ICT-Enabled City Government Field Operations: Resiliency During Extreme Events

Hans J. Scholl, Beth J. Patin, Akemi Takeoka Chatfield
2012 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences  
Extreme events include both natural and man-made emergencies, disasters, and catastrophes of exceptional and unthinkable magnitude, which would surpass the capacity of local government to effectively respond. Often organizations plan and prepare for 'average' disasters, which, as the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami exemplified, can lead to unseen vulnerabilities and costly damages. For this paper, we have studied the daily routine operations, the uses, and impacts of ICTs (including mobile ICTs)
more » ... n two infrastructure management divisions of a city government to better understand their potential fitness for coping with extreme events. We conducted nineteen in-depth field interviews on general procedures, organizational structures, daily routine operations, action plans, information needs, workflows, emergency procedures, and the use of ICTs in the context of emergency response. Based on the data analysis, we have developed recommendations for radically re-thinking extreme event response scenarios through data integration, training and effective use of ICTs, planning and preparedness. Extreme event management The concept of "extreme events" encompasses both natural and man-made emergencies, catastrophes, and disasters of exceptional and unthinkable magnitudes. Extreme events hit with little or almost no warning, cause massive injuries, losses of life, and damage to property, displace populations, severely disrupt critical infrastructures including the information and communication infrastructures, pose enormous health risk to survivors, and regularly surpass the capacity of local responders to adequately and effectively respond by a wide margin [7, 16] . When an extreme event unfolds, the "operating picture 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 978-0-7695-4525-7/12 $26.00
doi:10.1109/hicss.2012.307 dblp:conf/hicss/SchollPC12 fatcat:pxypeqf7q5fvxdklrxzcsdebpm