Leveraging technology in emergency management: An opportunity to improve compounding and cascading hazards linked to climate change

Attila Hertelendy

doi:10.5055/jem.0854

Authors

Attila Hertelendy, PhD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.0854

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report concluded that we will see an increase in frequency of extreme environmental events around the world including, hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires.¹ The report further describes cascading hazards when one hazard triggers another in a series such as extreme heat triggering a collapse of the power grid. The IPCC also discusses compounding hazards as multiple disasters occur at the same time for example a hurricane occurring at the same time as COVID-19 and a mass casualty event prompting a Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) response such as the Surfside and the Florida condo collapse.² Studies suggest that there are gaps relating to Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMP) in addressing cascading events.^3,4

Author Biography

Attila Hertelendy, PhD

Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, College of Business, Florida International University, Miami, Florida

References

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2022: AR6 Climate Change 2021: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Working Group II Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Available at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/. Accessed March 31, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844

Shultz JM, Kossin JP, Hertelendy A, et al.: Mitigating the twin threats of climate-driven Atlantic hurricanes and COVID-19 transmission. Dis Med Public Health Preparedness. 2020; 14(4): 494-503. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2020.243

Chen J, Greenberg M: Cascading hazards and hazard mitigation plans: Preventing cascading events in the United States. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy. 2022; 13(1): 48-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/rhc3.12220

Kimutis N, Wall T, Darrow L: Emergency management short term response to extreme heat in the 25 most populated US cities. Inter J Dis Risk Reduction. 2024; 100: 104097. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.104097

Bruine de Bruin W, Morgan MG: Reflections on an interdisciplinary collaboration to inform public understanding of climate change, mitigation, and impacts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2019; 116(16): 7676-7683. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803726115

Pescaroli G, Guida K, Reynolds J, et al.: Managing systemic risk in emergency management, organizational resilience and climate change adaptation. Dis Preven Mngt: An Inter J. 2023; 32(1): 234-251. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-08-2022-0179

Earth-2 NVIDIA: Available at https://www.nvidia.com/enus/high-performance-computing/earth-2/. Accessed April 1, 2024

Rolnick D, Donti PL, Kaack LH, et al.: Tackling climate change with machine learning. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR). 2022; 55(2): 1-96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3485128

Song X, Zhang H, Akerkar R, et al.: Big data and emergency management: concepts, methodologies, and applications. IEEE Transactions on Big Data. 2020; 8(2): 397-419. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TBDATA.2020.2972871

Vernier M, Farinosi M, Foresti A, et al.: Automatic Identification and Geo-Validation of Event-Related Images for Emergency Management. Information. 2023; 14(2): 78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/info14020078

Mishra SK, Rahamatkar S: Predictive Data Analysis to Support Decision-Making Based on Long-Term Impacts of Disasters. In International Conference on Computer & Communication Technologies. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. 2023; 11-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-9707-7_2

Kondraganti A, Narayanamurthy G, Sharifi H: A systematic literature review on the use of big data analytics in humanitarian and disaster operations. Ann Oper Res. 2022; 1-38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-04904-z