhammad Hamzah, Muhammad Aljundi, Jauzak Hussaini Windiatmaja

Smart City

This paper presents a platform development plan for a public vaccination decentralized data base based on Blockchain technology. Vaccination is a medical practice that allows a human body to produce a specific antibody as a means of developing a preventive measure and reducing the risk of contracting a particular disease. Systematic vaccination data recording is an utmost important system that is required particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The recording mechanism should utilize the state-of-the-art information and communication technology (ICT). For faster vaccination data recording, it is common to use digital technology, making the health care process faster thus decreasing time …

Study On Pollution Management And Pollution Emergency Of Offshore Oil Drilling Platform, Jun Shi

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On Countermeasures To Strengthen Domestic Traffic Safety Based On Risk Control, Hui Lin

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Theorizing The Initial Response Of Countries In Bringing Covid-19 Pandemic Under Control: The Effect Of Change Readiness Of Countries, M. Mahdi Moeini Gharagozloo, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour, Chen Chen, Mozhgan Moeini Gharagozloo

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Pandemic crises can bring the biggest and deepest shocks to countries around the world. In the first quarter of 2020, a global pandemic named “COVID-19” spread all over the world and not only took so many lives and created so much fear but also brought a tremendous financial pain as a result of shutting down economies to fight with this unknown contagious virus. This paper examines how countries’ change readiness enables them to bring the spread of an international crisis under control. We propose that higher levels of change readiness would help countries to cope with risks and uncertainties generated …

Coastal Housing Recovery In A Postdisaster Environment: A Supply Chain Perspective, Rafael Diaz, Joshua Behr, Beatriz Acerp

VMASC Publications

In coastal cities, the damage stemming from hurricanes and severe tropical storms may reduce housing stock. Accelerating the reconstruction of housing stock becomes crucial in minimizing the time that residents are displaced. It is critical to understand how to better coordinate all available resources for an effective and balanced reconstruction where nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, volunteers, and many other complex resources converge. This study combines Monte Carlo and beta models to assess supply, costs, and recovery times. The models capture the immediate and long-term costs of reconstruction activities under highly uncertain conditions using embedded stochastic components on projected materials, …

A Unified Health Information System Framework For Connecting Data, People, Devices, And Systems, Wu He, Justin Zuopeng Zhang, Huanmei Wu, Wenzhuo Li, Sachin Shetty

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the necessity for pervasive data and system interoperability to manage healthcare information and knowledge. There is an urgent need to better understand the role of interoperability in improving the societal responses to the pandemic. This paper explores data and system interoperability, a very specific area that could contribute to fighting COVID-19. Specifically, the authors propose a unified health information system framework to connect data, systems, and devices to increase interoperability and manage healthcare information and knowledge. A blockchain-based solution is also provided as a recommendation for improving the data and system interoperability in healthcare.

A Simulation-Based Disaster Management Framework To Analyze Housing Recovery: The Case Of Hampton Roads, Usa, Rafael Diaz, Joshua Behr, Beatriz Acero, Bridget D. Giles, Juita-Elena Wie Yusuf

VMASC Publications

In the aftermath of a catastrophic weather event, housing recovery and reconstruction activities are highly complex. Coordinating housing recovery activities is generally challenging because complex supply chains converge simultaneously in a highly uncertain environment. In this environment, anticipating and quantifying the extent of potential damage and determining the actions that must be taken to rebuild the housing stock may assist regions in allocating resources for reconstruction. This paper presents the development of a comprehensive disaster management framework to assist decision-makers in predicting the impact of projected natural disasters on housing. This framework uses a simulation-based approach to quantify likely regional …

Undersea Cables: The Ultimate Geopolitical Chokepoint, Bert Chapman

FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security, and Social Systems

This work provides historical and contemporary overviews of this critical geopolitical problem, describes the policy actors addressing this in the U.S. and selected other countries, and provides maps and information on many undersea cable work routes. These cables are chokepoints with one dictionary defining chokepoints as “a strategic narrow route providing passage through or to another region."

Infrastructure Risk Reduction: The Case Of Drinking Water Emergencies, Mark Paine

Dissertations

Public water systems are an integral part of community infrastructure. Drinking water contamination or service disruptions have the potential to cause economic losses, limit fire suppression capability, and result in human illnesses. Until 2016, the United States federal government had not issued a disaster declaration due to contaminated water. The first federal drinking water disaster declaration due to contaminated water serves as a sentinel event demonstrating the need to increase focus on public water systems during all phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. Previous studies evaluating risks to vulnerable populations associated with drinking water primarily utilized qualitative …