**GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS UNIVERSITY OF
PITTSBURGH**

PIA 2096-53 Dr. Louise Comfort

Spring Term 2002 Thursday, 9:00-11:59 pm

Office Hours: 3R51 Posvar Hall

W 2:00-3:00; H 1200-1:00 Tel.: 648-7606

and by appointment E-mail: lkc@pitt.edu

**THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

**UPON DISASTER MANAGEMENT**

Information technology is transforming the organizations within which we
work and live. This process is nowhere more evident than in the
difficult, challenging, interesting, sobering field of disaster
management. Long a field dominated by command-and-control concepts and
hierarchical organizational structures, disaster management is now more
clearly conceived as a complex, dynamic field that is
multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational, and multi-jurisdictional. In
such an environment, the role of information is critical in enabling the
participants to assess rapidly changing conditions and to develop
constructive strategies of action to meet urgent, as well as evolving,
threats.

Yet, the policy questions persist: what kinds of information are needed
by whom at what time in order to assess threat, reduce risk or mobilize
action to avert danger to a community? Further, if we recognize the
kinds of information that decision makers need in disaster environments,
what means do we use to gather that information, organize and interpret
it, and transmit it to the relevant personnel and clientele for action?
What form of interactive communication do responsible managers need in
order to coordinate their actions in a common strategy to b ring a
threatening event under control or to recover from a destructive
incident? Increasingly, experienced personnel in the field of disaster
management have recognized that the most effective investment they can
make to reduce risk to their communities as well as increase their
capability for response is in building an information infrastructure
that will facilitate collective action to manage their own risk.

Such an approach, however, represents a challenge to most public,
nonprofit and private managers that have responsibilities for risk
reduction and response. Designing and implementing an appropriate
information infrastructure requires technical skills that many do not
have. To be effective, the information technology used in risk
environments needs to fit the goals, missions and operational processes
of the organizations involved in managing and responding to the risk.
What is needed is a "sociotechnical system" in which the hardware and
software is designed to support the decision processes of the
organizations engaged in disaster management. This is not an easy task,
as the decision requirements change with the evolving conditions of the
disaster.

Current policy makers in both civilian and military environments are
exploring ways to enhance their capacity to identify threats and reduce
risk before danger occurs. Advanced uses of information technology offer
many possibilities to address complex problems that were not possible
before. Yet, these same technologies, inappropriately designed or used,
can also increase the chances for error, with devastating results. In
this capstone seminar, we will explore some of the dilemmas that policy
makers face in designing and maintaining an appropriate information
infrastructure to support risk reduction and response.

First, we will review the cognitive aspects of "sensemaking" in
difficult, urgent environments to understand the shifts in perspective
that are essential for managers to move from routine performance to
disaster operations. Second, we will explore the concept of "shared
risk" and the criteria for organizing collective action to reduce or
respond to that risk. Third, we will review a set of current information
technologies that are designed to provide decision support to managers
operating in disaster environments. Fourth, we will assess the strengths
and weaknesses of these technologies in terms of enabling the
responsible organizations to improve communication and coordination in
their performance under urgent conditions. Finally, we will develop a
set of criteria that would assist public managers in designing
appropriate information infrastructure to support effective decision
making in disaster environments.

The purpose of a capstone seminar is to provide an opportunity for
students to apply the concepts and skills they have learned in their
prior GSPIA courses to an actual policy problem in order to produce a
set of policy recommendations that would be constructive to practicing
policy makers in the field. In this capstone seminar, we have a range of
organizations and jurisdictions that are involved, and a sequence of
phases of threat that require different decisions by different policy
makers. The challenge is that decisions made in one phase of disaster
management, unrelated to other phases or uninformed in reference to
actions taken by other organizations, may actually increase the risk to
a community, rather than avert or reduce it. For example, keeping a
current record of existing policies, strategies and actions by
participating organizations and jurisdictions that have responsibilities
for risk reduction and disaster operations appears fundamental to any
community that is seeking to manage its own risk. Yet, this apparently
simply task requires a degree of coordination, information sharing, and
collective action that is rarely found among governmental agencies in a
single jurisdiction, and even more rarely between jurisdictions, and
almost never between public, private and nonprofit organizations in the
same community. Information technology, appropriately designed and
implemented, can assist communities in building a community-wide
knowledge base that is essential to effective risk reduction and
management.

Since September 11, 2001, the responsibilities of public managers to
assess and reduce risk for their communities are being radically
redefined. Public safety has become a key criterion in determining
allocation of resources, training of personnel, and all aspects of
public management. As these responsibilities increase, the information
requirements for public managers also increase, and an appropriate
infrastructure for decision support becomes critical for daily
operations as well as urgent threats.

Our seminar will be interactive, and we will have the opportunity to use
different information technologies in class to explore aspects of these
technologies upon interorganizational decision making for risk reduction
and response. Each student will define a research project that addresses

the possible uses or misuses of information technology in the public
management of risk. There is

range of choices for study topics. One could focus on uses of
information technology by public agencies at a given jurisdictional
level: municipal, county, state, federal or international, or uses that
cross such jurisdictional levels in seeking to manage risk. Or, one
could address information needs at different phases of risk assessment,
response or recovery from a major threat. Or, one could review the
design and operation of an existing software program for risk reduction
to assess its strengths and weaknesses in meeting the needs of
practicing managers. Or, one could examine the fit between technical,
organizational and cultural requirements that is most essential in
achieving effective management of risk. Selection of a policy problem is
an important part of the learning process for the seminar, and I
encourage your active inquiry into this area of policy and practice.

Preparation of the policy paper and its presentation in class will
constitute the major requirements for the seminar. Students may
collaborate on related issues in terms of gathering information and
analyzing data, but each student will submit an individual paper as the
product of the course. There will be a mid-term exam on the readings and
a brief final essay in which you evaluate the process, methods, and data
that you used in your study relation to the larger problem of building
an appropriate information infrastructure for disaster management.

Grades will be based upon the mid-term (30%), project report (40%),
process evaluation essay (15%) and in-class presentation and
participation (10%). Proficiency in writing, grammar, spelling and
professional standards of documentation of sources are expected in your
written work, and professional formats for presentation, using
information technology, are expected in your final presentation. My
office is 3E30 Posvar Hall. Office hours are Wednesdays, 2:00 - 3:00
p.m., Thursdays, 2:00 - 1:00 p.m. and by appointment.
Telephone:648-7606; e-mail address: lkc@pitt.edu.

The following books and reports are required for the seminar:

Axelrod, Robert. 1997. *The complexity of cooperation: agent-based
models of competition and collaboration*. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton
University Press, c1997.

Comfort, L.K. *Shared Risk: Complex Systems in Seismic Response*.
Oxford, NY: Pergamon Press.

(Available in class at cost: \$25.00 per copy).

Comfort, L.K. ed. Draft ms. "The Impact of Information Technology upon
Disaster Management." (Will be available at CopyCat.)

Command and Control Research Program. 2001. *Final Report, Sensemaking
Symposium, 23-25 October.* Washington, DC: Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Defense. (Available for downloading from the class
directory.)

FEMA. 2001. *Information Technology Architecture, Version 2.0. The Road
to e-FEMA*. Washington, DC: Federal Emergency Management Agency. May.
(Available free from the FEMA Web page: http://www.fema.gov)

United Nations. 2001. *"Strengthening the coordination of emergency
humanitarian assistance of the United Nations: Report of the Secretary
General."* Geneva, CH: Economic and Social Council, 2-27 July.
(Available for downloading from the class directory.)

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 1999. *OCHA
Orientation Handbook on Complex Emergencies*. New York: United Nations.

**[SCHEDULE OF CLASS ASSIGNMENTS]{.underline}**

JANUARY

1/10: I. [Introduction to the Seminar]{.underline}

The Role of Information Technology in Managing Risk

Discussion of course projects, requirements.

> Demonstration of a Sociotechnical System: IISIS

1/17: [II.Decision Making in Disaster Environments]{.underline}

A. Cognitive Limits, Recognition of Risk, and Coordinated Action

Command and Control Research Program, Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Defense.

*Final Report, Sensemaking Symposium*, *23-25 October 2001.*

1/24: B. Shared Risk: Theory

Comfort, L.K. *Shared Risk: Complex Systems in Seismic Response*. Part
I.

Statement of sociotechnical policy problem due.

1/31: C. Shared Risk: Practice

Comfort, L.K. *Shared Risk: Complex Systems in Seismic Response*. Parts
II and III.

2/7: D. Competition or Collaboration among Agencies and Jurisdictions?

> Axelrod, R. *The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-based Models of
> Competition and Collaboration.*

Identification of source materials for analysis of sociotechnical policy
problem due.

2/14: III. [Technical Support for Organizational Action]{.underline}

> A. The Interdisciplinary Context of Decision Making in Disaster
> Environments

Comfort, L.K. ed. "The Impact of Information Technology upon Disaster
Management"

Draft ms. Parts I and II.

2/21: B. Comparing Technical Means of Decision Support to Meet
Organizational Needs

Comfort, L.K. ed. "The Impact of Information Technology upon Disaster
Management"

Draft ms. Parts III and IV.

Statement on methods of inquiry, data collection, analysis due.

Mid-term exams handed out.

2/28: Mid-term exams due. In-class demonstration of IISIS prototype for
Pittsburgh Metropolitan Region.

3/7: SPRING BREAK!

3/14: IV. [Current Programs in Information Technology for Disaster
Management]{.underline}

A. A National Perspective

FEMA. 2001. *Information Technology Architecture, Version 2.0. The Road
to e-FEMA*

Preliminary outline for project analysis due.

3/21: B. An International Perspective

> United Nations. 2001. *"Strengthening the coordination of emergency
> humanitarian assistance of the United Nations: Report of the Secretary
> General."*

3/28: C. New Challenges in Disaster Management

> Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 1999. *OCHA
> Orientation Handbook on Complex Emergencies*
>
> Revised outline for project papers due.

4/4: VI. [The Role of Information Technology in Disaster
Management]{.underline}

> Lab session: feedback on project outlines; in-class discussion,
> resolution of problems encountered; review of plans for presentation

.

4/11: In-class presentation of student projects

4/18: In-class presentation of student projects.

Sociotechnical project papers due.

Final exams handed out.

4/25: Final essays due.