Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / Vita. Appendices: leaves 104-117. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124).

The Information Technology (IT) industry has grown and has become an integral part in the world of business today. The importance of information, and IT in particular, will in fact only increase with time (von Solms, 1999). For a large group of organizations computer systems form the basis of their day-to-day functioning (Halliday, Badendorst & von Solms, 1996). These systems evolve at an incredible pace and this brings about a greater need for securing them, as well as the organizational information processed, transmitted and stored. This technological evolution brings about new risks for an organization’s systems and information (Halliday et. al., 1996). If IT fails, it means that the business could fail as well, creating a need for more rigorous IT management (International Business Machines Corporation, 2000). For this reason, executive management must be made aware of the potential consequences that a disaster could have on the organisation (Hawkins,Yen & Chou, 2000). A disaster could be any event that would cause a disruption in the normal day-to-day functioning of an organization. Such an event could range from a natural disaster, like a fire, an earthquake or a flood, to something more trivial, like a virus or system malfunction (Hawkins et. al., 2000). During the 1980’s a discipline known as Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) emerged to protect an organization’s data centre, which was central to the organisation’s IT based structure, from the effects of disasters. This solution, however, focussed only on the protection of the data centre. During the early 1990’s the focus shifted towards distributed computing and client/server technology. Data centre protection and recovery were no longer enough to ensure survival. Organizations needed to ensure the continuation of their mission critical processes to support their continued goal of operations (IBM Global Services, 1999). Organizations now had to ensure that their mission critical functions could continue while the data centre was recovering from a disaster. A different approach was required. It is for this reason that Business Continuity Planning (BCP) was accepted as a formal discipline (IBM Global Services, 1999). To ensure that business continues as usual, an organization must have a plan in place that will help them ensure both the continuation and recovery of critical business processes and the recovery of the data centre, should a disaster strike (Moore, 1995). Wilson (2000) defines a business continuity plan as “a set of procedures developed for the entire enterprise, outlining the actions to be taken by the IT organization, executive staff, and the various business units in order to quickly resume operations in the event of a service interruption or an outage”. With markets being highly competitive as they are, an organization needs a detailed listing of steps to follow to ensure minimal loss due to downtime. This is very important for maintaining its competitive advantage and public stature (Wilson, 2000). The fact that the company’s reputation is at stake requires executive management to take continuity planning very serious (IBM Global Services, 1999). Ensuring continuity of business processes and recovering the IT services of an organization is not the sole responsibility of the IT department. Therefore management should be aware that they could be held liable for any consequences resulting from a disaster (Kearvell-White, 1996). Having a business continuity plan in place is important to the entire organization, as everyone, from executive management to the employees, stands to benefit from it (IBM Global Services, 1999). Despite this, numerous organizations do not have a business continuity plan in place. Organizations neglecting to develop a plan put themselves at tremendous risk and stand to loose everything (Kearvell-White, 1996).

Current trends in participative democracy suggest that the use of stakeholder involvement in decision making will increase in the next decade and beyond. The evolution towards stakeholder involvement is driven mainly by stakeholders’ expectation to participate in decision making on issues that affect them. The current view of international radiation protection organisations is that the stakeholders have a right to participate in decision making, but the changes to the current system of radiation protection decision making will only occur slowly through build up of positive experiences and appreciation of benefits provided by stakeholder involvement.The benefits of stakeholder involvement have already been observed in decision making in issues ranging from new nuclear build to dealing with radiological emergencies, but unsuccessful stakeholder involvement programmes have also been observed. In order to integrate stakeholder involvement further into radiation protection decision making it is important to incorporate and implement lessons learnt from both successful and unsuccessful stakeholder programmes, and understand when stakeholder involvement can be applied. My research into clearance of low radioactivity materials shows that stakeholder involvement can be applied in planned exposure situations as defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). Involvement of stakeholders in planned exposure situation decision making should, however, be limited to issues with high level of reputation risk or wide ranging impacts of multiple stakeholder groups.To assess whether stakeholder involvement can be applied in the other exposure situations defined by the ICRP as emergency and existing exposure situations, the other part of my research focused on radiological emergencies. The research demonstrated that stakeholder aided decision making already has a place in solving cooperative problems of emergency management, but there is still further scope to apply stakeholder involvement in coordination of emergency management. The research shows that there is scope to integrate stakeholder involvement further into radiation protection decision making, but this must be done in a planned and organised manner.

Since 1986, the State of Michigan has developed a policy of financial receivership for fiscally distressed local governments. This system entailed local democratic suspension, as the State government installed an Emergency Manager with complete power over the locality. Occupation primarily affected majority-black cities, was imposed without any real recourse, and lasted as long as State officials desired. A framework of indefinite temporary occupation in international politics highlights the structural ways in which Michigan’s subnational policy is juridically enabled, a symptom of structural financial and racial disinvestment, for the benefits of privileged elites, and contingent on national apathy. Additionally, the application of this lens delineates the systemic ways in which Emergency Management undermines local democracy even after the headlines proclaim its end.

Natural disasters often result in large-scale power outages. Real-time tracking of the extent, distribution, and timelines of electrical service loss and recovery can play an important role in minimizing disaster impacts. Using NASA's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB), the extent and duration of disrupted electric utility infrastructure in the Florida Panhandle following Hurricane Michael were estimated. The percent loss of electrical service was downscaled to a neighborhood level using the 2013-2017 American Community Survey (ACS) data at the block group level. Two ordinary least square models were estimated to examine the association between socioeconomic characteristics and the extent and duration of the power outages as well as recovery rates. The study found that block groups with higher percent minorities, multi-family housing units, rural areas, and a higher percentage of households receiving public assistance were experiencing slower power restoration rates than urban and more affluent neighborhoods. The findings have implications for disaster preparedness and recovery planning. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (MURP)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Volunteers are important contributors to response and recovery. Little is known about their engagement, particularly in terms of comparing the engagement of response volunteers to recovery volunteers. This study sought to explore volunteer engagement in response and recovery in the case of flooding experienced by a number of communities in East Texas following flooding in 2016. Data was gathered through interviews with 72 response and recovery volunteers and key informants, an analysis of key documents, and first-hand observations. This study developed a list of factors that were found to explain volunteer engagement in East Texas and factors suggested by the literature. These factors should be systematically tested in the future to expand our understanding of volunteer engagement. / University of Colorado Natural Hazards Center (Grant)

The ubiquitous use of mobile devices and smartphones in the United States presents an interesting opportunity for application developers with respect to emergency management. Software engineers from the federal government to individuals have recognized the unique prospect of utilizing always-connected devices to assist in emergency notification, preparedness, and response. The federal government has instituted and ratified multiple acts and mandates with respect to mobile communications during a crisis such as the Commercial Mobile Alert System. Likewise, individual organizations and developers have created mobile applications that access weather alerts from the National Weather Service. Many of these applications utilize push notification architectures to notify users and stakeholders about impeding emergency situations. While most of these applications are geared towards a national audience, there are a few that are highly granular with a focus on the local community. This thesis presents a universal iOS application running on all iOS mobile devices: iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini, and iPod Touch for the Virginia Tech community. The application is highly granular with respect to emergency response guidance and notification by providing clear, concise, and supportive information to citizens during a crisis. Additionally, the application provides another medium of delivery for the Office of Emergency Management at Virginia Tech to potentially mitigate the extent of collateral damage and secondary incidents while saving lives. / Master of Science

A significant increase in campus-based emergencies warrants the investigation into emergency management information systems that serve a novice crisis decision-maker. Institutions of higher education that are not large enough to have dedicated emergency management offices generally press novice decision-makers into emergency management roles. An investigation was conducted to assess the impact of an emergency management geospatial information system on the decision performance of novice crisis managers through the use of a scenario-based simulation. A mixed method sequential explanatory method was used to collect quasi-experimental data on decision time, decision accuracy and situational awareness. Qualitative analysis was conducted through interviews with participants. Statistical results indicate the decision accuracy is positively affected by the use of an emergency management geospatial information system. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is non-parametric linear programming method used to identify decision-making units in a data set that are optimal in their use of single or a set of resources (inputs) in delivering a set of expected results (outputs). DEA indicated that efficiency ratios from the geospatial information system group outperform the traditional group. Geospatial information systems hold much promise in providing systems that are easy to use, promote heightened levels of situational awareness and decision support.

No description available.

One of the greatest natural hazards that is faced with in much of the United States are tornadoes. Despite improvements in the warning processes, the risk of significant loss of life remains high. That is particularly true with vulnerable communities which have higher proportions of mobile homes; however, violent tornadoes are very difficult to manage in permanent homes or buildings as well. As a result, tornado shelters have been built in some communities and have become available to the public. However, their presence is intermittent, and there are many tornado-prone areas that lack such shelters. After a public survey, it was found that there was unmet demand for tornado shelters and, at least in the most extreme circumstances, a large percentage of the population would be willing to utilize such. It was also found that better communication of tornado shelters would increase utilization rates either in circumstances where they already exist or where the need exists. Some residents, particularly those in mobile homes, were likely to utilize shelters more frequently, which increased their need to an even greater extent. Once both the public and broadcast meteorologists were surveyed, it was found that the public was strongly supportive of mobile applications about tornado shelters in their area, and local television sources and the websites and applications related to those stations were also popular sources. Broadcast meteorologists in the Deep South in particular mentioned the need for more shelters and advocated construction, but not as much in other regions. They mentioned that mobile apps would be quite useful for the public to locate shelters. A case study in the context of the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic (knowing that crowded spaces was not a desirable situation amidst the pandemic) found that shelters were still potentially useful with mitigation. Those concurrent hazards made for a more challenging study and proved to be a valuable case study in tornado sheltering. The results found that it was possible to attenuate both threats provided that careful planning and actions were undertaken. As a result, both short-term and long-term recommendations were suggested which may also be useful in future pandemic situations.