ISCRAM 2013

Modern societies are faced with numerous risks. Along with the growing interrelatedness and the dependence on technologies and complex infrastructure systems, the vulnerability of societies, economy and environment increases. Cascading effects and feedback loops that exacerbate the consequences of disasters become more and more important. In these situations, which are characterised by complexity and uncertainty, a holistic approach for crisis response and management is required.

“Holistic crisis management” sounds like a good idea, but what do we really mean by it?

Holistic crisis management aims at the interdisciplinary development and design of information systems that enable better crisis response, planning and preparedness, mitigation and training by following integrated approaches that combine organisational, behavioural, technical, economic and environmental aspects:

• modelling and assessing the consequences of disasters by taking into account the complex interrelations between the victims, actors, organisations and critical infrastructure systems
• enhancing the resilience of societies, organisations and critical infrastructures
• developing early warning systems and facilitating the communication of risk
• designing and developing information systems that facilitate coordination and communication between and within organisations
• designing and developing decision support systems that are tailored to the specific needs and requirements of the end users

Researchers and practitioners are invited to present innovative ideas and application experiences that address the practical and technical challenges in development and implementation of Emergency Management Information Systems (EMIS) in general, and holistic ones in particular.

Among the many topics of interest for crisis management, ISCRAM 2013 focuses inter alia on the modelling and simulation of critical infrastructure disruptions and their consequences for crisis management and recovery. Further key topics that should be addressed from a holistic perspective include the use of information and communication technologies, sensor techniques and sensor data fusion for early warning, crowdsourcing and crowd tasking, social media, healthcare, humanitarian challenges, intelligent systems and many more important issues that will be announced in the first call for papers.