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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
March 27, 2005 -- Vol. 6, No. 8
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Ask Dan!
Can DSS/IS/IT improve the Incident Command System? What needs can DSS meet?
by Dan Power
YES. Readers may recall my initial discussion of computerized decision
support in crisis/emergency situations (DSS News, 08/31/2003). That Ask Dan!
concluded with a brief summary of the McKinsey & Company reports on the New
York Police and Fire Department responses to the 9/11/2001 terrorist
attacks. "The NYPD report mentioned improving communications and information
flows. The report on the New York Fire Department response stressed the need
for more inter-agency cooperation, improved communication and technology
capabilities, and the use of the Incident Command System (ICS)." At that
time I was "only vaguely familiar with ICS and its procedures". This column
is a follow-up and an expansion of prior discussions on computerized
decision support for crisis and emergency planning, response and management.
What is the Incident Command System (ICS)?
In 2003, I knew that ICS was a broad approach for managing crisis/emergency
situations. In February 2005, as part of my preparation to give a keynote
talk at ISCRAM 2005 (www.iscram.org), I decided to expand my knowledge of
crisis and emergency management, response and planning. I'm a DSS
generalist, but I wanted to focus my talk on that more specific context.
After some Google searching I found the website for the Emergency Management
Institute (www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/). The Institute is operated by the
U.S. National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In
the U.S. Government bureaucratic hierarchy, EMI and NETC are part of the
U.S. Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
I read some of the EMI training materials, followed links and then I
registered to take the online course offered by EMI on the Incident Command
System. I was skeptical about taking a "course", but I decided I would try
the interactive web-based IS-195 course. At a minimum, I could assess the
training technology and perhaps expand my knowledge of ICS and Emergency
Management. Basic Incident Command System (IS-195) is an Independent Study
course offered with printed materials dated January 1998 and an interactive
web-based course. Testing is web-based and a student needs to receive a
score of at least 75% correct to pass the course and receive a Certificate
of achievement from FEMA. My score on the pre-test was higher than 75%, but
I was on a mission of discovery and I completed all of the interactive
lessons, read some materials I printed out and studied for the online exam.
I passed the exam on March 6 and recently received my certificate. The web-
based course materials were sophisticated and well-constructed. I found the
documents on ICS at EMI, NOAA, NRT and at other websites helpful. For those
new to this field, I strongly recommend starting with the EMI web-based courses.
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a system for managing emergencies. ICS
is a "standardized on-scene incident management concept designed
specifically to allow responders to adopt an integrated organizational
structure equal to the complexity and demands of any single incident or
multiple incidents without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries".
According to EMI, "several States have adopted ICS as their standard for
emergency management, and others are considering adopting ICS. As ICS gains
wider use, there is a need to provide training for those who are not first
responders (i.e., law enforcement, fire, or emergency medical services
personnel) who may be called upon to function in an ICS environment. This
Basic Incident Command System (ICS) Course will begin to meet that need."
In the early 1970s, ICS was developed to manage rapidly moving wildfires.
According to a number of sources, the system was intended to address the
following eight problems: 1) too many people reporting to one supervisor; 2)
different emergency response organizational structures; 3) lack of reliable
incident information; 4) inadequate and incompatible communications; 5) lack
of structure for coordinated planning among agencies; 6) unclear lines of
authority; 7) terminology differences among agencies; and 8) unclear or
unspecified incident objectives. The key player in ICS is the Incident
Commander on the scene, but a Command Center provides a reporting system to
a unified command structure. ICS is a framework or template for creating and
expanding a temporary organization for responding to an emergency or a
crisis. ICS is oriented toward consolidating the efforts of public sector
agencies, but conceivably it can mesh the efforts of public agencies, not-
for-profits, private sector organizations and individual volunteers.
What are the DSS/IS/IT issues?
The Incident Command System is bureaucratic, detailed and specific. To
support response and management of an "incident", some transaction
processing is necessary and much of this is done today on paper forms, as an
emergency grows in scale accounting issues emerge that require an accounting
information system, and as more responders participate and the scale of an
incident increases there is an increasing need for decision support. Maps
are common decision support representations in emergencies, but Incident
Commanders and their staffs make use of other tools, data and models.
Information technology must scale up and down as appropriate to an incident,
DSS/IS/IT can serve particular responders on the scene of an incident, for
example supporting triage by a medical professional, and DSS/IS/IT can be
used in a permanent Command or Operations Center for multiple tasks.
And some more specific issues:
Is commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) or specialized, customized
software more appropriate for ICS? Or do both have a place in supporting the
ICS? In general, I favor using software like Microsoft Access and Excel to
create templates that can be used in a specific incident situation. For
example, an Access Database can support ICS form 201 (Incident Briefing),
ICS form 203-OS (Organization List), ICS form 207-OS (Organization Chart),
ICS form 204 (Assignment List), ICS form 219 (T-Cards) and the Resource
summary. Excel applications can also be developed to record and analyze this
type of management information. As the scale of an incident increases, more
specialized, web-based applications may be useful for distributed data
gathering, data analysis and decision support in the temporary ICS
organization. The web is an excellent means of gathering, maintaining and
sharing data from ICS form 209-OS (Incident Status Summary) and for ICS form
214-OS (the Unit Log) and form 214a-OS (Log for individual units). The Unit
Log "records details of unit activity, including strike team activity."
Electronic ICS forms have been developed by the Office of
Response and Restoration, National Ocean Service, NOAA
(http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oilaids/ICS/ICS.html), but MS Access
and Excel templates are potentially much more useful than MS Word documents
or PDF documents. Specialized software is needed for specific types of
incidents. For example, a variety of Oil Spill Software is available from
NOAA, including GNOME, ADIOS 2, DOGS, and SpillTools. Making this
specialized software available for download from a website helps insure that
the most recent version will be used when an incident occurs. Also, web-
based communication systems for incident responders like ResponseLink
(spills.incidentnews.gov/login/ORRresponselink.htm) or the E-Team incident
management system (Walton, 2003) can be useful.
What software is needed to support an Incident Commander? What technology
training is needed by an Incident Commander? An Incident Commander needs to
be comfortable in a high technology "cocoon" of wireless interconnectivity,
web access and stand-alone tools like MS Access and Excel. An Incident
Commander needs to be able to check for and resolve hardware and software
problems. If some or all of the technology infrastructure breaks down, an
Incident Commander also needs to be able to improvise and continue
functioning. That situation may involve using stand-alone computing or no
information technology support.
How can data be gathered easily, inexpensively and reliably during an
incident? We need to gather data before we can use data-driven or model-
driven DSS. Emergency response planners need to consider using radio
frequency identification (RFID) tags for resources as they check-in at an
incident scene. RFID tags can be used to track, inventory and monitor
individual emergency vehicles and emergency responders. Tag them at check-
in!! Personnel and equipment arriving at an incident "can check in at
various incident locations. Check-in consists of reporting specific
information which is recorded on a form. IS/IT can help managers at these
locations record the information and share it immediately with the Resources
Unit. Then incident management personnel and command centers need to be able
to capture the RFID data in real-time. Remember the rule: gather the data at
the source in digital format whenever possible.
Can computerized support assist in on-going emergency operations planning?
Another key aspect of an ICS is the development of an Incident Action Plan
(IAP). If an incident continues for more than about 12-18 hours, a planning
cycle is typically established by the Incident Commander and a Planning
Section Chief is designated. An Incident Action Plan is then developed for
the next operational period (usually 12- or 24-hours in length) and
submitted to the Incident Commander for approval. A web-based Planning DSS
can assist in development of an IAP for a particular operational period and
help focus available resources on the highest priorities/incident
objectives. A web-based planning process can potentially speed-up the
planning process and better integrate staff inputs and identify critical
shortfalls.
Over an extended crisis/emergency, how should technology planning and
technology operational issues be incorporated into the command structure?
Part of the problem in emergencies is that information technology can
malfunction, breakdown and create ancillary problems. The larger the scale
of the crisis/emergency in terms of number of people affected and the number
of responders, the more likely it is that technology problems will occur.
Currently the Incident Command System (ICS) doesn't adequately address how
information technology will be supported, maintained and mobilized during an
incident. More technology planning is needed for crisis/emergency
management and potential Incident Commanders need an increasingly high level
of technology sophistication. Emergency simulations and exercises need to use
a wide variety of technologies and technology breakdowns should be
simulated. As far as ICS information technology operations ... follow the
KISS approach ... Keep It Simple Stupid.
References
Power, D., "How can computerized decision support help in crisis
situations?", DSS News, Vol. 4, No. 18, August 31, 2003.
Power, D., "How can DSS help in crisis planning, response and management?",
DSS News, Vol. 6, No. 6, February 27, 2005.
Walton, Matt S., III, "Rebuilding an Emergency Operations Center for NYC
following 9/11", 2003, posted at DSSResources.COM September 11, 2003.
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DAMA+Metadata
May 22-26, 2005, Orlando, Florida USA.
Check wilshireconferences.com/MD2005/index.htm
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DSS Conferences
Call for Papers
1. 2005 DSI Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 19-22, 2005, paper
deadline April 1, 2005. Check www.dsi2005.org
2. 8th International DSS Conference (ISDSS2005) of AIS SIG DSS,
July 12-15, 2005, Porto Alegre, Brazil, check www.ufrgs.br/dss2005 , extended deadline
April 3, 2005.
Upcoming Conferences
1. The 2005 Semantic Technology Conference will be held March 7-10, .
Stanford Court Hotel, San Francisco, CA, Check www.semantic-conference.com
2. Second International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis
Response and Management (ISCRAM 2005), Brussels, April 18-20, 2005, Check
www.iscram.org.
PLEASE NOTE: Dr. Dan Power will be discussing DSS for Crisis Response and
Management at ISCRAM 2005.
3. DAMA+Metadata -- 9TH Annual Wilshire Meta-Data Conference and the 17TH
Annual DAMA International Symposium, May 22-26, 2005, Orlando, Florida USA.
Check wilshireconferences.com/MD2005/index.htm
PLEASE NOTE: DSSResources.COM and DSS News are Media Sponsors of
DAMA+Metadata
4. 2005 Crystal Ball User Conference will be held June 13-15, 2005 at the
Marriott Denver City Center, Denver, Colorado, check decisioneering.com/cbuc
5. 2005 DSI International Meeting, Barcelona, Spain, July 3-6, 2005.
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DSS News - March 12 to March 26, 2005
Read them at DSSResources.COM and search the DSS News Archive
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03/22/2005 MIT Information Technology conference, April 20-21, spotlights
latest innovations and emerging priorities.
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software solution by ISM, Inc.
03/22/2005 Videoconferencing Insight names TANDBERG videoconferencing
company of the year, citing superior product innovation, customer commitment.
03/21/2005 Novell announces enhancements for GroupWise.
03/21/2005 National study concludes consumers value the mail.
03/18/2005 Teres Solutions signs seven new credit union customers; leading
credit unions from around the nation select SAIL software to automate
indirect lending programs.
03/16/2005 Frontline Solvers power optimization capabilities in Lumina's
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03/16/2005 Decisioneering releases Crystal Ball 7.1 with Extreme Speed.
03/15/2005 Intergraph's transportation solutions chosen by Serco Integrated
Transport to build web portal to automate abnormal loads movement processes
for the Highways Agency in Great Britain.
03/14/2005 New survey shows Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) taking root in business.
03/14/2005 Intergraph Solutions help leading UK communications provider,
Telewest, centralize network assets for enterprisewide data access.
03/14/2005 The Hillman Group selects Information Builders' WebFOCUS as its
enterprise business intelligence standard.
03/14/2005 Hyperion showcases customers' success at world's largest business
performance management conference.
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DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2005 by D. J. Power. Please send your
questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com.
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