The Right Information at the Right Time:
An Integrated Approach to Crisis Management

By James W. Morentz, PhD

Crisis managers in West Virginia scan the floor plans of key buildings and enter counter terrorism pre-plans for each of them into their PCs to ensure preparedness for terrorist acts.

Emergency personnel use software to manage real-time information about volunteers and donated goods after a tornado rips through Alabama.

Decision-makers in local government use software to develop Y2K contingency plans and test them during exercises.

The details of each of the scenarios described above may be different, but they are all alike in that officials are using integrated information management tools to more effectively protect people and property from the impact of these types of crises throughout the United States and abroad.

During a crisis, decision-makers who can easily access the right information at the right time and share it with one another can save more lives and minimize damage to the environment. Throughout history, however, leaders have been forced to make those life-or-death decisions based on inadequate information. It was not until the 1980s that innovative emergency experts brought the latest computer technologies to bear on the challenges of crisis management.

Since then, thousands of crisis managers have embraced these new systems, which have proven their value repeatedly during actual disasters. In the past five years, the pace of implementation has accelerated dramatically as a new generation of systems that are easier to use, more powerful and more affordable have been introduced.

Four Essential Components
To be effective, today’s computer systems must integrate at least four of the following components.

Data
The countless documents, inventories, and reports that crisis managers use daily must be easy to access and use in a software system. At a minimum, they should manage data for incident messages, action logs, emergency plans, personnel and notification, plume modeling and population census.

Mapping
Decision-makers must be able to see where things are happening with various maps, floor plans, diagrams, schematics, photos, and wiring diagrams. However, mapping must also be analytical, allowing users to identify locations, distances, areas, and other aspects that are part of spatial analysis.

Models and Sensors
Crisis managers must be able to predict where, how and how fast hazards will impact their areas. Models should interface with real-time sensors, including meteorological stations, chemical detectors and river gauges to provide accurate, current results.

Multimedia Communications
Managers also need multiple means of sharing information. Crisis communication must permit point-to-point and broadcast messages over telephone, cellular telephone, packet radio, and satellite. Multiple means of sharing information, such as faxes, beepers and the Internet are essential to get the right message to the right crisis manager quickly and accurately.

These core components must be integrated into a single software system. Data and models should work in harmony with maps, which must offer multiple views of different scope and detail. An open architecture that enables users to tap into a broad spectrum of complementary technologies is best. Most importantly, this powerful tool must be so flexible and easy to operate that everyone, from experts to volunteers, can use it to do their jobs more effectively in a crisis. Finally, no matter how well designed the software, it must offer users the option to customize their own systems if necessary.

Since crisis management is the art of coping with the unexpected, the technology designed to support it must be extraordinarily flexible.

About the Author
James W. Morentz, PhD is Chief Executive Officer of Essential Technologies, Inc. For more information on this topic, visit Essential’s website: www.essentech.com or call (800) 999-5009.