Real-time mobilization decisions for multi-priority emergency response resources and evacuation groups: Model formulation and solution

This paper presents a model formulation and solution for simultaneous mobilization destination, traffic assignment, and departure schedule for multi-priority groups (SMDTS-MPG) for real-time emergency response in no-notice disasters. The presented approach addresses the decision context in which multiple emergency responses and evacuation flow groups with different destinations and varying priorities coexist in the same traffic network, within which simultaneous mobilization strategies must consider this requirement. The proposed modeling technique and the cell transmission model (CTM)-based linear-programming model provides a mechanism to accomplish this goal in an intuitive and coherent manner. The proposed matrix formulation of the SMDTS-MPG model permits the rapid deployment of the model to large networks. Model formulation and numerical examples are presented in detail in this paper.     

德国高速铁路安全立法的经验及启示

德国高速铁路安全立法较早,成为保障德国高速铁路安全的重要支柱。从救援防范、安全管理分工合作、安全管理标准规范等角度出发,阐述德国高速铁路安全立法;从建立严格规范的救援和事故调查机制、加强多主体共同合作以及建立安全管理标准体系等方面,分析德国高速铁路安全立法的主要特色。在此基础上,提出德国高速铁路安全立法启示,即:构建安全救援和事故处理法律制度,构建多方合作法律制度机制及构建高速铁路安全管理标准规范制度,为我国高速铁路安全管理法治化提供经验借鉴。     

Informal household preparedness: methodological approaches to everyday practices

Abstract

Despite increasing attention to individuals’ everyday lives in the literature on risk, few studies investigate household preparedness within the everyday life context. Preparedness is most often regarded as a predefined set of capacities for dealing with emergencies. This article presents methodological approaches for studying what I suggest calling informal preparedness activities that are performed as part of daily life in households. Starting with the assumption that everyday life is enacted through culturally and socially shared practices, it is argued that preparedness is interwoven into these practices. Contrary to studying preparedness as the degree to which households are aware of and act according to a formal definition of preparedness, informal household preparedness focuses on preparedness as embedded in the routinised practices that make up everyday life. The study of informal household preparedness is based on three methodological approaches that explore these practices: (i) Performance of everyday practices, where interviews that focus on performance ask questions about what practitioners actually do; (ii) materiality, where walk-alongs are used to connect performance interviews to the material surroundings; and (iii) visualisation, where the material aspects of informal preparedness are documented. These approaches were carried out in a study of Norwegian households’ management of and preparedness for electricity and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure breakdowns. Addressing informal and formal preparedness activities expands our understanding of household preparedness and should help policy makers recognise the active role of households and their actual resources and constraints in future preparedness planning.     

Somalia: Food aid in a long-term emergency

From the mid-1970s onwards Somalia has suffered from a number of emergencies — drought, population disruptions, political conflict and minor climatic problems. This article examines the impact of such continuous flows of food aid as a response to such emergencies, both in terms of the recipient government's attempts to stabilize the domestic economy and of donor governments' activities.     

Planning in the emergency operations center

Planning is a deliberate process that often times calls for the integrated efforts of numerous individuals from a variety of disciplines. From my personal experience, nowhere is this more apparent or critical than with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during a disaster or catastrophe. During an EOC activation the planning function is critical to the success of field operations and overall situational awareness. The planning function is conducted within very stringent timeframes and often with limited information. While creating a plan on time is important, making sure the plan is as accurate as possible is essential.     

完善我国铁路突发事件应急管理法律机制路径探讨

为提高铁路突发事件应急管理水平,完善铁路突发事件应急管理法律机制,为铁路突发事件应急管理提供有效的法律支撑和完备的法律保障,在阐述铁路突发事件和铁路突发事件应急管理法律机制内涵的基础上,针对协同协作机制、社会化机制、应急管理法律体系、应急预案体系、应急管理标准化机制尚不完善等方面,剖析我国铁路突发事件应急管理法律机制掣肘铁路应急管理法治化的困境,提出完善我国铁路突发事件应急管理法律机制的路径,即:完善铁路突发事件应急管理协作机制,完善铁路突发事件应急管理社会化机制,完善铁路突发事件应急管理法律体系,完善铁路突发事件应急预案体系,完善铁路突发事件应急管理标准化机制,最终实现铁路突发事件应急管理的法治化、制度化和科学化。     

An Exploratory Study of the Level of Disaster Preparedness in the Canadian Hospitality Industry

Disaster planning is an important, but often neglected, part of leading an organization. Currently there exists little data on the level of disaster preparedness of organizations in the Canadian hospitality industry. In this article we present the results of a survey of a representative sample of organizations in this industry to assess the level of disaster preparedness. Results reveal an overall low level of preparedness. Implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for research and practice are suggested.     

How does tourist monitoring alter fish behavior in underwater trails?

Nature based tourism is becoming more popular because it is perceived as a solution to the conflict between conservation and economic exploitation. Nevertheless, it is known to cause several effects. This paper reports findings whereby monitored tourism avoids triggering adverse effects for social cichlid fish species, Crenicichla lepidota. Measures used included aggression toward territorial intruders and the number of nests built in pristine reference areas for monitored and in non-monitored tourist areas. We observed suppressed aggressive behavior and suppressed nesting only in the non-monitored area. We conclude that by monitoring visits, and using techniques including avoiding stepping on the river bed, reducing the number of visitors, prohibiting fish feeding and protecting riparian vegetation, it is possible to avoid the enduring damage caused by nature tourism.     

Reliable emergency service facility location under facility disruption,en-route congestion and in-facility queuing

The planning of emergency service facility location, especially for those expecting high demand and severe conditions, requires consideration of victims’ en-route travel, in-facility service quality, and reliability of these service facilities themselves. This paper first presents a scenario-based stochastic mixed-integer non-linear program (MINLP) model that integrates facility disruption risks, en-route traffic congestion and in-facility queuing delay into an integrated facility location problem. We derive lower and upper bounds to this highly complex problem by approximating the expected total system costs across the normal and all probabilistic facility disruption scenarios. This allows us to develop a more tractable approximate MINLP formulation and a Lagrangian Relaxation (LR) based solution approach. The relaxed sub-problem for location and service allocation decisions is further reformulated into a second-order conic program. Numerical experiments show that the approximate model and LR solution approach are capable of overcoming the computational difficulties associated with the problem. Interesting findings and managerial insights are obtained from a series of sensitivity analyses, e.g., regarding the importance of considering in-facility queuing in location design, and the significance of resource pooling on the optimal facility deployment.     

A location-routing model for prepositioning and distributing emergency supplies

We propose a two-stage location-routing model with recourse for integrated preparedness and response planning under uncertainty. The model is used for risk management in disaster situations where there are uncertainties in demand and the state of the infrastructure. We solve the two-stage model by converting it into a single-stage counterpart. The latter is then implemented in an illustrative example. Comparative analyses are run to investigate the (1) value of planning location and routing in a single model, (2) value of transshipment, (3) differences when an expected-value objective is used, and (4) value of transshipment in the expected-value model.