Operational Command and Control of Federal Domestic Emergency Response Operations

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon K. Richey
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
And Control

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’.

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.

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.

Data Fusion Aiding Tool (DAFAT) Design for Emergency Command and Control Using Lean Principles

2015 ◽  
pp. 202-230
Author(s):  
Obafemi Balogun ◽  
Edem G. Tetteh
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Lean Principles ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Emergency Response Planning ◽  
The World ◽  
And Control ◽  
Insight Into

Disaster events, such as September 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, and the Southeast Asian Tsunami, have taught America and the world the importance of preparing for emergency response to a disaster that may arise from natural disasters or man-made disasters. Decisions regarding emergency response often rely on incomplete information and imprecise data, whereas responsive measures to disasters must be efficient in time and effective in accuracy to minimize possible loss of lives and properties. The domain of emergency response requires the interaction and collaboration of multiple stakeholders with different standard operating procedures. Excluding lean principles in the design of the emergency management information system can be as devastating as the disaster itself. This chapter analyzes the impacts of lean principles in the understanding of command and control, its nature, and the characteristics of an emergency domain, providing better insight into the problems associated with information processing during emergency response planning.

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