scholarly journals A Disaster Response System based on Human-Agent Collectives

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 661-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarvapali D. Ramchurn ◽  
Trung Dong Huynh ◽  
Feng Wu ◽  
Yukki Ikuno ◽  
Jack Flann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Response System ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
New Research

Major natural or man-made disasters such as Hurricane Katrina or the 9/11 terror attacks pose significant challenges for emergency responders. First, they have to develop an understanding of the unfolding event either using their own resources or through third-parties such as the local population and agencies. Second, based on the information gathered, they need to deploy their teams in a flexible manner, ensuring that each team performs tasks in The most effective way. Third, given the dynamic nature of a disaster space, and the uncertainties involved in performing rescue missions, information about the disaster space and the actors within it needs to be managed to ensure that responders are always acting on up-to-date and trusted information. Against this background, this paper proposes a novel disaster response system called HAC-ER. Thus HAC-ER interweaves humans and agents, both robotic and software, in social relationships that augment their individual and collective capabilities. To design HAC-ER, we involved end-users including both experts and volunteers in a several participatory design workshops, lab studies, and field trials of increasingly advanced prototypes of individual components of HAC-ER as well as the overall system. This process generated a number of new quantitative and qualitative results but also raised a number of new research questions. HAC-ER thus demonstrates how such Human-Agent Collectives (HACs) can address key challenges in disaster response. Specifically, we show how HAC-ER utilises crowdsourcing combined with machine learning to obtain most important situational awareness from large streams of reports posted by members of the public and trusted organisations. We then show how this information can inform human-agent teams in coordinating multi-UAV deployments, as well as task planning for responders on the ground. Finally, HAC-ER incorporates an infrastructure and the associated intelligence for tracking and utilising the provenance of information shared across the entire system to ensure its accountability. We individually validate each of these elements of HAC-ER and show how they perform against standard (non-HAC) baselines and also elaborate on the evaluation of the overall system.

Improving Disaster Response Efforts Through the Development of a Disaster Health Care Response System

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 600-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Wilson ◽  
L. Kendall McKenzie ◽  
W. Terry McLeod ◽  
Damon A. Darsey ◽  
Jim Craig
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
The State ◽  
Response System ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Medical Response ◽  
Care Response

AbstractWe review the development of a disaster health care response system in Mississippi aimed at improving disaster response efforts. Large-scale disasters generate many injured and ill patients, which causes a significant utilization of emergency health care services and often requires external support to meet clinical needs. Disaster health care services require a solid infrastructure of coordination and collaboration to be effective. Following Hurricane Katrina, the state of Mississippi implemented best practices from around the nation to establish a disaster health care response system. The State Medical Response System of Mississippi provides an all-hazards system designed to support local response efforts at the time, scope, and scale required to successfully manage the incident. Components of this disaster health care response system can be replicated or adapted to meet the dynamic landscape of health care delivery following disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:600–604)

A guided latent Dirichlet allocation approach to investigate real-time latent topics of Twitter data during Hurricane Laura

2021 ◽  
pp. 016555152110077
Author(s):  
Sulong Zhou ◽  
Pengyu Kan ◽  
Qunying Huang ◽  
Janet Silbernagel
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Latent Topics ◽  
Dirichlet Allocation

Natural disasters cause significant damage, casualties and economical losses. Twitter has been used to support prompt disaster response and management because people tend to communicate and spread information on public social media platforms during disaster events. To retrieve real-time situational awareness (SA) information from tweets, the most effective way to mine text is using natural language processing (NLP). Among the advanced NLP models, the supervised approach can classify tweets into different categories to gain insight and leverage useful SA information from social media data. However, high-performing supervised models require domain knowledge to specify categories and involve costly labelling tasks. This research proposes a guided latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) workflow to investigate temporal latent topics from tweets during a recent disaster event, the 2020 Hurricane Laura. With integration of prior knowledge, a coherence model, LDA topics visualisation and validation from official reports, our guided approach reveals that most tweets contain several latent topics during the 10-day period of Hurricane Laura. This result indicates that state-of-the-art supervised models have not fully utilised tweet information because they only assign each tweet a single label. In contrast, our model can not only identify emerging topics during different disaster events but also provides multilabel references to the classification schema. In addition, our results can help to quickly identify and extract SA information to responders, stakeholders and the general public so that they can adopt timely responsive strategies and wisely allocate resource during Hurricane events.

scholarly journals Learning to Trust the Crowd: Validating ‘Crowd’ Sources for Improved Situational Awareness in Disaster Response

2016 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 141-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colby Howard ◽  
David Jones ◽  
Steven Reece ◽  
Antony Waldock
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Response ◽  
Situational Awareness

scholarly journals Human–agent collaboration for disaster response

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarvapali D. Ramchurn ◽  
Feng Wu ◽  
Wenchao Jiang ◽  
Joel E. Fischer ◽  
Steve Reece ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Response ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
Agent Collaboration

A Spatial and Longitudinal Analysis of Unmet Transportation Needs During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Joh ◽  
Alexandria Norman ◽  
Sherry I. Bame
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Baseline Period ◽  
Evacuation Routes ◽  
Hurricanes Katrina And Rita ◽  
Mass Evacuation

AbstractHurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the US Gulf Coast in 2005, leading to the largest mass evacuation in US history and straining the region’s transportation infrastructure and services. This case study addresses the topic of disaster response to transportation unmet needs through an unprecedented spatial and longitudinal analysis of transportation-related disaster 2-1-1 call data collected in real-time, allowing for the investigation of unmet transportation needs by location and disaster phases. The authors analyze 25,205 transportation-related calls logged in Texas’ 25 regional 2-1-1 Area Information Centers from August 1 to December 31, 2005, including a baseline period before Hurricane Katrina, evacuation and landfall, and 3-months recovery post-Hurricane Rita. The spatial results show that transportation unmet needs were concentrated in Texas’ major metropolitan areas, especially in Houston-Galveston, and along highway evacuation routes. However, after controlling for population size, areas close to the landfall site and evacuation destinations had greater unmet transportation needs. Longitudinally, transportation unmet needs surged during evacuation and immediate disaster response then returned to baseline levels during recovery. Based on the results of the case study analyzing Texas 2-1-1 call data of unmet transportation needs, strategies and policies for improving mass evacuation and transportation support services are proposed and discussed.

scholarly journals MIGRATION AS A SOCIAL RESOURCE OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITY

PRIMO ASPECTU ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
Julia DROZDOVA
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Social Resource ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Volgograd Region ◽  
New Research ◽  
Combined Strategy

In the modern globalized world migration shows a stable progressing nature which explains the academic interest in this complex, controversial phenomenon. The complexity of migration processes gives rise to new discourses, and a new research area where migration is studied as a social resource, a channel to replenish human resources in the declining regions of the Russian Federation. Data obtained in a complex sociological study performed within the framework of RFFI grant #19-411-340002 “Territorial communities in social transformation: a sociological and managerial analysis” permitted considering migration as a social resource. The research team of the Volgograd Institute of management, a branch of RANEPA, used a combined strategy that includes both quantitative (mass survey of citizens and rural residents) and qualitative methods of empirical study. The former were mass surveys of urban and country residents, the latter - in-depth interviews of experts and representatives of territorial local governing bodies, the academic community, urban and country activists, architects, leaders of property owner associations, long term residents of territorial communities. The obtained data allowed revealing the potential of migration in terms of partial compensation for the declining population of the Volgograd region, replenishing human resources and labor force, preservation and development of regional territories, building solidary ties between the local population and migrants. Migration has both positive and negative implications; the objective, inevitable nature of migration brings to the fore a need for optimal, effective methods of management at all levels of the social system. Social and ethnic agreement between migrants and the receiving population in territorial communities can be only possible when life in a region is well regulated, its municipal structures and local communities function properly, and the traditions and culture of all people residing here are respected.

scholarly journals From Disaster to Resilience

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Perkes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Community Design ◽  
Design Studio ◽  
Mississippi State University ◽  
State University ◽  
Art And Design ◽  
Mississippi Gulf Coast

What is changing in the world so that the word “resilience” is so frequently used? 2015 marks the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the five year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio has been working on the Mississippi Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina and their work provides the vantage point of this paper. The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio is an off-campus research and service center of Mississippi State University College of Architecture, Art and Design located in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was created to respond to Hurricane Katrina and has evolved from disaster response to long-term efforts of resilience. The design studio’s evolution is not an isolated story. It is part of a national move toward resilience.

scholarly journals Onsite Disaster Response System for an Inclusive Society and Social Safety Net by Types of Disabilities: Focusing on the Welfare Facilities for the Disabled in "D City"

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Jiyeon Myeong ◽  
Hongjik Kim
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Response System ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Disaster Situation ◽  
Physical Limitations ◽  
Inclusive Society

As the types of disaster diversity and the occurrence of disaster became more frequent, complex damage is also increasing. The nation is making various efforts, including creating an emergency management system and supporting crisis management research, to minimize damage to property, facilities and lives that are caused by disasters. However, the practical system for those who have a disadvantage in terms of disaster awareness and early evacuation due to their physical limitations is still insufficient. In this study, the vulnerability of people with disabilities when it comes to disaster safety was analyzed by visiting the living facilities tailored for each type of disability by examing each facility's disaster resonse manual and observing the facilities. In addition, through surveying and interviewing employees and users of facilities, we analyzed the recognition of evacuation. Finally, this study proposed strengthening related disaster response policies to establish an inclusive society and a social safety net by analyzing behavioral patterns for each type of disability in the initial disaster situation.

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