pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Agent-based Modeling of Emergency Management Networks with Public Mobilization after a Disaster

PI: Erica Fischer (OSU), erica.fischer@oregonstate.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-7653-2068

Co PIs: Haizhong Wang (OSU)

AMOUNT & MATCH: $28,665 from PacTrans; $28,665 Match

PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 8/16/2018 – 8/15/2020

STATUS: Completed

CATEGORIES: Disaster Management, Emergency Management

RESEARCH PROJECT HOT SHEET:

UTC PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:

FINAL PROJECT REPORT:

PROJECT DATA: All data used for this work is publicly available and reference in the technical report

DESCRIPTION: The goal of this study is to measure the impact of stated public behavior on the response time and operability of the ERN due to interactions between the public and ERN, and propose changes to the status quo that will improve the ERN’s efficiency to respond. The international community has begun to recognize that flexible post-disaster response is necessary to address and solve challenges. Flexible ERNs need to consider the potential behavior patterns from local communities. Lessons learned from the emergency response to previous crises demonstrates that regardless of the cultural differences between communities, and nature of the crisis (i.e. natural disaster versus public health), planning for emergency response is essentially the same. The results of this project include: (i) an interdisciplinary agent-based modeling framework to assess the vulnerabilities at the interface of the public network (i.e., social) and the ERNs (i.e., emergency managers and local authorities), and (ii) improved understanding of the impact (increase/decrease in resiliency) of disruptors that alter the status quo of network-of-networks.