The 4th International Workshop on Collaboration in Emergency Response and Disaster Management (ERDM 2016)

Disasters are events that cause dramatic losses of life and property and disrupt the normal functioning of the economy and society on a large scale. Disaster management is a multifaceted process aimed at minimizing the social and physical impact of these large-scale events. Emergency response seeks to contain the event and minimize loss of life and injuries (rescue), health impacts, and property loss. Examples of immediate response include search and rescue operations. Responding to disasters involves such information- and communication-intensive activities as planning and marshaling available resources and materiel, mobilizing and organizing sufficient skilled personnel, determining emergency situations and levels, deploying them with those resources to where they are needed, and finally coordinating their activities and services. Specific tasks include establishing connectivity with potential resource and service providers, authorizing the use of resources and coordinating their use into something akin to a supply chain, integrating information from diverse (including ad hoc) sources, reducing the volume of data to relevant information for recipients, directing ongoing operations based on an overall awareness of the situation, adjusting and altering prior plans and commitments based on the evolving situation, and supporting collaboration and distributed decision making. 

This workshop on Collaborations in Emergency Response and Disaster Management – to be held as part of the 2016 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS 2016) – will focus on collaborative systems and technologies that support effective team work in crisis and emergency management. Emergency response and disaster management typically require collective intelligence from multiple, distributed agencies, task groups, and individuals, and involve making collaborative decisions and taking coordinated actions. However, current information systems are rarely designed to support group work in emergency response situations. There is a need for establishing a long-term, interdisciplinary research agenda that aims to improve information technology support to collaborations in disaster management and emergency response. 

The objective of this workshop is to highlight key design challenges and major advances in the design, implementation, and assessment of collaborative technologies for crisis management. We invite original contributions from researchers and practitioners in academia, government, and industry in this emerging field.