Disaster Management: The Structure, Function, and Significance of Network-Centric Operations

Poor information flow both within and among the organizations/agencies involved in the preparation for, and management of, disasters is among the principal source of failures whose cost often reaches millions of dollars and thousands of unnecessarily lost lives. Typically, inadequate information distribution is the direct consequence of human error, faulty or non-existing interoperability of information systems, inter-agency conflicts, or political considerations. The paper discusses the advantages of a network-centric approach to disaster management and the associated improvement in handling information/knowledge tasks associated with complex, multi-domain operations. By providing a real time, unfettered flow of factual information and knowledge among all disaster management participants, Network Enabled Capability (NEC) constitutes the essential platform for the development of effective mission priorities and adaptive management in the context of an "All-Hazards" approach. Currently, real-time access to factual, operations-pertinent information and to the relevant supporting data requires a complex, time-consuming effort at all levels of disaster response activity. Most disasters have clearly shown that much of such an effort is unproductive, leads to misleading or conflicting results, and may actually hamper rather than increase operational effectiveness. NEC eliminates such problems.

[1]  James L Clark.  Practical aspects of federalizing disaster response , 2006, Critical care.

[2]  Frederick Krimgold,et al.  Social and Political Prerequisites for Recovery in Sri Lanka after the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami , 2006 .

[3]  John Raymond Boyd,et al.  Destruction and Creation , 1976 .

[4]  Frédéric Patricelli,et al.  Disaster management and mitigation: the telecommunications infrastructure. , 2009, Disasters.

[5]  Richard E. Hayes,et al.  Understanding Information Age Warfare , 2001 .

[6]  John P. Sullivan,et al.  Terrorism Early Warning and Co-Production of Counterterrorism Intelligence , 2005 .

[7]  C. Wise,et al.  Organizing for Homeland Security after Katrina: Is Adaptive Management What’s Missing? , 2006 .

[8]  Larry Minear,et al.  Smoke and mirrors: deficiencies in disaster funding , 2005, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[9]  Anne P. Massey,et al.  Knowledge Mangement in Pursuit of Performance: Insights from Nortel Networks , 2002, MIS Q..

[10]  Christopher Cooper,et al.  Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security , 2006 .

[11]  Dag von Lubitz,et al.  Healthcare and technology: the doctrine of networkcentric healthcare , 2006, Int. J. Electron. Heal..

[12]  L. Comfort.  RISK, SECURITY, AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT , 2005 .

[13]  Dag K.J.E. Von Lubitz,et al.  Medical readiness for operations other than war: Boyd's OODA loop and training using advanced distributed simulation technology , 2008 .

[14]  Frederic J. Brown,et al.  America's Army as First Responder , 2006 .

[15]  Patrick Lagadec,et al.  Preventing Chaos in a Crisis: Strategies for Prevention, Control and Damage Limitation , 1993 .

[16]  M. Dyson.  Come hell or high water : Hurricane Katrina and the color of disaster , 2006 .

[17]  Erica Chenoweth,et al.  The Politics of Vulnerability: Constructing Local Performance Regimes for Homeland Security , 2006 .

[18]  Arthur K. Cebrowski,et al.  Network-Centric Warfare: Its Origin and Future , 1998 .

[19]  Sarah Michaels,et al.  Actively Searching for Hazards Information , 2004 .

[20]  E M Luna,et al.  Disaster mitigation and preparedness: the case of NGOs in the Philippines. , 2001, Disasters.

[21]  I Christoplos,et al.  Re-framing risk: the changing context of disaster mitigation and preparedness. , 2001, Disasters.

[22]  Michael Mair,et al.  Shining light on "Dark Winter". , 2002, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[23]  D. Mcloughlin.  A Framework for Integrated Emergency Management , 1985 .

[24]  John Salter.  Risk Management in a Disaster Management Context , 1996 .

[25]  E L Quarantelli,et al.  Ten criteria for evaluating the management of community disasters. , 1997, Disasters.