scholarly journals Command and control of Sierra Leone's Ebola outbreak response: evolution of the response architecture

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1721) ◽  
pp. 20160306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Ross
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
National Level ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
West African ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
And Control ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Management, coordination and logistics were critical for responding effectively to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and the duration of the epidemic provided a rare opportunity to study the management of an outbreak that endured long enough for the response to mature. This qualitative study examines the structures and systems used to manage the response, and how and why they changed and evolved. It also discusses the quality of relationships between key responders and their impact. Early coordination mechanisms failed and the President took operational control away from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and established a National Ebola Response Centre, headed by the Minister of Defence, and District Ebola Response Centres. British civilian and military personnel were deeply embedded in this command and control architecture and, together with the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response lead, were the dominant coordination partners at the national level. Coordination, politics and tensions in relationships hampered the response, but as the response mechanisms matured, coordination improved and rifts healed. Simultaneously setting up new organizations, processes and plans as well as attempting to reconcile different cultures, working practices and personalities in such an emergency was bound to be challenging. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The 2013–2016 West African Ebola epidemic: data, decision-making and disease control’.

scholarly journals Spatial data quality in multi-criterial analysis for decision making process

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Vaclav Talhofer ◽  
Šárka Hošková-Mayerová
Keyword(s):  
Control Systems ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Spatial Data Quality ◽  
Geographic Environment ◽  
Data Files ◽  
And Control

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Multi-criterial analysis is becoming one of the main methods for evaluation of influence of geographic environment on human activity, or human activity on geographic environment, respectively. Analysis results are often used in command and control systems, especially in armed forces and units of rescue systems. For analyses, digital geographic data – whose quality significantly influences the reached results – are used. Visualization of results of analyses in command and control systems are usually thematic layers over raster images of topographic maps. That is why this visualization must correspond to cartographic principles used for the creation of thematic maps. The article presents problems that an analyst encounters within the evaluation of the quality of the used data, performance of the analysis itself as well as preparation of data files for their transfer and publishing in command and control systems.</p>

Application of Boyd’s OODA loop to emergency response

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 461-468
Author(s):  
David J. Tanui, DSc, MSc, BEd (Hons)
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Dynamic Task ◽  
Response Phase ◽  
And Control

Emergency management is a dynamic task that requires constant evaluation and research so as to improve processes and systems. Most importantly, the rise in emergencies has led to increased costs of managing them. These cost increases are happening at a time when US government agencies are experiencing budget-cuts. Therefore, a search for solutions to improve emergency management is critical, especially in the emergency response phase. The emergency response phase is particularly important because studies show that due to the confusion and panic caused when a disaster strikes, failures in command and control often lead to delays in action and increased operation costs.This article argues that Boyd’s OODA loop, a command and control concept used by the US military for several years, presents opportunities as an off-the-shelf resource that can be adapted by nonmilitary response organizations at federal, state, local, and agency level. The study is an important contribution to the ongoing discourse on emergency management policy and practice in the United States.

The Evaluation of Research Methods during Disaster Exercises: Applicability for Improving Disaster Health Management

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.A. Guido Legemaate ◽  
Frederick M Burkle ◽  
Joost J.L.M. Bierens
Keyword(s):  
Management System ◽  
Patient Flow ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Incident Management ◽  
Trauma Centers ◽  
Coping Capacity ◽  
Planning Stage ◽  
And Control ◽  
Disaster Exercise

AbstractIntroduction: The objective of this study was to investigate whether disaster exercises can be used as a proxy environment to evaluate potential research instruments designed to study the application of medical care management resources during a disaster.Methods: During an 06 April 2005 Ministerial-level exercise in the Netherlands, three functional areas of patient contact were assessed: (1) Command and Control, through the application of an existing incident management system questionnaire; (2) patient flow and quality of patient distribution, through registration of data from prehospital casualty collection points, ambulances, and participating trauma centers (with inclusion of data in a flow chart); and (3) hospital coping capacity, through timed registration reports from participating trauma centers.Results: The existing incident management system questionnaire used for evaluating Command and Control during a disaster exercise would benefit from minor adaptations and validation that could not be anticipated in the exercise planning stage. Patient flow and the quality of patient distribution could not be studied during the exercise because of inconsistencies among data, and lack of data from various collection points. Coping capacity was better measured by using 10-minute rather than one hour time intervals, but provided little information regarding bottlenecks in surge capacity.Conclusion: Research instruments can be evaluated and improved when tested during a disaster exercise. Lack of data recovery hampers disaster research even in the artificial setting of a national disaster exercise. Providers at every level must be aware that proper data collection is essential to improve the quality of health care during a disaster, and that predisaster cooperation is crucial to validate patient outcomes. These problems must be addressed pre-exercise by stakeholders and decision-makers during planning, education, and training. If not, disaster exercises will not meet their full potential.

Resilient Emergency Response

2011 ◽  
pp. 112-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiri Trnka ◽  
Björn J.E. Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Design And Development ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
And Control

The focus of this chapter is the design and development of Information and Communication Technologies that support collaborative work and processes in command and control teams, more specifically, in joint emergency response operations. The unique contexts and varying circumstances of response operations have an impact on how collaborative work and interactions among commanders emerge, as well as on the extent to which Information and Communication Technologies are used. This emergence of response operations poses specific methodological complications and demands on how to study command and control teams, and also how to approach high-level design problems. The chapter demonstrates how such analysis can be performed. It presents a study of scenario-based role-playing simulation with professionals – emergency management commanders – as participants. The study documents the work practice of a team of commanders from the Swedish local and regional emergency response organizations responding jointly to an emergency, a medium size forest fire. The study also identifies areas and/or activities that may be enhanced by command and control tools. A combined set of bottom-up data driven and top-down methods – topical episode analysis, communicative roles, socio-metric status and communication modelling – are used to assess communication and interactions among the commanders. The findings indicate that the studied commanders used informal arrangements within the established formal command and control structures, and took informal functions and communicative roles across organizational and domain boundaries to handle diverse incidents and so called pseudo-problems. This identified adaptive and improvised behaviour of the commanders – and the team as whole – was identified as a critical characteristic for effective command and control work in joint response operations. Cross-domain and cross-organizational knowledge was found to be the most important feature of this type of capability to adapt and improvise. The study, further, highlights the significance of employing bottom-up, data driven methods for analysis of design and development processes, as well as important methodological challenges related to this type of analysis.

Resilient Emergency Response

2013 ◽  
pp. 813-838
Author(s):  
Jiri Trnka ◽  
Björn J.E. Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Design And Development ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
And Control

The focus of this chapter is the design and development of Information and Communication Technologies that support collaborative work and processes in command and control teams, more specifically, in joint emergency response operations. The unique contexts and varying circumstances of response operations have an impact on how collaborative work and interactions among commanders emerge, as well as on the extent to which Information and Communication Technologies are used. This emergence of response operations poses specific methodological complications and demands on how to study command and control teams, and also how to approach high-level design problems. The chapter demonstrates how such analysis can be performed. It presents a study of scenario-based role-playing simulation with professionals – emergency management commanders – as participants. The study documents the work practice of a team of commanders from the Swedish local and regional emergency response organizations responding jointly to an emergency, a medium size forest fire. The study also identifies areas and/or activities that may be enhanced by command and control tools. A combined set of bottom-up data driven and top-down methods – topical episode analysis, communicative roles, socio-metric status and communication modelling – are used to assess communication and interactions among the commanders. The findings indicate that the studied commanders used informal arrangements within the established formal command and control structures, and took informal functions and communicative roles across organizational and domain boundaries to handle diverse incidents and so called pseudo-problems. This identified adaptive and improvised behaviour of the commanders – and the team as whole – was identified as a critical characteristic for effective command and control work in joint response operations. Cross-domain and cross-organizational knowledge was found to be the most important feature of this type of capability to adapt and improvise. The study, further, highlights the significance of employing bottom-up, data driven methods for analysis of design and development processes, as well as important methodological challenges related to this type of analysis.

Pipeline Monitoring and Real Time Accident Management

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Assilzadeh ◽  
Yang Gao
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Data Dissemination ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Internet Portal ◽  
Accident Data ◽  
Gis Environment ◽  
Pipeline Failures ◽  
And Control

Pipeline accidents are usually caused through failures, vandalizations, or other environmental accidents like hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. This paper describes the design of an integrated system for real time monitoring and management of pipeline accidents in land and sea environment. This study focuses on oil, gas and other hazardous spill accidents caused by the pipeline transportation system. Multisensor applications for pipeline failures detection and hazard monitoring can be conducted with appropriate models in GIS and internet based communication infrastructure to provide a solution for real time pipeline accidents contingency planning and emergency response. The system architecture includes several models in GIS environment which support disaster management and decision making through provision of various thematic maps, and a module called command and control which is designed for managing and coordinating pipeline accidents response. Command and control system coordinates all tasks related to the accident emergency response through management and administration office. The structure also includes web based accident data dissemination scheme through internet portal which act as a communication system to connect accident managers in administration office with accident relief and operators on the ground. These new approaches in geomatics applications for pipeline accident emergency response can be implemented in other accidental hazards monitoring and management in the environment.

scholarly journals Recovery and Cultural Values: On Our Own Terms (A Dialogue)

2020 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Justine Keen ◽  
Richard J. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
And Control ◽  
Different Cultures

AbstractThe chapter is about recovery in the sense of achieving a good quality of life as defined by what is important to (i.e. the values of) those concerned rather than by professional and service delivery priorities (Allott, P., What is mental health, illness and recovery, Ch 1. In: Ryan T, Pritchard J (eds) Good practice in adult mental health. Good practice series 10. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2004; Slade M., et al., World Psychiatry 13:12–20, 2014). The narrative is in the form of a dialogue between two people, both with extensive experience of severe long-term mental health issues. Unscripted and unedited the dialogue captures both the challenges and resources for recovery arising from the different cultures in which the authors have found themselves. Their experiences reinforce the well-established but too often unheeded conclusion that key drivers of recovery are factors such as companionship, having somewhere to live, and control over what happens to you (including what if any medication may be helpful).

scholarly journals The significance of the tourist destination of Zlatibor spatial planning

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-112
Author(s):  
Ana Jovicic ◽  
Dejan Beric ◽  
Marko Petrovic ◽  
Snjezana Gagic
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Planning ◽  
National Level ◽  
Basic Function ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Long Time ◽  
And Control ◽  
Further Development

The territory of Zlatibor is known as a region of exquisite beauty, rich in natural and anthropogenic values, and as such it is a significant tourist destination. The tourism on Zlatibor started developing a long time ago, however, recently there has formed a type of settlement with tourism as its basic function, with no adequate planned development and control, which deviates from the natural and aesthetic environment, disturbing the rare and autochthonous quality of the territory. Zlatibor?s beauty has been disturbed with unplanned construction and the development of tourism which is not sustainable in the long-term. The aim of this paper is to point out to the significance of spatial planning for further development of tourism on this mountain and give suggestions on further development which would neutralise, revitalise and improve the already degraded territory. Only by managing the territory of Zlatibor properly, as a resource for tourism, will its economic, ecologic and aesthetic value increase, which will ensure a long term benefit on a local, regional and national level.

C2 Model of Agent-Based Radar Network

2013 ◽  
Vol 347-350 ◽  
pp. 1063-1067
Author(s):  
Zao Zhang ◽  
Guang Ya Si
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Radar Network ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
And Control ◽  
Made In

Radar network is a typical complex adaptive system (CAS). The command and control (C2) of radar network plays a big part in improving the quality of the acquired data and the anti-damage ability of radar network. On the basis of analyzingradar networkcombat process,a method based on Agent was proposed to establish command and control (C2) modelof radar network.The structure of the Agent was put forward and based on that, theadaptive C2 model was represented as a 6-tuple system.The simulation experimentwas made in the presumed background and the results showed that the modeling of adaptive command and control of radar network was implemented.

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