This thesis proposes a collaboration framework for the Web of Things based on the concepts of Service-oriented Architecture and integrated with semantic web technologies to offer new possibilities in terms of efficient asset management during operations requiring multi-actor collaboration. The motivation for the project comes from the rise in disasters where effective cross-organisation collaboration can increase the efficiency of critical information dissemination. Organisational boundaries of participants as well as their IT capability and trust issues hinders the deployment of a multi-party collaboration framework, thereby preventing timely dissemination of critical data. In order to tackle some of these issues, this thesis proposes a new collaboration framework consisting of a resource-based data model, resource-oriented access control mechanism and semantic technologies utilising the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology that can be used simultaneously by multiple actors without impacting each other’s networks and thus increase the efficiency of disaster management and relief operations. The generic design of the framework enables future extensions, thus enabling its exploitation across many application domains. The performance of the framework is evaluated in two areas: the capability of the access control mechanism to scale with increasing number of devices, and the capability of the semantic annotation process to increase in efficiency as more information is provided. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is fit for purpose.

Natural disasters are uniquely transformative events. They can drastically transform physical terrain and the lives of those unfortunate enough to be caught in their wrath. However, natural disasters also provide an opportunity to reflect on past failures and, at times, a clean slate to correct those shortcomings. This project takes a political economic approach and recognizes natural disasters as occasions for agenda-setting on behalf of transnational commercial enterprises and market-oriented policy elites. These reformers often use the post-disaster policy space to articulate long-term development strategies based on market fundamentalism, and, more importantly, advance a set of policies consistent with their particular interests. This dissertation delves into that process and identifies the actors, their preferences and the policy outcomes. Using the business conflict model alongside changing transnational processes, this project identifies and traces post-disaster policy making in the Caribbean Basin. It also explores and provides a more nuanced explanation of its effect upon and within certain socioeconomic groups. What becomes apparent is that natural disasters are opportunities to first fracture national economies and then integrate them into transnational processes of capital accumulation. Given that economic viability is increasingly determined by assimilation into the global production processes, reformers in both developed and developing countries use disasters as occasions for re-orienting national economies towards this end. It is within this distorted integrative process that disaster capitalism is located.

Memoria para optar al título de Geógrafo / En esta investigación se realiza un análisis y comparación respecto de la incorporación de la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (GRD) en los instrumentos de ordenamiento y planificación territorial de las comunas de San Bernardo y Calera de Tango, identificando factores críticos que determinan las diferencias entre ellas. Si bien las comunas en estudio son colindantes y poseen características físicas similares, cada una ha ido adoptando caracteres de acuerdo a su funcionalidad dentro de la Región Metropolitana. Sin embargo, las dinámicas que se han desarrollado no responden a la planificación vigente, lo que ha generado condiciones de riesgo para la población, sus bienes y economía. En la investigación fue posible determinar que los instrumentos de planificación y ordenamiento territorial aún no incorporan de manera íntegra la GRD debido en parte, a que existen confusiones conceptuales, y al tipo de gestión que se intenta proponer, ya que sigue siendo mayoritariamente reactiva. La principal diferencia entre las comunas estudiadas radica en que San Bernardo, al poseer un Plan Regulador Comunal, gestiona y ordena el territorio disminuyendo la exposición de la población a las amenazas de origen natural y antrópico existentes en la comuna, vale decir presenta una gestión preventiva. Por su parte, Calera de Tango nunca ha contado con este instrumento en particular. Al ser una comuna de carácter rural, los instrumentos de planificación actuales no son de gran ayuda debido a que se enfocan en la gestión de las zonas urbanas principalmente, por lo cual gran parte del territorio comunal no tiene regulación. A pesar de las ventajas con las que cuenta San Bernardo aún son insuficientes para reducir el riesgo de desastre. / This project consists of comparative analysis of the integration of the Disaster Risk Management (GRD) in the regulation and territorial planning of the San Bernardo and Calera de Tango municipalities, with the intent of identifying critical factors differentiating the two. While these municipalities are adjacent to each other and share many physical characteristics, they have developed distinct characteristics in accordance with the role each plays within the wider Metropolitan Region. The dynamics developed within each nonetheless do not share policy frameworks – something that has created risky conditions for their local populations, properties and economies. This investigation determined that the current methods used for territorial planning and legislation have yet to meaningfully integrate the GRD due to both conceptual ambiguities and the fact that management has up until now been largely reactive. The principal distinguishing factor separating the municipalities under investigation is that San Bernardo, in possessing a Regulatory Communal Plan, manages its territory with an eye towards reducing its population’s exposure to local natural and man-made threats. In contrast, Calera del Tango has never possessed this particular policy framework. As a rural municipality, current planning frameworks are of limited effectiveness due to their focus on urban locations. In spite of their advantages San Bernardo possesses, the current policy framework is insufficient as a means of reducing risk in the face of possible disasters.

L'importance des catastrophes est un extrême qui peut difficilement être discuté. Ceci est largement dû à ses conséquences néfastes pour les personnes, leur propriété ou l'environnement. Ainsi, des exemples tels que ceux de Tchernobyl, l'ouragan Katrina, le tremblement de terre en Haïti en 2010 ou le tsunami et l'accident de la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima I en 2011, démontrent l'importance et la pertinence de ce problème.Les catastrophes se situent dans une situation transversale qui affecte les questions fondamentales du Droit international, comme la formulation de normes internationales ou les fonctions de ce secteur, entre autres. En outre, au cours des dernières années, le débat doctrinal concernant la réglementation des catastrophes par le droit international s'est intensifié. Cela met en évidence la fragmentation et la limitation de la réglementation juridique internationale sur ce sujet. Par conséquent, il est nécessaire d’effectuer une étude générale de ces événements qui permet une régulation holistique, dans laquelle les différents types et hypothèses ont une place. L'objectif de ce travail est donc de déterminer la réponse donnée par le Droit international dans les situations de catastrophe. À cette fin, une analyse de la pratique normative et institutionnelle existante a été établie. Ce travail tente de répondre à certaines questions autour des catastrophes telles que sa définition, quelles sont les normes en la matière ainsi que son efficacité. En outre, les développements institutionnels sont étudiés dans le domaine universel et régional centré sur les Nations Unies et l'Union Européenne. / Disasters’ significance is an aspect that can hardly be discussed. This is largely due to its harmful consequences for people, property or the environment. Accordingly, examples such as those of Chernobyl, Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 or the tsunami and subsequent accident at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant in 2011, demonstrate the importance and relevance of this problem.The disasters shall be considered as a transversal topic that affects basic issues of International Law such as the formulation of international standards or its core functions, among others. In addition, in recent years the doctrinal debate regarding the regulation of disasters by International Law has been increasing. Academic papers highlight the fragmentation and limitation of such international legal regulation. Therefore, it is necessary a general study of these events that allows a holistic regulation, in which the different types and assumptions could have a place. This work aims to determine the response offered by International Law in the event of disasters. For that, an analysis of the existing normative and institutional practice has been established to give answer to some of the questions around these events such as its definition, what are the existing norms as well as its effectiveness. Along with the normative analysis, institutional developments are studied focused on the United Nations and the European Union. / La importancia de las catástrofes es un extremo que difícilmente puede discutirse. Ello debido en gran medida a sus consecuencias perjudiciales para las personas, los bienes o el medioambiente. De este modo, ejemplos como los de Chernóbil, el huracán Katrina, el terremoto de Haití de 2010 o el maremoto y posterior accidente en la central nuclear de Fukushima I en 2011, demuestran la trascendencia y actualidad de este problema. Las catástrofes se sitúan como una situación transversal que afecta a cuestiones básicas del Derecho Internacional tales como la formulación de normas internacionales o las funciones de este sector, entre otras. Además, en los últimos años el debate doctrinal respecto de la regulación de las catástrofes por el Derecho Internacional ha ido en aumento. En éste se destaca la fragmentación y limitación de dicha regulación jurídico-internacional. Por ello, resulta necesario un estudio general de estos eventos que permita una reglamentación holística, en la que tengan cabida los distintos tipos y supuestos. El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar la respuesta ofrecida por el Derecho Internacional ante situaciones de catástrofe. Para ello se ha establecido un análisis de la práctica normativa e institucional existente. Este trabajo trata de dar respuesta a algunos de los interrogantes en torno a las catástrofes tales como su definición, qué normas existen en la materia, así como su efectividad. Junto con el análisis normativo se estudian los desarrollos institucionales en la materia centrada en Naciones Unidas (en el ámbito universal) y en la Unión Europea (en el regional).

Exploration is a fundamental problem in robotics that requires robots to navigate through unknown environments to autonomously gather information about their surroundings while executing collision-free paths. In this project, we propose a method for producing smooth paths during the exploration process in indoor environments using UAVs to improve battery efficiency and enhance the quality of pose estimation. The developed framework is built by merging two approaches that represent the state of the art in the field of autonomous exploration with UAVs. The overall exploration logic is given by GLocal, a paper that introduces a hybrid, i.e. both sampling-based and frontier-based, framework that is able to cope with the issue of odometry drift when exploring indoor environments due to the absence of absolute localization, e.g. through GNSS. The second approach is FUEL, which introduces a frontier-based exploration methodology which computes the ’drones path as an optimized non-uniform B-Spline. The framework described in this thesis borrows the optimized B-Spline trajectory generation from FUEL and implements it in GLocal. To do this, the original cost function defined by GLocal for each exploration viewpoint was modified and the resulting samples were used to select the initial control points of the B-Spline. Furthermore, we extended the underlying state machine governing the entire algorithm and we revisited the original re-planning logic. The presented system is evaluated in various simulated environments, showcasing the advantages and disadvantages of this method. These evaluations demonstrate its improved state estimation performance and absolute observed volume, albeit at the expense of longer traveled trajectories in big and complex environments. / Utforskning är ett grundläggande problem inom robotteknik som kräver att robotar navigerar genom okända miljöer för att autonomt samla in information om sin omgivning samtidigt som de utför kollisionsfria banor. I det här projektet föreslår vi en metod för att producera jämna banor under utforskningsprocessen i inomhusmiljöer med hjälp av UAV:er för att förbättra batterieffektiviteten och förbättra kvaliteten på posestimeringen. Det utvecklade ramverket bygger på en sammanslagning av två metoder som representerar den senaste tekniken inom autonom utforskning med UAV:er. Den övergripande utforskningslogiken ges av GLocal, en artikel som introducerar en hybrid, i.e. både samplingsbaserad och gränsbaserad, ram som kan hantera problemet med odometridrift vid utforskning av inomhusmiljöer på grund av frånvaron av absolut lokalisering, e.g. genom GNSS. Den andra metoden är FUEL, som introducerar en gränsbaserad utforskningsmetod som beräknar drönarens bana som en optimerad icke-uniform B-Spline. Ramverket som beskrivs i denna avhandling lånar den optimerade B-Spline-banegenereringen från FUEL och implementerar den i GLocal. För att göra detta modifierades den ursprungliga kostnadsfunktionen som definierades av GLocal för varje utforskningspunkt och de resulterande samplen användes för att välja de initiala kontrollpunkterna för B-Spline. Dessutom utökade vi den underliggande tillståndsmaskinen som styr hela algoritmen och vi reviderade den ursprungliga logiken för omplanering. Det presenterade systemet utvärderas i olika simulerade miljöer, vilket visar fördelarna och nackdelarna med denna metod. Dessa utvärderingar visar på förbättrad prestanda för tillståndsuppskattning och absolut observerad volym, om än på bekostnad av längre färdvägar i stora och komplexa miljöer.

Disaster victims and vulnerable populations are audiences that communications professionals and scholars have ignored. Public relation practices dominate current disaster communication policy. This study examines the disaster communication network, including policy and practice, of the Thai Red Cross, before, during, and after the Asian tsunami. Disaster communication(s) is defined as the sharing and exchange of information with the victims immediately affected by a disaster. This definition focuses specifically on the vulnerable audience and allows response efforts to emerge from multiple disciplines. Focusing response efforts on victims' assessed needs and abilities allows for a multi-disciplinary approach to mitigate further suffering. The disciplines of health, development, and communications converge for efficient disaster management. This case study gives great insight into the cultural chasm between policy making and practical application and also reveals the value of personal initiative. A proposed model of disaster communication is offered. Significantly more research is needed in the area of disaster communications.

The purpose of this study was to analyze critical elements for crisis planning at seven private four-year residential colleges and universities in Northern California. The researcher reviewed each campus's written crisis plans and interviewed campus officials in charge of leading their respective institution's crisis planning efforts. The data revealed that the threat of natural disasters was a common impetus for formal crisis planning. Institutions borrowed information from other campuses and public and private organizations to develop institutional crisis plans. Outside agencies both contributed to and gained from collaboration with these institutions, although all institutions sought a degree of self-sufficiency for food and water supplies. Emergency Operations Centers were designed to focus staffing and resources in a single, in some cases moveable, location in the event of a crisis. Campuses in this study invested considerable resources in systems of communication with students, faculty, and staff, including sirens, digital displays, and Connect-ED, but individual subscription remained a barrier to the smooth functioning of Connect-ED. Multi-layered communication systems enhance a campus's ability to communicate with all stakeholders. Philosophies varied on specificity versus flexibility as the framework for crisis planning. Campuses used threat assessment teams as proactive intervention to identify students who pose a threat to themselves or others. The State of California Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), which became a template for the Federal National Incident Management System (NIMS), has become the unifying factor for crisis planning among these institutions. SEMS/NIMS, while not a mandate, emerged as a driving force for planning, because compliance with SEMS/NIMS is a requirement for receiving federal disaster emergency reimbursement for property damage. Practicing the plan, through tabletop and functional simulation exercises, allowed campus officials and civic safety agencies to develop a shared vocabulary and procedures. Crisis planning is a means to help a campus prepare for and respond to an incident in an effective manner, thus reducing harm to people and property damage. Although crisis planning cannot completely prevent incidents from occurring, appropriate and advanced planning and preparation can allow campus leaders to contain both the duration of and the damage caused by major crises.

This thesis proposes a collaboration framework for the Web of Things based on the concepts of Service-oriented Architecture and integrated with semantic web technologies to offer new possibilities in terms of efficient asset management during operations requiring multi-actor collaboration. The motivation for the project comes from the rise in disasters where effective cross-organisation collaboration can increase the efficiency of critical information dissemination. Organisational boundaries of participants as well as their IT capability and trust issues hinders the deployment of a multi-party collaboration framework, thereby preventing timely dissemination of critical data. In order to tackle some of these issues, this thesis proposes a new collaboration framework consisting of a resource-based data model, resource-oriented access control mechanism and semantic technologies utilising the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology that can be used simultaneously by multiple actors without impacting each other’s networks and thus increase the efficiency of disaster management and relief operations. The generic design of the framework enables future extensions, thus enabling its exploitation across many application domains. The performance of the framework is evaluated in two areas: the capability of the access control mechanism to scale with increasing number of devices, and the capability of the semantic annotation process to increase in efficiency as more information is provided. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is fit for purpose.

Den svenska intensivvården drabbades 2020 av en svår kris när coronapandemin mångdubblade antalet svårt sjuka patienter i en redan hårt belastad verksamhet. För att hantera krisen behövde sjukvården ställa om till katastrofsjukvård. Syftet med denna uppsats är att ge en fördjupad bild av intensivvårdens kapacitetsökningsförmåga, katastrofomställning och anpassning under Covid -19. Ett intervjuresultat togs fram genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och med hjälp av PAR-modellen härleddes förutsättningarna för den katastrofomställning som genomfördes. Arbetet är en av de första studierna som undersöker coronapandemins effekter på intensivvården med en tydlig riskvetenskaplig metodik. Intervjuresultatet tolkades med hjälp av en kontextanpassad och tillämpad PAR-modell ochvisade att trots en oförberedd sjukvård och dåliga grundförutsättningar lyckas den undersökta verksamheten absorbera chocken och genomföra en katastrofomställning. Den anpassade sig till den grad att patienterna kunde få en kvalitativ vård tack vare stora uppoffringar och umbäranden från vårdpersonalen. / The Swedish intensive care was hit by a severe crisis when the corona pandemic 2020 multiplied the number of seriously ill patients in an already strained health care system. In order to cope with the crisis the healthcare system needed to undergo a surge and adapt to disaster medicine operations. The purpose of this essay was to give an in-depth picture of intensive care's medical surge capacity, transition to disaster medicine and adaptation during Covid -19 through semi-structured interviews. Using the PAR-model I derived the conditions for the disaster transition that was carried out. The work is one of the first studies with a clear risk science methodology that examines the effects of the corona pandemic on the intensive care. The result from the interviews was interpreted with the PARmodel that was adapted to the studies context and showed that despite an underprepared healthcare system and poor basic conditions, the investigated operations manage to absorb the shock and implement a transition to disaster medicine and adapt to the extent that patients could receive qualitative care thanks to great sacrifices and hardship of the healthcare staff.

The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the international effects the Syrian Conflict has had to the global community. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has declared this conflict to be the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Millions of Syrians have fled their home country to avoid unjust persecution and are looking to not only neighboring countries, but the European Union for assistance in resettlement. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011, more than 220,000 people have been massacred, leaving fifty percent of the population in unrest due to home displacement. According to Amnesty International, apart from the twelve million Syrians who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance inside the country, there are about four million refugees fleeing to countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq. These five countries are unable to maintain the capacity of refugees that are desperate to pour in from Syria. Further gulf countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have refused to offer any resettlement venues for these migrants. Therefore, a plethora of European Union countries have received many asylum applications over the course of four years. Germany and Sweden have pledged resettlement locations for these refugees however relying on these two countries is not enough. This paper provides a historical background of the civil war in Syria, along with what the United Nations has done thus far to end the conflict. It will also analyze similar refugee situations in other countries in the region and compare it that in Syria. Finally, it will provide possible solutions of how the Refugee Agency, Human Rights Council, and Security Council can operate as a whole to distinguish this horrifying hostility in the region.