Emergency and Disaster Management Commons^™

Covid-19 Vaccination In Palestine/Israel: Citizenship, Capitalism, And The Logic Of Elimination, Nicolas Howard, Emily Schneider

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Despite Israel’s responsibility under international law to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics in its occupied territories, Israeli officials have refused to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Through a critical discourse analysis of Israeli officials’ statements regarding Israel’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, this paper explores how Israel evades this responsibility while presenting itself as committed to public health and human rights. We find that Israeli officials strategically present Palestinians as an autonomous nation when discussing COVID-19 vaccinations, despite Israel’s ongoing attempts to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. Relatedly, Israel justifies …

Enabling Resilient Educational Support Network During Covid-19 Pandemic For Undergraduate And Second Career Seeking Students, Phillip Dillulio, Oleksandr Kravchenko, Konstantin Cigularov

Psychology Faculty Publications

During times of local and national quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities had to close campuses and expediently convert operations and services from face-to-face to virtual learning environments, including virtual classrooms, learning communities, offices, and meeting/advising rooms. Many engineering faculty and students experienced personal, technical, and psychosocial challenges associated with this dramatically altered reality, which may have significant and unprecedented effects on their personal and academic lives. The current study presents results from a needs assessment survey examining the perceptions of 157 engineering students majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering about the strengths and challenges exhibited by their professors/instructors …

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.

Firm Resources, Strategies, And Survival And Growth During Covid-19: Evidence From Two-Wave Global Surveys, Sheng Fang, Chorching Goh, Shaomin Li, L. Colin Xu

Management Faculty Publications

This study examines how firms have made strategic choices and performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the organizational resources and strategic change literature, it uses World Bank Enterprise Surveys and the COVID-19 Follow-up Enterprise Surveys to examine how different endowments in organizational resources affected firm performance as measured by their survival status and sales growth, and how these resources interact with and affect strategic responses in the supply of inputs, response to changing demand, liquidity management, and innovation. The results indicate that larger firms, firms with foreign or state ownership, and subsidiary companies performed better during the pandemic by …

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, …

Impact And Coping Strategies Among Vulnerable Groups: An Urban-Rural Resilience Trajectory Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Rizki Fillali, Ana Rosidha Tamyis, Sulton Mawardi, Hening Wikan Sawiji

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on the livelihoods of vulnerable groups. Previous studies have indicated that vulnerable groups in urban areas suffer more economic impacts than their counterparts in rural areas, largely due to mobility restrictions, social and physical distancing measures, and pre-pandemic vulnerabilities, exacerbating the challenges that urban groups face to survive. This article examines variations in the impacts and coping strategies of vulnerable groups in selected urban and rural areas in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, and determines how these impacts and coping strategies have shaped the trajectory of community resilience. The article argues that although …

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 …

Pandemic Repercussions: The Future Of International Education At Us Community Colleges, Heidi Fischer, Melissa Whatley

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have both short- and long-term repercussions on higher education. To crystallize these impacts in a sector that was particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of the pandemic, this mixed methods study explores the intersection of international education and community college responses to the pandemic. Findings indicated that due to the pandemic, community college international education programs faced a reallocation of institutional resources, both financial and otherwise, which shapes the educational opportunities available to students and informs the institutional habitus of the US community college. This study’s findings have implications in the areas of international …

Fatality Risk Management: Applying Quinlan’S Ten Pathways In Western Australia’S Mining Industry, Tanya Jenke, Jessica L. Boylan, Shelley Beatty, Martin Ralph, Andrew Chaplyn, Greg Penney, Marcus Cattani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In ‘Ten Pathways to Death and Disaster’ Professor Michael Quinlan (2014) identified a series of ten common catastrophic incident risk factors, known as the Ten Pathways, contributing to major incidents in mining and other high hazard industries. This study applies the Quinlan methodology in two separate phases. The first phase of the study explored employee perception of employer effectiveness of fatality prevention against each of the Ten Pathways through a questionnaire of n = 2009 participants at the 2017–2019 Western Australian Government Mines Safety Roadshows. Respondents generally perceived their employer as having a relatively good understanding of the role of …

Does Government Efficiency Mitigate The Effect Of Natural Disasters On Tourist Arrivals, Yang Yang, Songshan (Sam) Huang, Wei Li, Fangyu Zhong, Tian Lan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Global tourism suffered its worst year in 2020 due to the widespread of COVID-19, and tourism industry-related professionals are looking for efficient measures to help tourism recover. Government efficiency was mentioned as an important factor for inbound tourism; however, its mitigating effect on the performance of inbound tourism in the context of natural disasters has not been empirically researched. This study attempts to address the gap through the analysis of a panel data set of 158 countries from 2002 to 2018. The results illustrate the mitigating effect of government efficiency on the negative impact of natural disasters on inbound tourist …

Emergency Preparedness And Response Education In Aviation Management Programs In The United States, Heather L. Servaty-Seib, Andrew Brown

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Aviation disasters are decreasing in number but remain impactful and require competent management. Aviation Management program department heads (N = 26) in the United States were surveyed regarding the extent of curricular inclusion of emergency preparedness and response in aviation management programs. The findings indicated that few aviation management programs offer elective or required courses solely focused on emergency preparedness and response (EPR) whereas just over one third of programs offer an elective or required course within which EPR is a planned topic. Department heads recognized the importance of additional coverage because a) students need the practical information and b) …

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."

Food Security, Economic Growth And Price Stability Nexus And Conceptual Issues, Park O. Idisi

Economic and Financial Review

A strong argument that encourages analysing food security and food price stability issues is importance to economic well-being. Nigeria is one of the most food insecure countries and highly affected by all three drivers. For one, the country is vulnerable to price instability and successively hit by environmental disasters, that impact people’s livelihoods. Furthermore, its economy is thriving, but around 48.0 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line (World Bank, 2020; World Poverty Clock, 2020). In addition to that, since 2009 northeastern Nigeria is struck by insurgency. Essentially, sustainability in economic growth is dependent on achievement of …

The Effects Of A Tactile Display On First Responder Performance, Michael Schwartz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Firefighting is a dangerous and difficult task. Simulation affords researchers and practitioners the ability to examine performance and training in adverse conditions while preserving life, offering repeatable scenarios, and reducing costs. Multiple Resource Theory is used in this study as a model for assessing alternate sensory channels for information delivery when the optimal channel is not available. Specifically, this study tests the influence of a waist-worn vibrotactile display to assist navigation when visibility is reduced in a firefighter simulation. The present study measures participants' objective performance and self-reported workload while navigating a simulated fireground. Results from 70 research participants revealed …

Planning For Evacuation And Sheltering Of Vulnerable & Medically Fragile Populations During The Post-Vaccine Period Of A Compound Hurricane-Pandemic Threat: After-Action Report (Aar) Summarizing Results Of A Workshop Hosted On September 27, 2021, Wie Yusuf, Converge Covid-19 Working Group, Old Dominion University, University Of South Florida

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

From the Executive Summary:

The CONVERGE COVID-19 Working Group’s Workshop on Planning for Evacuation and Sheltering of Vulnerable and Medically Fragile Populations during the Post-vaccine Period of a Compound Hurricane-Pandemic Threat was held virtually on September 27, 2021. The 137 workshop participants represented federal, state, and local governments, the nonprofit sector and advocacy organizations, businesses, and academic institutions. Participants primarily represented functional areas of emergency management, planning, and public health. Geographically, the workshop participants came from 20 states, primarily along the Eastern seaboard plus the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.

Evaluating Disaster Evacuation Plans Of Families With Special Medical Needs (Smn) In The Rio Grande Valley: A Proposal For Providing A Special Needs Disaster Shelter, Jeannette Zallar

Theses and Dissertations

During a disaster, people have the choice of whether to evacuate or shelter in place. The problem with that is that the impact of disasters is never the same; one disaster can cause one to shelter in place, and within the same day, evacuation might be required. For those who are able-bodied, and have financial means, this is not a problem. It is a problem, however, for those who are disabled, struggling with chronic illnesses, or caring for those who have a disability or chronic illness.

This thesis studies these populations, and proposes a potential solution for disaster evacuation: a …

Addressing The Role Of Climate Change In Agriculture And Mexico-Us Immigration, Xiaoxin Liang

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Among the greatest threats of climate change is the significant impact on mass displacement, particularly as it relates to Mexico-US immigration. Low crop yields from worsening climate conditions have been linked to increased migration of Mexican farmers. With a projected 4.2 million additional migrants in the foreseeable future, it poses a contemporary environmental, social, and political dilemma. This policy brief analyzes several provision proposals to be adopted into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as evaluated under economic cost, equity, environmental impact, and feasibility criteria. My research concludes that the most effective and direct provision proposal is the implementation of adaptive …

Risk Communication In The Tourism Industry, Lindsay E. Usher, Ashley Schroeder

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This chapter focuses on risk communication in the tourism sector. Tourism organizations must communicate with a variety of stakeholders when conveying messages about impending severe weather or disasters, which are increasing due climate change and sea level rise. There is also an increased need to distribute information to tourism stakeholders about preparing for, continuing service during, and recovering from, disasters. Stakeholders involved with the tourism industry include business owners, government officials and tourists, all of whom have differing degrees of vulnerability in a destination when a threat occurs. Different messages regarding disaster preparation and recovery must be communicated to the …

Skill Downgrading Among Refugees And Economic Immigrants In Germany: Evidence From The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Plamen Nikolov, Leila Salarpour, David Titus

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Upon arrival to a new country, many immigrants face job downgrading, a phenomenon describing workers being in jobs below the ones they have based on the skills they possess. Moreover, in the presence of downgrading immigrants receiving lower wage returns to the same skills compared to natives. The level of downgrading could depend on the immigrant type and numerous other factors. This study examines the determinants of skill downgrading among two types of immigrants – refugees and economic immigrants – in the German labor markets between 1984 and 2018. We find that refugees downgrade more than economic immigrants, and this …

Should We Wear A Mask? Household Assessment Of Mask Wearing For Covid-19 In Ya’An, China, Leonard Peterson

Dissertations

In late 2019 and 2020, the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus spread worldwide and resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic, the second deadliest pandemic in modern history since the 1918 influenza pandemic. Since the virus was novel, no therapeutics and vaccines existed. Effective implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions was essential to reducing the transmission of the disease until the discovery of effective therapeutics and vaccines. This study explores the influence of the facilitating protective action attribute on adopting mask-wearing as a protective action in Ya’an, Sichuan Province, China. The study found that perceptions of mask effectiveness to reduce the probability of contracting and spreading …

Sirencide: The Impact Of Acute Stress On Emergency Vehicle Crashes, Dustin Lambert

Dissertations

Emergency services provide an invaluable service to communities and cities around the world. Research has shown these professionals encounter significant acute psychological stress throughout their work shifts. Acute stress has been shown to impact human performance in various realms, from increased risk-taking to cognitive decline. While the actual work varies between firefighters, law enforcement, and emergency medical services, a shared commonality is the operation of emergency vehicles. Emergency vehicle crashes are recognized as a serious issue by FEMA. The current work aimed to measure the impact of acute stress on emergency responders as measured by fatal emergency vehicle crashes in …

Is Regional Mobility Control Effective In Minimising Covid-19 Spread? Lessons Learned From Jakarta’S Large-Scale Social Restriction, Fisca Rizkiani Azmi, Bevaola Kusumasari

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

In times of crisis such as a pandemic, local governments serve a pivotal role as first-hand responders in managing emergencies in local areas, with the expectation of an effective policy to implement. Notwithstanding, there are limited literature studies of emergency management on local governments, concentrating on identifying policy effectiveness by the implementation in the field. This article emphasizes the effectiveness of local policy implementation in managing the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Jakarta area, with the centralization on Large-Scale Social Restriction as the case study. The objective is to provide lessons related to coronavirus for the government to …

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 …

Alternative Solutions For Government Intervention In Climate Crisis Markets: Price Gouging And The Pandemic Egg Market Case Study, S. Byron Frazelle

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

The incredible, edible egg.

Fires in California, hurricanes along the Gulf, a worldwide pandemic—it is evident that the year 2020 was defined by great crises, most of which were direct results of or exacerbated by climate change. The effects of these crises on broader American society, in particular that of the COVID-19 pandemic, are just beginning to be realized. Nearly every aspect of American life has been impacted by the pandemic and …

Examining Media Dependency And Parasocial Relationship On Protective Action Behaviors During Covid-19, Amy Hyman

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the significant role that mass media plays in disseminating messages to the public during disasters and public health crises. Information disseminated during a disaster influences individuals’ decision-making process regarding protective actions, or mitigation behaviors. This study examined the relationship between media dependency theory, parasocial relationship, and media effects (cognitive, affective and behavioral) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative approach was used with a convenience sample. The sample focused on residents in the state of Arkansas and specific generational cohorts. The results found that the generational cohorts had different media preferences during the height of …

The Willingness And Ability Of First Responders To Report For Duty During Disasters: A Case Study Of Local Law Enforcement Officers, William Peak

Dissertations

Role abandonment of employees is a vulnerability of first responder organizations that can be exposed when disasters occur. Organizational vulnerabilities created by role abandonment of first responders can be reduced by understanding the willingness and ability of employees to report for duty during disasters. To gain a better understanding of law enforcement organizational vulnerability to disasters, this study utilizes an online survey disseminated to police officers (n = 314) working for a police department along the Gulf Coast to determine their willingness and ability to report for duty and examines the barriers and facilitators impacting their decision to report …

Determinants Of Residents’ Shadow Evacuation Intention During A Hurricane In The Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Manpreet Jaiswal

Dissertations

Studies on hurricane evacuation behaviour focus primarily on why individuals do not evacuate when they are instructed to, while few examine the reasons why individuals choose to evacuate under conditions that would not require them to, termed shadow evacuation. Such behaviour might delay the timely evacuation of more at-risk coastal residents. To better understand the reasons for shadow evacuation, this study analyzes data from a household evacuation behavioural survey administered between 2012-2013 to 479 households in Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy Counties, Texas, known as the Rio Grande Valley. This area features a number of Colonia neighborhoods with high rates …

The Influence Of Social Capital On Risk Attitude Toward Covid-19 Amongst Traditional Undergraduates, Jordan Titera

Dissertations

This dissertation assesses the influence of the three types of social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking) on the risk attitude of traditional undergraduate students (under 25 years old who enroll directly from high school, attend full-time, and do not have major life and work responsibilities). The research is motivated by three research questions: (1) What is the risk attitude of traditional undergraduate students surveyed about COVID-19 (addicted, seeking, tolerant, averse, paranoid); (2) What are the social capital characteristics for traditional undergraduate respondents surveyed; and (3) What influence does social capital have on the risk attitude of traditional undergraduate students regarding …

The Labyrinth Of Data Collection For Humanitarian Project Funding And Implementation, Maria Alejandra Pulido

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research concentrates on four NGOs: IOM, IDMC, JIPS, and OCHA which use different tools to collect data and translate the information into evidence for data-driven decision making (DDDM) for the implementation of humanitarian assistance projects. I focus on the importance, advantages, and various data collection tools which help ameliorate the humanitarian sector since it does not have a current professionalized path to enter the workforce. I incorporated four interviews, attended two conferences and analyzed multiple online sources during my project.

Narrativas De La Autoconstrucción: Posicionalidades E Identidades En Migrantes Venezolanos En Quito, Ecuador, Vicente Bickel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this project is to explore the identities of the Venezuelan population in Quito, Ecuador. The country itself has received more than a million people from Venezuela, some who have continued their journey and around 500,000 who have stayed in Ecuador. Most migrants left to the unstable political situation in Venezuela which reached its breaking point around 2015, the year in which this population began to enter Ecuador en masse. The central question of this study is: "What is the self-constructed identity of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the city of Quito, Ecuador and how has their migratory …