## TECHNOLOGY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

## Course Guide

**Introduction**

The emergence of computing and telecommunications technologies in the
latter part of the 20^th^ Century and the beginning of the 21^st^
Century will dramatically transform emergency management. The
applications of technology will enhance the acquisition of information
and resources and the use of technology in all elements of decision
making by those involved in emergency management. Mobile wireless
networks will serve as the backbone for communications and offer access
to a variety of resources currently only available at a very high cost
and in limited situations. As a result of a greater interconnectedness
of public, private, and non-profit emergency management agencies,
traditional organization boundaries will undergo significant change.
Resource allocation will become more efficient and the capacity to
analyze more complex issues in time of crisis will be more available to
decision-makers.

Emergencies and disasters are extreme events that cause significant
disruption. They require immediate response as well as coordinated
application of resources, facilities, and efforts beyond those regularly
available to handle routine problems. They rise from both natural as
well as man-made events. When does a situation become a crisis requiring
extraordinary resources and management priorities -- distinct from
"business as usual?"

The application of technology to emergency management will be explored
in this class. Examples of current and emerging technology applications
will be illustrated along with an explanation of critical issues that
are a part of the technology application.

Special issues and problems associated with the use of technology in
emergency management will be examined. Strategies to overcome these
issues and problems will be outlined.

**Objectives**

1)  To clarify the nature and extent of current and emerging technology
    and its use in emergency management.

2)  To demonstrate technology applications and their role in emergency
    planning, response, recovery and mitigation.

3)  To examine problems and issues associated with the introduction and
    use of technology applications in emergency management.

4)  To clarify strategies for addressing issues and problems in using
    technology in emergency management.

**Student Assessment**

Grades for the class will be based on student performance in completing
six (6) class assignments and a course project. During the semester,
students will be asked to complete assignments related to the topic for
the week. Assignments will be completed and submitted to

the course instructor for review. All class assignments will be graded
and returned to the student for review. Class assignments will comprise
70% of the course grade.

The class project will be a research report comprising at least ten
pages with references. The report will be a detailed examination of one
of the class topics with a special emphasis on technology in emergency
management.

**Book Review:** The final element of a student's assessment is a book
review. The review will average 3 to 5 pages (500 -- 1,200 words) and
will address three areas including the content of the book, an analysis
of the book, and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the
text. The book should relate to topics addressed in sessions of the
class and must be currently available. The instructor should review and
approve your choice of book for review.

**Content:** How is the book organized? What is the purpose of the book?
Who is the intended audience?

**Analysis:** Did the book achieve the author's intended goals? (Be
careful here not to review the book from the reader's perspective. The
question is whether the author achieves the intended purpose of the
book.)

**Evaluation:** What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book? Who
could use it? Would you recommend this book? If so, why? Is the book
worth the money? Should it be in the personal collection of an emergency
manager?

**Student Presentation:** Students will be asked to make a 20 minute
in-class presentation on their class project during the last two
sessions of the class. Students should provide class members with a
two-page summary of the project. The presentation should include an
overview of the issue analyzed and a demonstration if applicable, and
visual examples from slides, video, or simulations are encouraged.
Coordination with the instructor on presentation requirements (slide
projector, VCR, overhead projector, or computer projection system)
should be done two weeks prior to the presentation.

**Class Project:** Students are required during the first three weeks of
the semester to identify an individual project topic. During the
semester, the student will review the class materials on the topic and
identify issues, or a specific application of the topic for detailed
analysis. The project report will be a detailed examination of the issue
or application and its contribution to emergency management (ten pages
double spaced). The topic for the class project must be reviewed by the
instructor. A one-page project status report must be provided to the
instructor by the middle of the semester. The project report will form
the basis of a class presentation during the last two weeks of the
class.

6 Class Assignments 70%

Class Project and Presentation 20%

Book Review 10%

Total 100%

**Instruction Methods:** This class makes use of transparencies,
computer imaging, slides, video tapes, case studies, applied problems,
and demonstrations.

**Tape Recording:** Students may make tape recordings of lectures only
under the following conditions: (1) the recording will be used only by
the student making the recording, another student within the class, or
the student's tutor; (2) the recording will be erased within two weeks
of the time the lecture was recorded; and (3) the recording is done in a
manner which is not disruptive to the instructor or other students
within the class. Any other use of the recordings is prohibited.

Time Allocated for Sessions: This guide is designed in blocks of three
hours each. The instructor should feel free to break up the sessions
into shorter time segments.

**Course Text:**

Alter, Steven, *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* Second
Edition. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc.,
1996 (Chapter 1; Chapter 2 pp. 20 - 38).

A collection of readings are made available to the instructor as a part
of this class. The instructor determines which readings are made
available to students through whatever process is appropriate at the
institution. In many cases the readings are in digital form and may be
shared with the student. Each reading carries a note stating the extent
the publisher will allow open distribution of the reading to students in
the class.

###### SESSION TOPICS

## Session No. 1 Introduction to Technology in Emergency Management 

**Scope:** This session will provide an introduction and overview of the
application of technology in emergency management. The session will
clarify the role of technology in the support of emergency planning,
response, recovery and mitigation efforts and the key elements that must
be in place for technology to enhance the emergency management process.
The session will provide a foundation for each of the sessions in the
course.

Christopher M. Crowley. "WRC and NASA Brew up a Storm," *Washington
Post*. Pp. 16 and 18, January 1996.
[http://wxnet4.nbc4.com.]{.underline}

Gates, Bill. *The Road Ahead.* Penguin Books: New York, 1996 (Chapters 1
-- 3).

[National Research Council, Computer Science and Telecommunications
Board. Steering Committee, Workshop Series on High Performance Computing
and Communications. "Application Needs for Computing and
Communications," *Computing and Communications in the Extreme: Research
for Crisis Management and Other Applications.* Washington,
D.C](http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/extreme/shap1.html).: National
Academy Press, 1996. Chapter 1.

### 

**Session No. 2 Emergency Management and the Internet**

**Scope:** This session provides an overview of the Internet and a
demonstration of how to use this important resource in emergency
management. Resources for learning more about emergency management will
be identified and discussed.

Alter, Steven. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* Menlo
Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, 1996, pp. 677-681.

Crowley, Christopher M. "WRC and NASA Brew up a Storm," *Washington
Post.* Pp. 16 and 18, January 1996.
[http://wxnet4.nbc4.com](http://wxnet4.nbc4.com/)

Gates, Bill. *The Road Ahead.* Penguin Books: New York, 1996, (Chapters
4 & 11).

National Research Council. NRENAISSANCE Committee. "U.S. Networking: The
Past is Prologue," in *Realizing the Information Future: The Internet
and Beyond,* Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 1994.
[http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/rtif/to](http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/enter2.cgi?co.html)c.

Emani, Srinivas and Jeanne X. Kasperson. "Disaster Communication via the
Information Superhighway: Data and Observations on the 1995 Hurricane
Season." *International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters.* pp.
321 -- 342, Vol. 14, No. 3, Nov. 1996.

## Session No. 3 Networks and Communication Systems

**Scope:** This session provides an introduction to communication and
network technology and their applications to emergency management. A
comparison between wireline and wireless networks will be explored. The
session will examine emerging communication technologies.

Alter, Steven. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* Menlo
Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company: 1996. Pp. 217 -- 220
and 457 -- 492.

National Research Council. Computer Science and Telecommunications
Board. *The Unpredictable Certainty: Information Infrastructure through
2000.* Chapter 4 (pp. 115-155) and Chapter 5 (pp. 161-177). Obtain a
copy of these chapters from:
[http://www.nap.edu/readigroom/]{.underline}.

**Session No. 4 Spatial Analysis: Application Tools for Vulnerability
Analysis**

**Scope:** This session will explain the nature of geographic
information systems (GIS) and their application to vulnerability
analysis. Elements of a GIS will be outlined and uses of GIS in
emergency management will be examined. A demonstration of a GIS
applications will be provided using the Internet.

Herring, Thomas A. "The Global Positioning System," *Scientific
American*. Feb 1996. Pp 44--50.

State University of New York at Buffalo and GIS Resource Group, Inc. New
York State Archives and Records Administration, National Center for
Geographical Information and Analysis. *Helping Local Government Create
a GIS.* 1997. (Volumes 1,2, & 3).

[www.geog.buffalo.edu/ncgia/sara](http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/ncgia/sara)
(Volume 2 and 3 are suggested as references. See Readings: 4-Volume1.prf
for a copy of this document. Volumes 2 and 3 are also available.)

U.S. Flood Insurance Administration. "FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps
Case Study," adapted from *Users Guide to the Q3 Digital Flood Insurance
Rate Maps.* Washington, DC: FEMA. 1996.

# Session No. 5 Warning Systems

**Scope:** A major issue for emergency managers at the local level is
notifying of a disaster. This session will highlight current community
alert systems that have been implemented at the national, state, and
local level. Systems such as the emergency broadcast system and
telephone alert systems will be examined. The session also provides an
overview of the National Weather Service NOAA Weather Radio Network and
FEMA's Emergency Alert System. Private warning systems are included to
provide a comparison with government warning systems.

FEMA. *Emergency Alert System: A Program Guide for State and Local
Jurisdictions.* FEMA: Parts I-III. Washington, D.C. 1996.

Mann, Brett W. "Emergency Alert," *Emergency Preparedness Digest*, April
-- June 1997.

Mileti, Dennis S. and John H. Sorensen, *Communication of Emergency
Public Warnings: A Social Science Perspective and State of the Art
Assessment*. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory for FEMA,
1990.

Oyen, Richard "911: The System Behind the Phone Number." In Steven
Alter. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* The
Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company: Menlo Park, CA. 1996. Pp. 690 -
692.

**Session No. 6 Direct Sensing Technology in Emergency Management**

**Scope:** This session will demonstrate the types of direct sensing
data available for hazards analysis and emergency response. Sources of
natural hazards data including river/stream gages, weather stations, and
National Weather Service forecasts will be discussed.

Kiester, Edward Jr., "Water, Water, Everywhere." *Smithsonian.*
Washington, D.C. August 1997, Vol. 28, No. 3. Pp. 34 -- 45.

Wahl, Kenneth L., Wilbert O. Thomas, Jr., and Robert M. Hirsch.
"Stream-Gauging Program of the U.S. Geological Survey," U.S. Geological
Survey Circular 1123, Reston, Virginia, 1995,
<http://water.usgs.gov/public/realtime.html>.

**Session No. 7 Emergency Management Related Databases and Systems**

**Scope:** This session will explain the concept data and information.
It will illustrate how technology is allowing easy access to both data
and information for emergency management. The session will identify
sources of emergency management related data, and innovative systems
that allow the user to search, sort, and save data from large data sets.
The importance of meta-data will be stressed in evaluating data
available from national, state and local sources. Students will be asked
to examine one database system and explain how the data can be used in
hazards analysis at the local level.

Alter, Steven. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* Menlo
Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company. 1996. Pp. 144 --
183.

Gates, Bill. *The Road Ahead.* New York: Penguin Books, 1996, (Chapter 6
and 7).

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Emergency Response Notification
System," See Readings: 7-ERNS Case Study (Word File).

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Integrated Risk Information
System. See: <http://www.epa.gov/ngispgm3/iris/index.html>. See also
Readings: 7-IRIS (Word File).

**Session No. 8 Remote Sensing Technology in Emergency Management**

**Scope:** This session will demonstrate the types of remote sensing
data available for hazards analysis and emergency response. Sources of
natural hazards data including river/stream gages, weather stations,
chemical air monitoring, and satellite images will be discussed. The
application of Global Positioning Systems will be explored.

Baumann, Paul. "Flood Analysis: 1993 Analysis." Volume 4 Applications in
Remote Sensing. \[The Remote Sensing Core Curriculum [Educating
Tomorrow's Technology
Leaders](http://umbc7.umbc.edu/~tbenja1/goal.html). See:
<http://umbc7.umbc.edu/~tbenja1/baumann/baumann.html>. See Student
Readings: 8-Baumann.HTML. (The images associated with this document are
also included in Readings.)\]

Cain, Burl. "The Historic Flood of 1997 at Louisiana State
Penitentiary," *The ASPEP Journal of 1998*, pp. 15-32.

Carlson, George R. and Beni Patel. *A New Era Dawns for Geospatial
Imagery*. Houston Advanced Research Center The Woodlands. See Student
Reading 8-Carlson.

National Climatic Data Center. *About NOAA's Satellites*. Asheville, NC.
See: Student Readings, 8-About GOES---an HTML Document.

RAMM. *[Introduction to GOES
I-M](http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/tutorial/g8modpg1.htm).* An
on-line tutorial describing the sensor and data changes that began with
the launch of GOES-8, prepared by the Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology
(RAMM) Team (NESDIS) at CIRA. Includes examples of improved GOES-8 data
versus that of GOES-7. Available from: See Student Reading
8-About_GOES.HTML or

<http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/tutorial/g8modpg1.htm>

*LANDSAT.* See Student Readings: Landsat.html

**Session No. 9** **Hazards Analysis and Modeling**

**Scope:** This session will provide a guided demonstration of ALOHA and
its uses in emergency planning and response. A case study using SLOSH
will be used to identify considerations which affect the uses of
modeling programs in emergency management. Additional models simulating
natural hazards will be identified and discussed.

Sajo, Erno. "Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling." Lecture. Department of
Nuclear Science and the Institute for Environmental Studies, Louisiana
State University. July, 1997.

*ALOHA: Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres* (ALOHA Ver. 5.2).
Drawn from ALOHA ver. 5.2 Help Software, U.S. EPA, and NOAA. Washington,
D.C. 1996.

Pine, John C. "Hazards Analysis: Extremely Hazardous Substances:
Sterlington, LA Sterlington." Technical Report. Institute for
Environmental Studies, Louisiana State University.

**Session No. 10** **Decision Support Systems**

**Scope:** This session provides an introduction and overview of
information systems that support the emergency management function. An
examination of NEMIS, CAMEO, and EM-2,000 and EIS will be made.

Alter, Steven. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* Menlo
Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, 1996, Pages 121 --
132.

Simard, Albert J. "The Canadian Wildfire Fire Information System," The
Disaster 96 First Internet Conference. MCB University Press.
<http://www.co.uk/confhome.htm>. 1996.

Simard, Albert J. "A Global Emergency Management Information Network
Initiative: GEMINI," The Disaster 96 First Internet Conference. London:
<http://www.mcb.co.uk/confhome.htm> 1996.

**Session No. 11 Operational Problems and Technology**

**Scope:** This session will identify and examine problems encountered
by agencies in using technology applications in emergency management.
Strategies to minimize the adverse impact of these problems will be
discussed. Recommendations for enhancing the use of technology by state
and local emergency management will be provided.

Alter, Steven. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* The
Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company: Menlo Park, CA. 1996, pp. 323 --
355.

Gates, Bill. *The Road Ahead.* New York: Penguin Books, 1996. (Chapter
12).

Stanley, Ellis M., Sr., and William L. Waugh, Jr. "Emergency Managers
for the New Millennium." *Handbook of Crisis and Emergency Management.*
Edited by Ali Farazmand. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1999.

National Research Council. Computer Science and Telecommunications
Board. Steering Committee, Workshop Series on High Performance Computing
and Communications. "Technology: Research Problems Motivated by
Application Needs," *Computing and Communications in the Extreme:
Research for Crisis Management and Other Applications.* Washington, DC:
National Academy Press. 1996. (Chapter 2, pp. 1 -- 30). Available on the
Internet at <http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/extreme>.

**Session No. 12 Emerging Technologies**

**Scope:** Technology applications in emergency management are
constantly changing. Selected new developments will be highlighted
during this session. Topics may range from distance learning, remote
sensing developments and low level satellite communications to
innovative software solutions for emergency management. A list of
"what's new" will be included in the class outline for this session, as
well as an Internet site for an updated list of discussion topics.

Alter, Steven. *Information Systems: A Management Perspective.* Menlo
Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company. 1996. (Pp.501 --
537).

Borbinha, Jose L. B. "Networked Digital Libraries," *Microcomputers for
Information Management: Global Internetworking for Libraries* 13 (3-4),
195 -- 216 (1996).

Institute of Emergency Administration and Planning (EADP) University of
North Texas. "Emergency Management Tutorial." 1997.

Keller, A. Z., E.L. Coles and R. Heal. "Experiences Gained from the
First Internet Disaster Conference," *Disaster Prevention and
Management: An International Journal.* Pp. 31 -- 33, Vol. 5, No. 5,
1996. See http://www.mcb.co.uk/confhome.htm. A copy of this article is
in Readings: 12-Keller---a Word document.

Stanley, Ellis M., Sr. and William L. Waugh, Jr. "Emergency Managers for
the New Millennium," *Handbook of Crisis and Emergency Management.*
Farazmand, New York: Marcel Dekker, 1999.

**Session No. 13 Issues Involving Technology and Science**

**Scope:** Emergency managers often are provided expert consultation and
technical support in assessing risks and building a technology base for
managing programs. This session presents questions concerning how to
assess the validity and usefulness of the experts.

Berry, John M. *Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How
It Changed America.* New York: Simon & Schuster. 1997.

Kirkwood, Alan Sidney. "Why Do We Worry When Scientists Say There Is No
Risk?" *Disaster Prevention and Management, An International Journal.*
Vol. 3 No 2, 1994, pp. 15 -- 22.

# Session No. 14 Project Discussion and Presentation

**Scope:** Students in the class are required to complete a
comprehensive analysis of one aspect of technology in emergency
management. The topic of the analysis will be drawn from the sessions in
the class. Students will present summaries of their analysis to the
class for discussion.