Framing, Information Alignment, and Resilience in Distributed Human Coordination of Critical Infrastructure Event Response

Abstract This paper discusses several elements of communication, coordination, and event response dynamics from a combination of cognitive ergonomics and systems engineering analysis perspectives. Event response coordinators and managers of critical infrastructure networks are faced with cognitive challenges due to bounded sociotechnical rationality and cognitive framing. For the purposes of this discussion, “disaster” is a derived description, emerging from a combination of event dynamics (including magnitude and scope of natural processes); human impact (including number and severity of people and communities affected); and event response activity (including prediction and preparation, and both proactive and reactive allocation of resources). The potential impact of the event itself may limit information flow to coordinate and improve response, as well as the age, confidence, and completeness of information available. Cognitive framing addresses responders’ decisions and actions to maintain a stance of process control to maintain robust, nominal operations, or cybernetic adaption to maximize resilience and recovery from degradation. This paper addresses the need for effective information alignment, not only in terms of structural components of event planning, but real-time dynamics of event response when infrastructure networks themselves may be compromised. As the geographic scope of an event increases, event response activity must evolve from a centralized to a more distributed human response coordination process.