Ing for Emergency Management Emergency

Ing for Emergency Management

Emergency management is a relatively novel concept, with modern applications, theories, models and threats. The practices of emergency management have nevertheless existed since biblical times, and examples include the gathering of animals on Noah's Arc and the repopulation of the world in the aftermath of the great flooding, the means in which Moses handled the exodus and guided the Hebrews and so on. The Bible even encourages people to pay attention to dangers and address them. It says: "the prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." (Prov. 27:12, quoted by Andy Stanley, 2009).

Since the biblical times, the practices of emergency management have evolved significantly, as have the threats and the causes of the emergency situations. The company strives to continually assess the society and understand the changes and the challenges, and to integrate them within our programs. At this stage, we are committed to improving our operations from two distinct angles: (1) the integration of the latest technological developments which help identify, prevent and resolve emergency situations in a more effective and efficient manner and (2) the identification of the modern day threats which can impact the management of emergency situations and the integration of responses to these threats within the institutional operations.

Slide 3: The emergency management operations today

The emergency management program has undergone a series of changes throughout the past years. These changes have referred both to modifications within the internal structures of the entity, but also to actual changes within the programs. At the level of the programs, these are traditionally focused on search and rescue missions, which occur when the emergency situations materialize. These search and rescue missions were developed in time in order to shorten the duration of the operations and as such increase the survival chances of the people affected by the disaster. Additionally, the staff at the organization has been trained in order to increase the efficiency of their actions. Efficiency is in fact the first and foremost important element of our missions.

Efforts have also been made in the sense of improving the search and rescue missions with the introduction of newer and better technologies. The institution collaborates with it firms and they contact the emergency management institution when new developments have been made. The main challenge with technological integration is constituted by the lack of sufficient financial resources. The company collects its funds from state budgets, but also from donations. The following slide lists the main operations handled by our organization.

Slide 4: Current operations of the institution

Staff training -- both for emergency management operations as well as training at a psychological level in order to support the employees in creating an ability to deal with pressure and trauma

Organizing drills and field training sessions to test the ability of the staffs as well as to ensure that they remain alert even when emergency situations do not occur

Assisting local agencies and other groups when emergency situations arise by offering both actual help with emergency management, as well as knowledge support and transfer. The company even organizes emergency management training sessions for employees and groups in various institutions, such as private economic agents, schools, medical institutions and so on.

Running an emergency operations center 24/7. This center is run on daily basis and it receives data on emergencies, administers the management of the disaster and offers updates.

Budgeting of emergency management operations and the allocation of funds towards the management of emergency situations. Efforts are also made in the direction of collecting more funds.

Communications with the public in order to increase awareness of emergency situations and also to offer minimum and basic information as to how the public should recognize a disaster, alert the authorities and take the minimum, immediate and necessary action until the emergency management team arrives on location.

Slide 5: Current emergency management operations

Continuously open communications with the public and other agencies in order to identify emergency situations

Offering quick response to emergency situations by quickly reaching the location in well equipped machineries and with highly developed equipments. Immediate services include urgency medical services, firefighting and order services.

Researching and gathering vital information on site in order to identify the priorities, the circumstances and other information necessary to efficiently approach the situation

Search missions by water and air; land searches are also offered but they are less efficient and as such less applied

Rescue missions on water and land

The transport and offering of basic supplies to the people in isolated locations which cannot be rescued on the spot

Maintaining communications with the victims which still need rescue as well as collaborating with the agencies, groups and individuals who need help or who can provide help

Researching the emergency situation, identifying its causes and manifestation, supporting the recovery of the community and drawing lessons from the experience in order to enhance the management of future similar emergency situations.

The underlying philosophy is that of combining technical skills, theories and doctrines with imagination, creativity and adaptability in order to respond to the particularities of any given situation (Harrald, 2006).

Slide 6: The need for change

The modern day society is extremely dynamic and it raises a series of new challenges. This virtually means that the nature of the emergency situation also changes. Emergency management operations and practices need as such to develop alongside with the new challenges in order to remain able to assist the populations in need of emergency assistance. And these changes are not only observable at the agency level, but also at the national level. The government has for instance changed several emergency management policies in the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane, when problems found were associated with "questionable leadership decisions and capabilities, organizational failures, overwhelmed preparation and communication systems and inadequate statutory authorities. From these conclusions, the 109th Congress revised federal emergency management policies vested in the President; reorganized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); and enhanced and clarified the mission, functions and authorities of the agency, as well as those of its parent, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)" (Bea, 2006).

At the level of the theoreticians in the field, the emphasis has been placed on changes in the direction of preventing the emergency, rather than addressing it. Focus is as such placed on the vulnerability of a community in the face of a disaster, rather than the hazard itself. It is as such argued that disasters will always occur, but that "steps can be taken to reduce factors that increase risk from exposure, increase the ability to withstand disaster and increase the effectiveness of response and recovery" (McEntire, 2005).

Slide 7: Change at our agency

Processes of change had gradually been developed and introduced at our organization, but these have generically been characterized by slow implementation and barely visible results. These processes have had the benefit of not creating stress and pressures at an internal level. From the standpoint of the employees, it is expected that the new processes of change -- which would be more dynamic and more involving -- generate resistance. Despite this however, change is necessary and would be implemented onto two distinct channels.

The first necessity for change is given by the advent of technology. Technologic evolution forces the groups and individuals to develop alongside, but it also offers them enhanced abilities to better respond to the challenges of life. At the level of emergency management, technological advent is materialized in the new hardware equipments and software solutions which improve the act of administrating an emergency situation.

The second necessity for change is given by a mixture of threats which arise from within the society. The examples in this sense are various and would be detailed throughout the following pages. At this stage however, it would be useful to name a two of the most important of these, particularly the environmental changes or the incremental threat of terrorist attacks.

Slide 8: Technology and emergency management

As it has been previously mentioned, the technologic field develops at a rapid pace and raises both opportunities as well as threats. At the level of the opportunities, these materialize primarily in the creation of newer and better applications and equipments which allow individuals and organizations to better attain their objectives. These developments can also be integrated within the management of emergency situations.

The technological evolutions have commenced to impact the field of emergency management ever since the 1970s decade, at which point efforts commenced in the direction of creating a system of emergency management. At a national level, this system has yet to be created, but we believe that technological evolution can help achieve this desiderate. As defined by the editors at the National Research Council (NRC), an emergency management system represents an "integrated collection of components, with defined and agreed upon obligations and responsibilities, that interact in concert to achieve a given goal" (National Research Council, 1982). Our agency is committed to using technology to create an efficient emergency management system which integrates and uses a wide array of resources in order to attain the pre-established goals of emergency relief and assistance.

Slide 9: Technological innovations in emergency management

The starting point in the creation of a plan on how to improve our program from a technological standpoint has been constituted by the review of the it industry. The scope of this research has been that of identifying the innovations in the field and their relevance for our agency and its mission. The results of the research endeavor are briefly presented below:

GIS is an important tool to use in the collection of data necessary and its usage is credited with overall successful emergency operations as it allows the intervention teams to gather data pivotal at all stages of the emergency management process.

Remote sensing technology is enhancing the quality of the emergency management act at the stages of mitigation and preparedness and it has proven efficient in the management of both natural hazards as well as man made disasters.

The NOAAPort C-Band DVB-S satellite downlink system is one of the most efficient means of detecting the risk of severe weather, and it is as such crucial in all states, but even more so in the coastal ones.

In light of these findings, it has been concluded that the technological change at our agency would be focused on three dimensions and the implementation of three specific technologies -- GIS, remote sensing technology and the NOAAPort C-Band DVB-S satellite downlink system.

Slide 10: GIS (geographic information system)

The geographic information system is a collection of software and hardware applications and appliances which collect, store and analyze data. In the words of its creators, GIS "integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.

GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts" (GIS).

Source: www.gis.com

The importance of GIS is given by the fact that it collects information which is crucial at all stages of the emergency management process. The need for GIS is given by the need for quick and relevant information. In the case of an emergency, the rescue team needs quick access to information, but this information -- such as maps, routes, alternative entries to hospitals, sewers and so on -- is spread across various parties and its collection requires additional effort and time, neither of which is generally available. This virtually means that rescue teams have to base their actions on estimations, and this would often cause material or even human losses. The GIS technology comes to help by collecting the required data, centralizing it in a single and easily accessible source and presenting the information in a highly efficient manner, which is easily understood by all members of the rescue teams (Johnson, 2000).

Slide 11: Remote sensing technology

Remote sensing refers to the collection of information without actually coming into physical contact with the component elements of the studied phenomenon. "Remote sensing is the science and art of acquiring information (spectral, spatial, temporal) about material objects, area, or phenomenon, without coming into physical contact with the objects, or area, or phenomenon under investigation. Without direct contact, some means of transferring information through space must be utilised. In remote sensing, information transfer is accomplished by use of electromagnetic radiation (EMR)" (GIS Development).

The high resolution coverage used in remote sensing technologies allows for the quick identification of damages, such as damages in infrastructure, including bridges or buildings, which can then help resolve the crisis; the absence of this information can however deepen the emergency. At the level of mitigation and preparedness, remote sensing technologies support development of emergency management by enhancing the quality of inventory development, logistical planning as well as the higher quality assessment of risk and hazard. Once the hazard has occurred, the remote sensing technologies offer "a low-risk method of assessing damage to critical infrastructure and the urban built environment" (Taylor and Vanmarcke, 2006).

Slide 12: The NOAAPort C-Band DVB-S satellite downlink system

Given t

he nature of the state's coastal geographic positioning, a severe weather tracking system is crucial in order to identify the formation of storms in the ocean, the direction in which they are headed, their intensity and so on.

Source: Washtenaw County, 2010

One of the most adequate of these systems is the NOAAPort C-Band DVB-S satellite downlink system. "This downlink provides the Emergency Operations Center with a continuous 10 MB/S feed that includes all images generated by the National Weather Service's Doppler radar network, GOES visible, infrared, and water vapor imagery, all forecast models, and all text generated bulletins within two seconds of being generated or issued. This downlink utilizes two 3.7-meter dishes (a primary and a backup), a dual receiver system, a data ingest server and a GEMPAK image processing server... both utilizing dual quad-core processors and 64-bit Linux operating systems. In addition, two isolated servers and a receiver system are set-up and ready to take over should the primary technology ever fail" (Washtenaw County, 2010).

Nevertheless however, in spite of the technical performances it achieves, the NOAAPort C-Band DVB-S satellite downlink system is necessary within our organization due to the high risks of natural hazards. This risk is a leading generator of emergencies in the state and the severe weather tracking system can lead to the minimization of the negative impacts.

Slide 13: Threats emergent from the modern day society

The modern day society is the result of numerous processes of change, one of which has been the above discussed technological evolution. While the advent of technology creates new opportunities in emergency management, there are also other changes which create threats. The agency has identified the most important of these threats and has also come up with solutions to resolving them. In this order of ideas, the most relevant threats of the modern day society refer to the following:

The higher levels of consumption and pollution which lead to the decay of the natural environment and generate environmental instability. Environmental instability has a unique particularity in our state, due to its location on the coast

The incremental pressures from the international arena and the ongoing ideological and cultural war between the West and the East. This specifically materializes in a series of terrorist attract threats, exemplified most relevantly by the attacks on the World Trade Center on the 11th of September 2001.

The incremental pressures and demands from the public opinion, which is now more involved and more critical than ever.

The continued need for more financial resources to support the efforts in the development and implementation of solutions to the previously mentioned threats.

Slide 14: The threat of environmental instability

Despite the fact that, at a general level, the world has significantly evolved throughout the past years, from an environmental standpoint, the world has devolved. The technological evolutions or the increasing living standards have generated higher rates of natural resource consumption, and also higher levels of waste and the adjacent pollution. Natural habitats are decaying; animal and planet life is endangered, and the safety of the human population is also endangered.

All the man made activities which negatively influence the environment generate global warming and pollution, which are in turn responsible for a larger incidence of natural disasters, which leads to the occurrence of emergency situations. The lines below offer some examples as to how environmental instability generates emergency situations:

Environmental instability materializes in alternate periods of droughts and floods, which require special and emergency interventions

Global warming also generates landslides or tsunamis, which lead to emergency situations

Aside form the obvious impacts, the raising global temperatures make it difficult for the firefighters to put out the fire as the warm temperature creates a perfect environment for fires to occur and grow. The fires also destroy the forests and the trees which suck the carbon dioxide and release oxygen. In their absence, fires can last even longer, creating a negative feedback loop, or a vicious circle of negative effects. Global warming is a main cause for the ongoing fires annually witnessed in California (Goodman, 2007).

Slide 15: Environmental instability in coastal countries

Recent studies indicate that global warming generates a wider series of impacts, which had not been initially foreseen. At a particular level, global warming does not only impact life on the surface, but even generates changes in the Earth's geology. And while these effects are expected to eventually impact the entire world, they would be first felt by coastal countries.

The global warming phenomenon increases the temperature across the globe, which leads to proper eruption conditions for volcanoes, which can impact not only the home countries of the volcanoes, but also other parts of the globe, as the force would be transmitted by water and would form tsunamis.

The rising temperatures also create favorable conditions for earthquakes and avalanches. At an initial level, global warming leads to the melting of the glaciers, which then causes floods, avalanches and mudflows. These in turn lead to soil erosions and landslides which can cause tsunamis (McKie, 2009).

The melting of the glaciers raises sea and ocean levels, which eliminates the barriers that protected the land against water disasters. This specifically explains the severity of the recent tsunamis, and this severity is expected to increase in the future (Roberts, 2005).

Slide 16: Addressing the threat of environmental instability

In order to respond to the threat of environmental stability, our agency has developed a special program, based on the gradual completion of the following stages:

Intense training sessions with the agency staffs. The scope of these training sessions is that of technically and emotionally preparing the rescue teams to better cope with the increasing pressures and the more dramatic emergency situations. Additionally, they would also strive to increase awareness of the threat of global warming and of its future impacts on the society, as well as on the management of emergency situations.

Intensifying the efforts to foresee and identify the natural disaster and take more actions to limit its negative impacts, rather than focusing alone on rescuing and managing the disaster as it unfolds.

Understanding and assessing the risks. This specifically means that we would be focusing on understanding the entire dimension of the risk of global warming and all its potential impacts, instead of focusing on floods or droughts alone for instance, as this generates the risk of overlooking other dimensions of the problem (Freitag).

Intensifying the collaborations with agents in the public and private sector in order to increase populous awareness of the threat of global warming.

Slide 17: The threat of increasing terrorism

Despite intense diplomatic efforts, the relationships between the West and the East remain tense and probably the most relevant example in this sense is constituted by the relationship between the United States of America and several countries in the Middle East, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, against which the U.S. has declared the war on terrorism. The political decisions behind these actions and relationships are complex, but fact remains that the rising incidence of terrorist attacks generates more need for emergency management teams.

Terrorist attacks are somewhat similar to natural hazards in the meaning that they cause harm or even death of living creatures. But from the standpoint of emergency management, the two sets of threats are different. Terrorism is directly linked to human action and human intent, whereas natural disasters are not directly man made activities. When both types of disaster occur, the public is shocked, but in the case of the natural disasters, people tend to emotionally recover quicker. With terrorist attacks however, people tend to recover slower. And this is explained by the fact that the terrorist attack was a direct and intentional attempt at the security of the society. "Terrorism threatens society's and the individual's security needs. The social impact of terrorism may cause long-term negative effects on people unless emergency management organizations establish effective management plans for the preparation for and response to terrorist events" (Kapti and Pamuk, quoted by Durmaz, 2007).

Slide 18: Addressing the threat of increasing terrorism

At a general level, the means of addressing the threat of terrorism was that of developing and implementing the concept of terrorism emergency management, which is understood as an enlargement of the initial concept of emergency management, which is added a new dimension. At the level of this agency, the following commitments have been made in order to address the threat of terrorism:

Integrating programs of terrorist response and emergency situation management within our daily operations and becoming prepared to face these risks. The U.S. is already a global leader in terms of such programs, but developments are still undergoing.

Hiring and collaborating with military and otherwise trained specialists who possess extensive knowledge on terrorist attacks, their manifestations, their intent and so on Offering training to the staff members in order to present them with new skills, techniques and knowledge, but also with an enhanced ability to emotionally cope with the trauma

Intensifying the collaborations and communications with law forces and medical facilities in order to establish more efficient and fruitful relationships which can lead to better outcomes in the management of emergency situations

Conducting analyses in order to identify the state's vulnerability in the face of terrorism attacks as well as the potential terrorist interest in the region, such as the analysis of the malls, the parks, the corporations, the public institutions or other locations which are either crowded or important and can constitute targets.

Slide 19: The threat of increasing public demands

The modern day society is more informed and more demanding than ever. It has gained access to information and it has as such become more powerful in formulating demands. The higher levels of demands have also arisen from within the business community. Here, the opening of boundaries has created a context in which national and international economic agents fight for customers and are as such willing to serve more and more needs and to do so in a more efficient manner. The increasing pretensions of the individuals have become extrapolated within the public sector and the state agencies are required to improve the quality of their services.

In order to address this threat, the agency has committed to the following:

A 100 per cent dedication to quality and the respect of the highest standards of operation

The maintenance of constant communications with the public through which they are informed of the company's efforts, failures and successes

The integration of the marketing dimension within the agency's operations, through which efforts are made to promote the agency in a favorable light and to construct a solid reputation within the local and national community.

The insurance of transparency in all agency operations and the stimulation of collaborations with various members of the community.

Slide 20: Educating the population

A common solution to all the above mentioned threats is that of increasing awareness of the new risks and their importance and manifestation. From this standpoint then, it is important to educate all members of the community and offer them basic knowledge of emergency management. The higher levels of awareness and education would lead to better managed crisis situations, in which the people are able to manage the emergency until the specialized teams arrive, they are better able to identify the emergency early on or they are able to care for themselves until the rescuers arrive.

In order to attain these objectives, the agency has committed to the following:

Offering training sessions to the staffs in public institutions, namely educational institutions, medical facilities or offices

Introducing the audiences to the basic emergency management concepts and practices which ensure survival and immediate help and reaction

Raising awareness over the means in which emergency situations can be prevented and stimulating the populations to behave in a more environmentally responsible manner

Discussing these elements with students in schools, as well as any other organized group which solicits it.

Slide 21: The threat of financial shortages

As the previous slides have shown, all threats in the modern day community have solutions and they can be addressed in effective manners which ensure higher quality of the emergency management efforts. Nevertheless, the resolution of the threats is highly sensitive to financial constraints in the means that financial resources are imperative to obtaining the scope of addressing all threats and implementing all the necessary changes to emergency management.

Today, the agency retrieves it funds from the state budget, and from donations. The amount of the donations is however limited and the agency relies primarily on the money from the state. In the context of the internationalized economic crisis, the ongoing war on terrorism, or the incremental pressures from the aging population (and the adjacently increased needs of the insurance, medical and retirement systems), emergency management has taken a second place in terms of budgetary priorities. This generates a need for additional efforts on the part of the agency to generate funds.