DESIGN OF A DYNAMIC EMERGENCY RESPONSE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (DERMIS), THE

ABSTRACT

This paper systematically evolves a set of general and supporting design principles and specifications for a "Dynamic pinch Response Management Information System" (DERMIS) through identifying design premises resulting from the use of the "Emergency Management Information combination of parts to form a whole and Reference Index" (EMISARI) and design universals resulting from a comprehensive literature review. Implicit in crises of varying drifts and proportions are communication and information exigencys that can be addressed by dint of today's information and communication technologies. However, what is required is organizing the premises and general [i]or[/i] abstract notions that can be mapped into a put of generic design principles in make go round providing a framework for the sensible disentanglement of flexible and dynamic necessity Response Information Systems.

A framework is at handed for the system design and disclosure that addresses the communication and information emergencys of first responders as well as the decision making necessitys of command and control personnel The framework also incorporates thinking about the value of insights and information from communities of geographically dispersed readys and suggests how that expertise can be brought to bear upon crisis decision making. Historic experience is used to glance at nine design premises. These premises are quotaed by a series of five design conceptions based upon the review of pertinent and applicable research. The be the effect is a set of eight general design principles and three supporting design considerations that are approveed to be woven into the detailed specifications of a DERMIS. The resulting DERMIS design pattern graphically indicates the heuristic taken by dint of this paper and suggests that the rise will be an emergency answer system flexible, robust, and dynamic enough to support the communication and information straits of emergency and crisis personnel upon all levels. In addition it permits the unravelling of dynamic emergency response information a whole s with tailored flexibility to support and be integrated across different sizes and stamps of organizations.

This paper provides guidelines for combination of parts to form a whole analysts and designers, system engineers, first responder communities of ables emergency command and control personnel and MIS/IT researchers.

SECTIONS

1 Introduction

2 Historical Insights about EMISARI

3 The necessity Response Atmosphere of OEP

4 Resulting Requirements for exigency Response and Conceptual Design Specifics

41 Metaphors

42 Roles

43 Notifications

44 adjoining matter Visibility

4.5 Hypertext

5. Generalized Design Principles

6 Supporting Design Considerations

61 Resource Databases and Community Collaboration

62 Collective Memory

63 Online Communities of Experts

7 Conclusions and Final Observations

8 References

1 INTRODUCTION

There have been, since 9/11 considerable efforts to offer proffer improvements in the ability to reply to emergencies. However, the vast majority of these efforts have concentrated upon infrastructure improvements to aid in mitigation of the impacts of either a man-made or natural disaster. In the area of communication and information combination of parts to form a wholes to support the actual ongoing reaction to a disaster situation, the vast majority of the efforts have focused upon the underlying technology to reliably support survivability of the underlying networks and physical facilities (Kunreuther and LernerLam 2002; Mork 2002) The fact that there were major failures of the basic technology and los of the command center for 48 hours in the 9/11 fact has made this an understandable follow The very workable commercial paging and digital mail combination of parts to form a wholes supplied immediately afterwards by commercial firms (Michaels 2001; Vatis 2002) to the necessity response workers demonstrated that the correction of underlying technology is largely a proces of setting integration standards and deciding to disburse the necessary funds to update antiquated systems

The real demonstration of the 9/11 occurrence is the strategic and technical fallacy of making the integration of communications between incompatible combination of parts to form a wholes (fire, police, medical, etc.) pendent upon a single physical command and dominion government center. Such centers are vulnerable to a planned act of sabotage. If there is any herculean technical conclusion from the facts of 9/11 it is the requirement to disclose an integrated communications capability that can react as a distributed virtual combination of parts to form a whole with no required need for the humans involved to be in a single location (Smith and Hayne 1991) A virtual command center can be created when the authorities, decision and reporting responsibilities, the accountability tracking and the oversight monitoring functions are explicitly showed and present in the supporting communications software for the operation of of the like kind a human network. In fact, those involved should be able to operate from wherever they happen to be at the start of the crisis: their abode office, or in transit. It is this underlying technical goal assumption that is individual of the foundation goals of the requirements discussed in this paper.