Using traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), which is typically reserved for understanding how indigenous societies function successfully, and applying this to developed countries' ideas of disaster planning and response, emergency planners, public officials, and lay-persons can gain an understanding of their environment. Stories, history, education, and The waterborne evacuation of Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001 provides a backdrop with which to test the tenets of TEK in a developed nation setting. This dissertation has found that TEK was effective when used by a developed nation and should be integrated into the current disaster system in the US.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Bergin, Richard ; Josefek, Robert. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 27, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Trust, collaboration, inter-organizational relations, interorganizational trust, cooperation, emergency management, trust building, New York City Fire Department. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-102). Also available in print.

Fire Service commanders work in a very dynamic environment. This research investigated the process they use to make sense and thereby develop understanding of situations during the response to a large-scale emergency. In previous research that investigated decision-making and situation awareness in real-life environments, the need for commanders to understand an incident is emphasised. This research aimed to generate new insights into the process individuals follow to build and improve situational understanding. An exploratory project phase was used to focus the research. Data from emergency exercises and interviews resulted in the design for the main study regarding application domain, data sources and methodological issues. For the main study, records of publicly available interviews with senior officers of the New York Fire Department on their experience of the response to the events at the World Trade Center on September, 11 2001 were analysed. Findings include six variations of the sensemaking process structure, which is characterised by distinct stages. A following investigation into why these stages occur took a theory-building approach and revealed two insights. First, process stages are tied to seven hierarchical but interlinked levels of understanding. Second, three groups of underlying mechanisms trigger process stages: four cognitive factors, eight needs to understand and three situational factors. The mechanisms occur in different combinations across process variations and have varying explanatory power. This study contributes to knowledge on the process of building and improving situational understanding and its link to understanding. A micro-level view of the sensemaking process is provided, showing the specific understanding that is gained and evolves along its stages. The view of sensemaking is extended from understanding what is going on and what can be done to include understanding performance of action. A review with experts revealed that findings adequately reflect the thinking of commanders during incident response and might have practical relevance for training and command support.

CHDS State/Local / Since 9/11 much progress has been made by Federal, State and local authorities to prepare for future Catastrophic Incidents. The March 1, 2004 release of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) mandated the use of Unified Command and Incident Management Teams (IMTs) for multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional incidents. These teams have strong potential for improving complex incident management. However, the potential for interagency conflict threatens effectual IMT functioning in the absence of team skills instruction as part of a national training curriculum. The current curriculum teaches technical skills and ICS role responsibilities, and omits skills needed to build healthy team dynamics. Training for IMTs needs to include more than technical skills ("What to do"), and that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should expand the curriculum to include team dynamics ("How to do it"). Further, DHS need not "re-invent the wheel" when looking for sources of team dynamic theory, but need only look to and adapt the experience of business and academia. Over the past 20-25 years a variety of inter-organizational networks and Work Teams have been studied and field tested. This thesis examines literature lessons on the problems shared by Work Teams and IMTs, with particular emphasis on effectiveness and managing conflict. / Division Chief, Austin Fire Department

The U.S. government is responsible for protecting the country's energy and technology infrastructure. Critics argue the United States has failed to prepare, protect and respond to incidents involving the national electric grid leaving communities vulnerable to prolonged power outages. Protection of investor owned utilities' critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber and physical harm from the absence of criminalizing the intrusion of private sector computer networks, the lack of cybersecurity threats in emergency management, and the absence of cyber-intelligent leadership supports this argument. The purpose of this study was to introduce an electric grid protection theoretical concept, while identifying whether cybersecurity law and emergency management, amongst the investor-owned utility community, has an optimized relationship for protecting the national electric grid from harm. Easton's political system input/output model, Sommestad's cybersecurity theory, and Mitroff's crisis management theory provided the theoretical foundations for this study. The study utilized a mixed method research design that incorporated a Likert collection survey and combined quantitative chi-square and qualitative analysis. The key findings identified that cybersecurity law and the use of emergency management in the electric grid protection theory were not optimized to protect the national electric grid from harm. The recommendations of this study included the optimization of the theory elements through educational outreach and amending administrative cybersecurity law to improve the protection of the national electric grid and positively impacting social change by safeguarding the delivery of reliable electric energy to the millions of Americans who depend upon it.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2008. / "Spring 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-99).

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Christopher Bellavita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-139). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Technology)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Alex Bordetsky, Brian Steckler. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-70). Also available online.

Thesis (M.A. in Security studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Maria Rasmussen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-88). Also available online.