ITR: IT-Based Collaboration Framework for Preparing Against, Responding to, and Recovering from Disasters Involving Critical Physical Infrastructures

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Abstract for 0427089One of the most urgent and vital challenges confronting society today is the vulnerability of urban areas to extreme and unpredictable events such as terrorism, earthquakes and the like. For example, in 2002, a total of 608 million people across the globe were affected by disasters resulting in 24,500 deaths and damage to property and to the environment estimated at $27 billion dollars. These significant human and economical costs emphasize the urgent need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of first responses to extreme events. The objective of this grant is to develop and to test a conceptual framework designed to improve collaboration among the key actors involved in disaster relief operations. These key actors include firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, experts, the original civil engineers and constructors involved in the construction of the affected infrastructure, and the physical and technological infrastructure itself, including sensors and systems of sensors embedded in it. Theoretically derived information technology (IT)-based solutions to prepare against, respond to and recover from disasters will be developed and tested based on the proposed framework. The research team is composed of civil engineers, computer scientists, entomologists, psychologists, communication scholars and first responder professionals. Each studies the technological and social processes of collaboration from a different viewpoint. All of these viewpoints will be represented in the conceptual framework, which will explore three phases of first response: preparation, response, and recovery. First responders face many challenges in the chaotic and inhospitable environment of disaster relief operations; including information unreliability and overload; coordination and communication breakdowns; and threats to personal safety and the vulnerability of physical infrastructure. This grant seeks to reduce uncertainty and improve collaboration among first responders. It will advance theory, research and practice regarding efficient and effective first response in several important ways. First, previous research initiatives regarding collaboration have focused on supporting interactions among people, instruments and systems running on fixed computers and devices, in complex, large scale, but fairly stable operating conditions. This research investigates collaboration in chaotic, volatile, and complex disaster relief environments, which requires interaction among both stationary and mobile users and among users and technological devices such as sensors and communication media. Second, it explores the role of civil engineer as a vital member of the first responder team, providing key knowledge of and experience with the affected physical infrastructure. And finally, it will enable first responders with an IT-based components platform to address issues pertaining to critical physical infrastructure, such as security and vulnerability, along with the expertise to prepare before, respond to and recover after a disaster occurs.