ESM Research

The Learning Resource Center (aka “the library”) at the U.S. Fire Administration has a treasure trove of research tools for disaster scientists and emergency services managers. (More to come, I promise!) I couldn’t resist giving a sneak peek of one of their tools I was able to make immediate use of.

Significant Disasters/Fires/Incidents

In five different topic areas (Earthquakes, Fires, Hurricanes, Terrorist Incidents and ‘Other Disasters‘), links are given to US Fire Administration LRC items on a given topic. For instance, the Hurricanes page lists 11 hurricanes, covering the span of this century, and links to a number of journal articles, proceedings, reports, government documents and books on each individual storm. Many of the journal articles are not indexed elsewhere, or are indexed only in highly specialized databases, so having the citations collected together like this makes searching a breeze.* The topics, while not entirely comprehensive for every US disaster (and certainly not for international ones!), are specific enough to be truly useful.

Check it out, and look for more information on the US Fire Administration library’s resources in a future post.

*(Sorry for the lame hurricane pun. I couldn’t help myself!)

The back cover of this new book from CRC Press claims it contains, “All the Essential Information Needed to Build an Effective Response.” As the book weighs in at just more than 250 pages (inclusive of index and notes), I was a tad skeptical. However…

In 9 brief chapters and an epilogue, experts from fields as diverse as public health, homeland security and veterinary medicine give overviews of the history, clinical aspects, local and federal responses, and even business continuity and ‘fatality management’ planning. Packed with references, tables and even pictures, the book could serve as a textbook (the preface actually contains a list of “Primary Learning Objectives”) or a reference for emergency managers, planners or public health professionals. While technically grounded, the authors manages to keep the book readable even for the generalist.

This just in, courtesy of Open CRS:

http://opencrs.com/document/R40859/2009-10-14/download/1013/

Effective emergency response is dependent on wireless communications. To minimize communications failures during and after a crisis requires ongoing improvements in emergency communications capacity and capability. The availability of radio frequency spectrum is considered essential to developing a modern, interoperable communications network for public safety. Equally critical is building the radio network to use this spectrum. Opinions diverge, however, on such issues as how much spectrum should be made available for the network, who should own it, who should build it, who should operate it, who should be allowed to use it, and how it might be paid for. As a consequence, nascent planning for a national network is incomplete and some state and local network plans have been delayed. To resolve the debate and move the planning process forward, Congress may decide to pursue oversight or change existing law. Actions proposed to Congress include (1) authorizing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reassign spectrum and (2) changing requirements for the use of spectrum auction proceeds. In particular, legislation in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171), as amended, might be modified. This law mandated the termination of analog television broadcasting and the release of those channels for other uses, including public safety. The act identified the frequencies from the analog television channels that were to be auctioned by the FCC. It also created a trust fund that set aside part of the auction proceeds for a number of programs, with the balance destined for the U.S. Treasury. Among the programs receiving funds from the trust fund was a billion-dollar program for grants to public safety, the Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) grant program. Under the law, states have until FY2010 to draw down these funds. Bills that would extend the deadline to the end of FY2012 have been introduced in the House and Senate. Alternative proposals on how to assign spectrum for public safety use have been presented to the FCC and to Congress. To build the needed network requires coordination at many levels: developing the network concept, identifying a governance structure that assures the network is built and maintained, and funding capital and operating costs. Many believe that empowering leadership and identifying funding sources should ideally be resolved before the final decision is reached about spectrum allocation. There is an opportunity for two transformative changes in policy: for public safety communications and for spectrum management. As old technologies give way to mobile Internet access, changes in spectrum management are required to accommodate new wireless technologies. For the public safety community to incorporate these new technologies into emergency communications would require a change in stakeholders’ planning goals. The interaction between spectrum policy and homeland security policy might be changed through the planning and execution of an interoperable network for public safety. Congress has recognized the value of using Internet protocols for IP-based networks for 911 communications, by supporting the transition of out-dated 911 systems to IP-based technologies. Congress has not previously considered giving the same attention to the adoption of IP-based technologies for public safety radio communications. Congress might provide leadership and resources that can bring a nationwide, interoperable network for public safety from concept to reality.

Open CRS, a project of the Center for Democracy & Technology,  attempts to pull together all available Congressional Research Service Reports in one easily accessible website. Lots of great information here.

We seem to be on a roll here, with open-source publishing and web 2.0 technologies being co-opted by “authoritative” sources. This latest case connects Healthmap.org, with the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Working together, they have developed an interactive map charting H1N1 cases and deaths as reported by the media. Although they have stopped tracking reports from “official” sources such as the CDC and WHO, hovering over any incident shows the media link, even when the report is not in English, so you can check the authority of the report yourself.

One of the most interesting features is the ability to track the progression of the virus, on a date range and map level that you specify. There is also a listing of the most current H1N1 news.

Here’s a bright spot in the increasingly depressing ‘jobs and payroll‘ numbers, from CNN and CareerBuilder.com:

“Seven Emerging Job Poised for Growth”

5. Emergency management

Since the September11 terrorist attacks, jobs in the anti-terrorism field have grown. The required skills for positions in the anti-terrorism field are demanding, but a more attainable (yet still in-demand) career option is in emergency planning.

Not only do emergency planners prepare and plan for terrorist attacks, they also train and prepare for responses and procedures for other disasters such as fires, floods, hostage situations or pandemics.

Industry umbrella: Management, business and financial operations
Job growth: 7 – 13 percent
Salary: $48,386

(Strangely enough, no library jobs make the list – is Google Books to blame?)

I’ll just put it out there – I’m a huge fan of nuclear power, and Dominion (our local power company) runs two reactor sites in our region, which generate 30% of their power output. This announcement came through a VA Dept of Emergency Management press release, and I thought it was a great example of public/private partnership in a readiness exercise:

Surry Radiological Emergency Preparedness Exercise Set for Aug. 4

RICHMOND, VA – Response personnel from state and local government and Dominion will demonstrate their ability to protect the public’s health and safety in a full-scale exercise Aug. 4 for the utility’s Surry Power Station. The exercise will involve localities within 10 miles of the power station.

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management will lead the Virginia Operations Plan Exercise, or VOPEX, a simulated radiological emergency, to help state and local governments test their response procedures in the unlikely event of a radiological emergency. These annual exercises rotate between the Surry and North Anna nuclear power stations.

Response agencies and local government representatives will role-play their emergency operations functions from the state and local government emergency operations centers. Participating localities include the counties of Charles City, Isle of Wight, James City, New Kent, Surry and York and the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson and Williamsburg.

Law enforcement personnel will practice traffic control measures in the field. Local and state radiological monitoring teams will take simulated field readings and communicate via radio.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will monitor the progress of the drill and conduct an in-depth analysis of the results, detailing areas needing improvement. FEMA will review the success of the exercise at a public meeting on Aug. 7 at 11 a.m. at the Omni Hotel in Newport News.

In addition, information about emergency plans at Surry and North Anna are available online. (You can also take a cute little animated tour here - anything to get the word out!)

A new issue of the International Journal of Emergency Management is out, and this article was an interesting example of studying behaviors in a non-emergency situation:

An experimental investigation of post-earthquake travel behaviours: the effects of severity and initial location

from Most recent issue published online for the International Journal of Emergency Management. by S. Lamb

An experimental investigation of post-earthquake travel behaviours: the effects of severity and initial location
D. Walton, S. Lamb
International Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2009) pp. 14 – 32
A computer-aided personal interviewing survey containing 63 items examining post-earthquake travel behaviours was administered to 802 members of the general public. Earthquake simulation videos modelled a moderate and severe event (6.8 and 7.5, respectively, on the Richter scale) in an office and home setting. Travel movements were recorded over a simulated 48-h period following the earthquake. Geographic Information System (GIS) software was used to obtain trip origins and destinations the routes taken and trip distances. Information seeking was also examined. The results indicate that an event which induces significant travel produces trips that are for a variety of purposes, not just to return home. While individually rational, this behaviour is a form of collective social disorder. Mode choice varied with event severity and distance (walking was preferred up to 3.25 km, then vehicles were preferred). Well-prepared emergency plans reduce the need to travel. The motivation to travel was affected by available information and is discussed as a form of information seeking.

For University of Richmond students and faculty, you can access this issue and previous issues of the International Journal of Emergency Management through Journal Locator. Type in the name of the journal, and then click the “Inderscience Enterprises Ltd” link (ignore the dates and any error messages that might pop up – we’re working on that). Let me know if you have any troubles.

When the power of Google is combined with the authority of the NLM, the CDC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the DoD’s Global Emerging Infections System (among others), and the intellectual might of MIT and Harvard researchers, what you get is HealthMap.org:

HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Through an automated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and displayed by location for user-friendly access to the original alert. HealthMap provides a jumping-off point for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases and has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers.

Health issues in the new, ‘2.0′ (for lack of a better term) technology-driven environment are an interesting thing, but not studied enough. I came across this article, from the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) via Pubmed:

HealthMap: global infectious disease monitoring through automated classification and visualization of Internet media reports.

Freifeld CC, Mandl KD, Reis BY, Brownstein JS.

Children’s Hospital Informatics Program, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 300 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA. clark.freifeld@childrens.harvard.edu

OBJECTIVE: Unstructured electronic information sources, such as news reports, are proving to be valuable inputs for public health surveillance. However, staying abreast of current disease outbreaks requires scouring a continually growing number of disparate news sources and alert services, resulting in information overload. Our objective is to address this challenge through the HealthMap.org Web application, an automated system for querying, filtering, integrating and visualizing unstructured reports on disease outbreaks. DESIGN: This report describes the design principles, software architecture and implementation of HealthMap and discusses key challenges and future plans. MEASUREMENTS: We describe the process by which HealthMap collects and integrates outbreak data from a variety of sources, including news media (e.g., Google News), expert-curated accounts (e.g., ProMED Mail), and validated official alerts. Through the use of text processing algorithms, the system classifies alerts by location and disease and then overlays them on an interactive geographic map. We measure the accuracy of the classification algorithms based on the level of human curation necessary to correct misclassifications, and examine geographic coverage. RESULTS: As part of the evaluation of the system, we analyzed 778 reports with HealthMap, representing 87 disease categories and 89 countries. The automated classifier performed with 84% accuracy, demonstrating significant usefulness in managing the large volume of information processed by the system. Accuracy for ProMED alerts is 91% compared to Google News reports at 81%, as ProMED messages follow a more regular structure. CONCLUSION: HealthMap is a useful free and open resource employing text-processing algorithms to identify important disease outbreak information through a user-friendly interface.

And this article, from PLoS Medicine:

Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project

John S Brownstein,^* Clark C Freifeld, Ben Y Reis, and Kenneth D Mandl

As developed nations continue to strengthen their electronic disease surveillance capacities [1], the parts of the world that are most vulnerable to emerging disease threats still lack essential public health information infrastructure [2,3]. The existing network of traditional surveillance efforts managed by health ministries, public health institutes, multinational agencies, and laboratory and institutional networks has wide gaps in geographic coverage and often suffers from poor and sometimes suppressed information flow across national borders [4]. At the same time, an enormous amount of valuable information about infectious diseases is found in Web-accessible information sources such as discussion sites, disease reporting networks, and news outlets [5,6,7]. These resources can support situational awareness by providing current, highly local information about outbreaks, even from areas relatively invisible to traditional global public health efforts [8]. These data are plagued by a number of potential hazards that must be studied in depth, including false reports (mis- or disinformation) and reporting bias. Yet these data hold tremendous potential to initiate epidemiologic follow-up studies and provide complementary epidemic intelligence context to traditional surveillance sources. This potential is already being realized, as a majority of outbreak verifications currently conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network are triggered by reports from these nontraditional sources [5,6].

Because the field of Emergency Services Management is so new, diverse and inter-disciplinary, I employ a number of techniques to make ‘keeping up’ in the field manageable.* One of them is setting up “Journal Alerts” in databases for the journals that I know are most relevant to the field. This is an easy way to get the titles and abstracts delivered to my email inbox or RSS reader every time a new issue is published.

The journals that I try to read in this field are:

–International Journal of Emergency Management
–Journal of Emergency Management
–Natural Hazards Review
–Futures Research Quarterly
–Disaster Prevention and Management
–International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
–Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning
–Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Over the course of the next few Thursdays, I’ll be reviewing these journals, and giving instructions for signing up for alerts for each. If you know of a journal the library should subscribe to in this field, let me know!

(*) If you think you have it bad with this subject, imagine how much reading I have to do to stay current in all the fields I support (ESM/Disaster Science, HRM, Information Systems, Liberal Arts, and Teacher Licensure) and my very own Library & Information Science field…