COMMUNICATIONS ANDTECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES TOSITUATIONAL AWARENESS:INSIGHTS FROM THE CR16 EXERCISEPaper Presentation — Monday, November 05, 2018
Hans Jochen Scholl Karyn Hubbel Jeffrey Gene Leonard
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
Email jscholl@uw.edu

University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
Email karyn22@uw.edu

University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
Email leonardj@uw.edu

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

1WHAT I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT➤ The Cascadia Rising 2016 Exercise➤ Research Interest➤ Literature➤ Research Questions➤ Methodology➤ Findings➤ Discussion➤ Conclusions and Future Research➤ Questions and CommentsHans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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THE CASCADIA RISING 2016 EXERCISE (1)The Threat➤ Ring of Fire
➤ Accounts for 90% of allearthquakes, and 81% of theworld’s largest earthquakes➤ All but three of the world's 25

largest volcanic eruptions of thelast 11,700 years occurred atvolcanoes in the Ring of Fire.

➤ Subduction zones are shown inred➤ The CSZ fault line is part of theRing of Fire➤ The CSZ is the only significant
Slide content courtesy of Lt.Col. Braun, WA National Guard and Wikipedia

fault line on the Ring of Fire
without a major quake in the last
50 years (see blue stars)

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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THE CASCADIA RISING 2016 EXERCISE (2)Exercise Details➤ Conducted between June 7 and 10, 2016

(military: between June 7 and14, 2016)
after two years of preparation➤ Involved 23,000 participants

acrosslocal, state, federal, tribal, Departmentof Defense, and non-governmental
entities in Oregon, Washington, andIdaho with British Columbia associated➤ One of the largest exercises everconducted in the US; the largest multistate exercise in the Pacific Northwest sofar➤ Objective: Through disaster simulation,

the purpose of this exercise was to test
and validate catastrophic CSZ plans; theability of Emergency Operations Centers(EOCs), throughout the wholecommunity, to coordinate andcommunicate priorities and objectives;to share situational information; and torequest, order, and transport life-saving
resources to the areas most heavily
impacted➤ Scenario similar to the devastatingPicture and graph courtesy of John Vidale

March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake andtsunami in JapanHans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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THE CASCADIA RISING 2016 EXERCISE (3)Impact Area
➤ West of and including the Interstate-5 corridor➤ Zipper-like rupture from one end of the subduction line tothe other is expected to occur along the 800-mile-long
subduction line

➤ Thirty to forty-foot high tsunami would reach the coastline

about 20 to 30 minutes after the rupture➤ Several aftershocks of significant magnitude would be

expected to follow the initial rupture inflicting more damage➤ Impact on human lives and infrastructure would be thegreater the closer the location to the coastline➤ Impacted areas West of the Cascadian Mountain range would

be inaccessible by ground transport or sea transport forextended periods of time

➤ Relief would first come predominantly by air transport➤ Responders would find themselves stripped from using mostmodern information and communication technologies for thelack of power and intact communication infrastructures

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

5RESEARCH INTEREST➤ First responders’ biggest challenges in early response are— the lack of situational awareness (SA) and/or sharedsituational awareness (SSA), which leads to an incomplete
and distorted common operating picture (COP)— Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are
not always part of the solution but rather part of theproblem➤ In this study we focus on the latter, that is, communicationchallenges, information technology challenges, information
sharing challenges, for example, with systems such as
WebEOC and radio technologies

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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LITERATURE (ON SITUATIONAL AWARENESS)➤ Situational Awareness (SA) and Shared SA (SSA)— Endsley presented a comprehensive SA framework, inwhich she distinguished(1) perception— (2) comprehension, and— (3) projection—

as three intertwined levels of SA (Endsley, 1995)— The notion of and discussion about SA/SSA was informed
and influenced by advances in other disciplines and notdeveloped in Disaster Sciences— Research needs to address in more detail, which level of
SSA is investigated, and how the three levels of SSA
transition from one another (including feedback)Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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LITERATURE (ON ICTS IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT)➤ Information Systems in Disaster Response— ICTs have been playing increasingly important roles in disaster

response management— New vulnerabilities, complications, and dependencies were also
introduced (Quarantelli, 1997)— Turoﬀ, et al., 2004 analyzed requirements and design principles
for so-called crisis information management systems (CMIS), or
what they called “dynamic emergency response management
information system,” or short, DERMIS— Requirements include extreme ease of learning, usability bytrained responders, conciseness, customizability to responders’specific needs, support for all EOC/IMT functions, independence
from a particular physical location, and support for structured
communication processes
Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS➤ Research Question #1 (RQ#1):— What are specific SA/SSA-related communications

challenges to professional disaster responders on all levelsin the early stages of response to a (simulated) catastrophe?
➤ Research Question #2 (RQ#2):— What are specific SA/SSA-related information andcommunication technology (ICT) challenges to professional
disaster responders on all levels in the early stages ofresponse to a (simulated) catastrophe?

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

9METHODOLOGY➤ Overall Design: An exploratory study design was chosen based on the theoretical framework of“Resilient Information Infrastructures (RIIs)” in disaster response (Scholl & Palin, 2014)➤ Instrument and Coding Scheme: Six topical areas were covered, (1) management andorganization, (2) technology, (3) information, (4) information infrastructure, (5) Resilient
information Infrastructures (RIIs)/resiliency. A total of twenty-five interview questions andprobes were incorporated➤ Sample: The purposive sample included responders from eight diﬀerent groups: (1) City
Emergency Operations Centers, (2) County Emergency Operations Centers, (3) Washington
State Emergency Management Division, (4) WA State Agencies, (5) Health Districts, (6)Regional Aviation, (7) Washington State National Guard, and (8) Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), region X. A total of 17 individuals were interviewed.
Furthermore, after-action reports (AARs) from twenty-three agencies from all eight respondergroups were collected and analyzed➤ Data Collection: Interviews were conducted in person between September 2016 and March2017 and lasted between 33 to 107 minutes➤ Data Analysis and Coding: The initial codebook, which was based on the aforementioned
conceptual RII framework, contained five category codes (one for each topical area) and 111
sub-category codes. Additional codes were inductively introduced during data collection, in
individual coding sessions, and inter-coder sessions
Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

10TOP-30 CODES AND SUB-CODES
Table 1
#Two Papers on“SituationalAwareness”

Code (grey) / Sub-code

Totals1

Mgmt Org

9973

2

Informa2on

8074

3

inf_situa2onal_awareness

5311

4

Technology5216

5

mgmt_chall_info_sharing

4449

6

Informa2on Infrastructure

4088

7

mgmt_chall_resource3827

8Resilient IIs

3738

9

ict_use_info_sharing

3325

10

Governance

3156

11

mgmt_chall_org

2972

12

inf_common_operat_pic

2943

13

mgmt_external_partnerships

2773

14

mgmt_structure

2576

15

mgmt_chall_partnerships

2548

16

mgmt_preparedness_incl_lack_thereof

2485

17

ict_chall_using_icts

2278

18

mgmt_opera2onal_rules

2190

19

mgmt_chall_coordina2on

2014

20

mgmt_resources

1988

21

gov_resp_roles

1716

22

ict_use_in/for_sit_awareness

1662

23

inf_lack_access

1583

24

ict_use_support_collab

1563

25

ii_vulnerabil2es

1561

26

mgmt_training_incl_lack_of_training

1548

27

inf_need_resources

1420

28

inf_quality

1392

29

mgmt_assign_roles

1358

30

ii_means_info_handling

1335

Forthcoming
Paper on“ManagerialChallenges”

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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CODE FREQUENCY DESCRIPTOR BUBBLE PLOT (DEDOOSE)

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

12CONCEPT ANALYSIS
Concepts

Vignette Candidate

Excerpt Header

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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LOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL MAPS OF CONCEPTS
Concept Cluster

Concepts

Concept Sub-cluster

Sub-cluster Relations

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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FINDINGS (1)Ad RQ#1 (What are specific SA/SSA-related communications challenges toprofessional disaster responders on all levels in the early stages of response to a (simulated)catastrophe?)➤ More than 50 percent of electric facilities are expected toundergo serious and irreparable damage, resulting in poweroutages for the entire Cascadia region for up to 12 months, oreven longer.
➤ Even intact structures will most likely shut down due tocapacity imbalances and overloads.
➤ One-to-many bottlenecks

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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FINDINGS (2)Ad RQ#1 (What are specific SA/SSA-related communications challenges to professional
disaster responders on all levels in the early stages of response to a (simulated) catastrophe?)➤ Deploying and embedding so-called liaison oﬃcers (LNOs) ineach other’s organizations as remedy for bottlenecks and barriers➤ Need for pre-generated procedures, plans, forms, messages andpaper redundancy➤ Initial in-area response management at all levels has to assume
mainly paper-based and (slow) face-to-face and messenger-based
communication mechanisms, which will last for a duration ofdays, if not, more likely, weeks➤ As a result, situational awareness will initially be spotty, and acommon operating picture will only emerge slowly leading to aharshly constrained response environment
Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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FINDINGS (3)Ad RQ#2 (What are specific SA/SSA-related information and communication
technology (ICT) challenges to professional disaster responders on all levels in the earlystages of response to a (simulated) catastrophe?)➤ Lack of standardization, information integration,compatibility, and interoperability— Various COTS (commercial-oﬀ-the shelf) systems— Various versions of WebEOC— Geographic Information Systems (such as ArcGIS) not or
not well integrated➤ Insuﬃcient scalability of ICTs and insuﬃcient bandwidth➤ Lack of system functionality and diﬃcult-to-navigate userinterface or cumbersome logic of operation
Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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FINDINGS (4)Ad RQ#2 (What are specific SA/SSA-related information and communication technology (ICT)challenges to professional disaster responders on all levels in the early stages of response to a(simulated) catastrophe?)➤ WebEOC Screenshots (version 7.5)

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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FINDINGS (5)Ad RQ#2 (What are specific SA/SSA-related information and communication technology (ICT) challenges
to professional disaster responders on all levels in the early stages of response to a (simulated) catastrophe?)➤ WebEOC™ (Customizable COTS System of Juvare of Atlanta, GA)— Javascript-based browser operated; runs from local servers and/or in theCloud; versions 7.3, 7.6, and 8.1 with an enhanced graphical userinterface were in use; basically a logistics and event logging systems— Severe functional rigidities and limitations

Not self-explicatory nor intuitive to use in any way— Lack of integration of GIS metadata from the popular ArcGIS software— No sophisticated tracking or data manipulation methods like sorting certain data
— Multiple boards such as “status update,” “significant events,” “task manager” among
others along with user-generated ones—

— Interoperability Issues, Performance Issues, and Workarounds

State WebEOC system crashed under the load and appeared to have been unavailable
for an extended period of time
— Lack of readiness for large incidents— Workaround in providing each other direct access to their respective WebEOC systems—Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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FINDINGS (5)Ad RQ#2 (What are specific SA/SSA-related information and communication technology(ICT) challenges to professional disaster responders on all levels in the early stages of response toa (simulated) catastrophe?)➤ Radio Technologies— Lack of HF Radio Interoperability—Radio interoperability requires both frequency or equipment compatibility.
Even when operating on the same frequencies, diﬀerent agencies used
incompatible radios, so that interoperability remained a major problem
until both frequency/channel allocation and equipment compatibility via
standardization have been secured— Limitations of Alternate and Auxiliary Communications

Bandwidth problems and equipment incompatibilities also hampered
backup infrastructure of stationary HF backup stations and satellite phones— Amateur (or, HAM) radio used at municipal, county, State, and Federal
levels as an auxiliary communication infrastructure— Lack of training on part of amateur HAM operators—Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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DISCUSSION (1)➤ Gaining/Maintaining SA/SSA Under Circumstances of Massively Degraded Radio and ICTInfrastructures— Expectable aftershocks will substantially add to the damage of these structures, which havealready been compromised— Incident will rather dynamic in nature, while response capabilities, and, particularly,reconnaissance and intelligence capabilities will be massively degraded— Inaccessible “islands” for extended period time due to the collapse of hundreds of bridgesand overpasses— Ingress and egress other than on foot or by airlift will be virtually impossible— Reaching the level of basic “perception” in SA/SSA would need weeks rather than days, and“comprehension,” as the second level of SA/SSA, will take weeks, if not months➤ No power, no or slow networks, limited local ICT-supported operations, if any,
— Substantial eﬀorts need to undertaken ex ante to prepare for this particular scenario interms of still accessible hardcopy-based tools such as checklists, essential elements ofinformation questionnaires, contact information, pre-scripted public messages, and the like
— Information sharing will be slow
➤ ICT mirror infrastructures outside impact area as alternative➤ Airlifting in and out batteries/generators/fuel but also ICT equipment and paper-based records

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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DISCUSSION (2)➤ State of Currently Used Emergency ICTs in Light of the 2004

DERMIS Recommendations— Extreme ease of learning was seen as a foremost requirement: Unmet by anyof the systems in use— Usability by trained responders: Met in part by all investigated systems— Conciseness (relating to a user interface): None of the systems comes evenclose to matching up with this requirement— Customizability to responders’ specific needs: In part met by WebEOC;
however, becoming very cumbersome when system is increasingly populated— Support for all EOC/IMT functions: Mainly lacking––for example, major GISrelated information could not easily be integrated into a system likeWebEOC— Independence from a particular physical location: Met by WebEOC; however
severe limitations in terms of scalability— Support for structured communication processes: Can be met by a number ofthe systems studied——lack of standardization in forms and processes
Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

22CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH➤

The Cascadia Rising 2016 (CR16) Exercise has produced multiple inconvenient
insights— Communication infrastructures and dedicated emergency management information
systems (EMIS) will be very vulnerable to and badly damaged by the impact of acatastrophic mega-thrust of magnitude 9 plus and the following tsunami— Current ICTs and radio technologies are not ready for the prime time of a largescale integrated response eﬀort— Exercise artificialities may have made the real-world incident appear moremanageable than it would be in reality— Nevertheless the simulation helped uncover numerous areas for improvement— Emergency management needs to engage in serious considerations and planning ofnecessary paper-based alternatives and the transition from paper-based to ICTsupported response management— It is recommended that the exercise be repeated and conducted under theassumption of an even more severe scenario with stingier injects— Currently, the US Pacific Northwest would be caught absolutely flat-footed by amega-thrustHans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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THANK YOU!

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Hans J Scholl et al — University of Washington — ISCRAM Asia Pacific 2018 — Communications and Technology Challenges

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