Results

Simulation results from our case studies indicate that occupants’ social behavior and initial delay to evacuate can lead to very different congestion patterns and evacuation times. This kind of analysis can be useful in many applications, for example, architects can design occupant-centric floor layouts and ensure that the egress design can handle a wide range of occupant behaviors. The simulation results can also help design and placement of signage to guide evacuation. Such analysis can be useful for facility management to plan evacuation strategies and design emergency training programs.

This decision-making model can be used to develop better decision support tools, improve training, and to understand how innovative weather information could potentially affect emergency managers’ role of protecting the public.

Flood events are highly complex and their development process is significantly influenced by various conditions. The findings show that the most important factor is the water level which determines the time available to respond. The presented System Dynamics (SD) model has the capability to capture such complex settings. Through what-if analysis and the comparison of different scenarios, learning effects are achieved by using the model.

ADIAM cartographic results have the potential to reinforce the construction of a share understanding between experts and decision makers of the radiological situation leading to a more efficient management of emergency and crisis situations.

The study demonstrates that South Australian emergency nurses have not received appropriate or consistent disaster education and training. These may be factors contributing to an overall low level of disaster knowledge and confusion regarding local policies and practice, amongst South Australian emergency nurses.

None of the 16 hospitals were compliant in all five areas. Mean hospital compliance was 1.9 (T0.9 SD) areas. The most common deficiency was communications (15 of 16 hospitals [94%].Communication remains a significant gap in the mass casualty scenario 10 years after 9/11

In this work, a new tool was developed to help public authorities and crisis managers prepare an evacuation plan in case of an upcoming storm surge event. This tool includes a catalog of data, the methodology which describes how to process those data to generate an action plan adapted to the actual event, and a software to simulate the process of mass-evacuation, compare different strategies and test the effects of the action levers that the authorities can pull to improve the general process.

This paper presents evidence to suggest that strategic decision-making following a shock event involves a more intuitive, less analytical and less consultative approach, while decision making in a stable environment is characterized by a more cooperative, formal and analytical process.Decision-making following a shock event tends to be simplified and fast, whereas decision-making in a stable environment tends to be comprehensive and slow. Finally, this paper will assist managers to develop strategies and policies to better manage and cope with the impact of shock events in the future.

GIS-aided spatial decision support systems represent an important role in emergency management. Emergency management needs accurate and quick information for dealing with an emergency in a timely and safe manner. Because of the fact that all phases in emergency management are graphically and spatially related to each other, an effective GIS-aided spatial decision support system has a greater role in these activities.

As cross-boundary distribution of cognitive work in Emergency Departments can be perceived as role substitution, building an interprofessional working system is needed to avoid information breakdown in fast-moving contexts. To realize an interprofessional working system, practice-based training is required, aimed at developing a deep understanding of team cognition