Section 214 of the E-government Act of 2002 called on the Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government in the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to "ensure that a study is conducted on using information technology to enhance crisis preparedness, response, and consequence management of natural and manmade disasters." The section cited as a goal "to improve how information technology is used in coordinating and facilitating information on disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, while ensuring the availability of such information across multiple access channels." In early 2005, FEMA, via a subcontract through Battelle Memorial Institute, asked the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council (NRC) to undertake a two-phase study on these issues. Summary of a Workshop on Using Information Technology to Enhance Disaster Management culminates phase 1 of the project. CSTB established the Committee on Using Information Technology to Enhance Disaster Management, and a public workshop was held under the committee's auspices on June 22-23, 2005. The committee's goal for the workshop was to establish a base of information for its study by hearing about present and future uses of IT from the perspective of federal, state, and local disaster management officials and users together with a sampling of relevant IT research and development activities. A variety of representatives of federal, state, and local government agencies, private industry, and the research community participated. Panelists at the workshop presented a range of views on the present state of the art and practice and future opportunities to harness information technology to aid in the management of natural and human-made disasters. This report summarizes some of the key points made by workshop participants. This report also contains the workshop agenda and includes biographical information for committee members and staff. In phase 2 of its study, the committee will supplement the inputs received at the workshop with information gathered at several site visits and a series of additional briefings. Phase 2 will culminate in a final report, expected in spring 2006, which provides findings and recommendations on requirements for effective use of information technology for disaster management, research and development needs and opportunities, and related research management and technology transition considerations.

Information technology (IT) has the potential to play a critical role in managing natural and human-made disasters. Damage to communications infrastructure, along with other communications problems exacerbated the difficulties in carrying out response and recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. To assist government planning in this area, the Congress, in the E-government Act of 2002, directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to request the NRC to conduct a study on the application of IT to disaster management. This report characterizes disaster management providing a framework for considering the range and nature of information and communication needs; presents a vision of the potential for IT to improve disaster management; provides an analysis of structural, organizational, and other non-technical barriers to the acquisition, adoption, and effective use of IT in disaster; and offers an outline of a research program aimed at strengthening IT-enabled capabilities for disaster management.

This SpringerBrief provides a general overview of the role of satellite applications for disaster mitigation, warning, planning, recovery and response. It covers both the overall role and perspective of the emergency management community as well as the various space applications that support their work. Key insights are provided as to how satellite telecommunications, remote sensing, navigation systems, GIS, and the emerging domain of social media are utilized in the context of emergency management needs and requirements. These systems are now critical in addressing major man-made and natural disasters. International policy and treaties are covered along with various case studies from around the world. These case studies indicate vital lessons that have been learned about how to use space systems more effectively in addressing the so-called “Disaster Cycle.” This book is appropriate for practicing emergency managers, Emergency Management (EM) courses, as well as for those involved in various space applications and developing new satellite technologies.

Firefighters and other emergency first responders use a huge variety of highly specialized and critical technologies for personal protection. These technologies, ranging from GPS to environmental sensing to communication devices, often run on different systems with separate power supplies and operating platforms. How these technological components function in a single synergistic system is of critical interest to firefighter end-users seeking efficient tools. Interoperable ESE states that a standardized platform for electronic safety equipment (ESE) is both logical and essential. This book develops an inventory of existing and emerging electronic equipment categorized by key areas of interest to the fire service, documents equipment performance requirements relevant to interoperability, including communications and power requirements, and develops an action plan toward the development of requirements to meet the needs of emergency responders. This book is intended for practitioners as a tool for understanding interoperability concepts and the requirements of the fire service landscape. It offers clear recommendations for the future to help ensure efficiency and safety with fire protection equipment. Researchers working in a related field will also find the book valuable.

Nowadays research in earthquake engineering is mainly experimental and in large-scale; advanced computations are integrated with large-scale experiments, to complement them and extend their scope, even by coupling two different but simultaneous tests. Earthquake engineering cannot give answers by testing and qualifying few, small typical components or single large prototypes. Besides, the large diversity of Civil Engineering structures does not allow drawing conclusions from only a few tests; structures are large and their seismic response and performance cannot be meaningfully tested in an ordinary lab or in the field. So, seismic testing facilities should be much larger than in other scientific fields; their staff has to be resourceful, devising intelligent ways to carry out simultaneously different tests and advanced computations. To better serve such a mission European testing facilities and researchers in earthquake engineering have shared their resources and activities in the framework of the European project SERIES, combining their research and jointly developing advanced testing and instrumentation techniques that maximize testing capabilities and increase the value of the tests. This volume presents the first outcomes of the SERIES and its contribution towards Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, i.e., to the most important development in Earthquake Engineering of the past three decades. The concept and the methodologies for performance-based earthquake engineering have now matured. However, they are based mainly on analytical/numerical research; large-scale seismic testing has entered the stage recently. The SERIES Workshop in Ohrid (MK) in Sept. 2010 pooled together the largest European seismic testing facilities, Europe’s best experts in experimental earthquake engineering and select experts from the USA, to present recent research achievements and to address future developments. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics, including seismic qualification.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the First International Workshop on Mobile Information Technology for Emergency Response, MobileResponse 2007 held in Sankt Augustin, Germany in February 2007. The 16 revised papers presented together with one keynote lecture were carefully reviewed and selected. The papers are organized in topical sections on medical services, team support, geospatial information, wearable computing, and communication technology.

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries, ISCRAM-med 2014, held in Toulouse, France, in October 2014. The aim of ISCRAM-med was to gather researchers and practitioners working in the area of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, with a special but not limited focus on Mediterranean crises. These include political crises, economic crises, natural hazards, and fatal industrial incidents. The 15 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The contributions are organized in topical sections on supply chain and distribution; modeling and training; human interactions in the crisis field; coordination and agility; and social aspects in crisis management.

Today the world faces unparalleled threats from human-made disasters that can be attributed to failure of industrial and energy installation as well as to terrorism. Added to this is the unparalleled threat of emerging and re-emerging diseases, with scientists predicting events such as an influenza pandemic.

Today, as never before, healthcare has the ability to enhance the quality and duration of life. At the same time, healthcare has become so costly that it can easily bankrupt governments and impoverish individuals and families. Health services research is a highly multidisciplinary field, including such areas as health administration, health economics, medical sociology, medicine, , political science, public health, and public policy. The Encyclopedia of Health Services Research is the first single reference source to capture the diversity and complexity of the field. With more than 400 entries, these two volumes investigate the relationship between the factors of cost, quality, and access to healthcare and their impact upon medical outcomes such as death, disability, disease, discomfort, and dissatisfaction with care. Key Features Examines the growing healthcare crisis facing the United States Encompasses the structure, process, and outcomes of healthcare Aims to improve the equity, efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of healthcare by influencing and developing public policies Describes healthcare systems and issues from around the globe Key Themes Access to Care Accreditation, Associations, Foundations, and Research Organizations Biographies of Current and Past Leaders Cost of Care, Economics, Finance, and Payment Mechanisms Disease, Disability, Health, and Health Behavior Government and International Healthcare Organizations Health Insurance Health Professionals and Healthcare Organizations Health Services Research Laws, Regulations, and Ethics Measurement; Data Sources and Coding; and Research Methods Outcomes of Care Policy Issues, Healthcare Reform, and International Comparisons Public Health Quality and Safety of Care Special and Vulnerable Groups The Encyclopedia is designed to be an introduction to the various topics of health services research for an audience including undergraduate students, graduate students, andgeneral readers seeking non-technical descriptions of the field and its practices. It is also useful for healthcare practitioners wishing to stay abreast of the changes and updates in the field.

In the past few years the United States has experienced a series of disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which have severely taxed and in many cases overwhelmed responding agencies. In all aspects of emergency management, geospatial data and tools have the potential to help save lives, limit damage, and reduce the costs of dealing with emergencies. Great strides have been made in the past four decades in the development of geospatial data and tools that describe locations of objects on the Earth's surface and make it possible for anyone with access to the Internet to witness the magnitude of a disaster. However, the effectiveness of any technology is as much about the human systems in which it is embedded as about the technology itself. Successful Response Starts with a Map assesses the status of the use of geospatial data, tools, and infrastructure in disaster management, and recommends ways to increase and improve their use. This book explores emergency planning and response; how geospatial data and tools are currently being used in this field; the current policies that govern their use; various issues related to data accessibility and security; training; and funding. Successful Response Starts with a Map recommends significant investments be made in training of personnel, coordination among agencies, sharing of data and tools, planning and preparedness, and the tools themselves.