World Alliance on
Digitalization for
Disaster &
Emergency
Management
Who We Are?
WADDEM will cover disasters caused by all types of hazards including natural, technological, and human.
The alliance distinguishes itself in the following ways:
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Process automation: The alliance focuses on novel techniques in automating disaster and management processes for command & control in the broadest sense.
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Digital ecosystem platform: The alliance undertakes a ‘digital ecosystem engineering approach’. Instead of targeting disaster-specific applications, research and development activities are first carried out in the specification and implementation of a digital ecosystem platform, where disaster specific automation processes can be installed on the platform when needed.
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The role of social capital in disaster preparedness and rescue: Social capital can be defined as the value of the relationships between people who work or live together and the knowledge and skills that they have and share. The research activities on this topic investigate the role of social capital in disaster preparedness and rescue from three perspectives: a) the role of richer social capital in disaster preparedness and rescue; b) coordinate the responsibilities and authorities of governmental and social capital roles in meaningful disaster management scenarios; and c) the methodological policies to increase wealth in social capital from the perspective of disaster management.
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Economics for disaster prevention and preparedness: These research activities have three important goals: With the use of digitalization techniques, creating economical and industrial infrastructure which can a) withstand major disasters and emergency conditions; b) reorganize and optimize the capabilities in creating new resources and products in minimizing the negative effects; and c) guiding policymakers and practitioners to make smart investments that can strengthen disaster resilience.
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The ADOPTS principle: The disaster and emergency management operations consist of six complementary phases:
The important concepts of the WADDEM approach
- Awareness and Situation detection: Aims to detect the effects of disasters efficiently and effectively, such as the damage made, conditions of humans and living creatures, etc.
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Demand: Based on the observed damage and the environmental conditions, demand lists are automatically inferred for the necessary resources so that aid operations can be executed efficiently and effectively. Demands for resources can be various, including rescue operations, fire fighters, ambulances, security forces, repair teams, shelters, transport vehicles for evacuation, heating and cooking facilities, food, and water, etc.
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Optimization: The available resources are optimally assigned to the inferred demands on time. In case of insufficient resources, prioritization, trade-off and/or dynamic selection techniques are applied.
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Performance and Measurement: The performance indicators of operations are defined formally so that the desired objectives can be specified and measured. Accordingly, ongoing operations can be monitored online and in case of deviations from the desired performance values, corrective actions can be executed.
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Tracking: This phase includes both monitoring, evaluation and controlling actions of the ongoing activities as well as coordination among the aid operations.
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Simulation: To determine the effect of a large set of prospective disaster scenarios, determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the disaster and emergency ecosystem platform, evaluate the necessary quantity of resources and to optimize the locations of logistics centers, simulation environments and techniques must be researched, designed and implemented. Even in times when no disasters are experienced, triggered by simulated disaster scenarios, the ecosystem platform must be continuously operational so that it can be optimized using online machine learning techniques.
Latest News
Publications
30.09.23
Yazar, U. T. and Akşit, M. 'Chapter 10— An architectural framework for the allocation resources in emergency management systems’, in Management and Engineering of Critical Infrastructures, 1st ed.; Bedir Tekinerdogan, Mehmet Akşit, Cagatay Catal, William Hurst, Tarek Alskaif, Eds.; by Academic Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, pp. 223 - 241, 2023
Abstract
Aid activities can be modeled as tasks that are assigned to resources. For example, if a building collapses due to an earthquake, several aid activities can be assigned to task forces:
Projects
01.11.23
SUDEM: Sustainable Disaster and Emergency Management processes digitization
Participants:
Space Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria (Coordinator)
HOCHSCHULE OFFENBURG BADENWÜRTTEMBERG Germany
West Ukrainian National University Ukraine
Information Technologies B.V. Netherlands Overijssel Enschede
LVIV STATE UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SAFETY Ukraine
AFAD: Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, Ankara, Türkiye
01.03.23
Akıllı Deprem Yönetim Sistemleri için Akıllı Altyapılar (ADYS) (Smart Platforms for Smart Earthquake Management
Granted by: TÜBİTAK under the 2221 program.
Participants: Şenay Özden (AFAD) and Mehmet Akşit.
Abstract
Current earthquake management procedures rely heavily on manual methods. Manual methods are insufficient to manage the situation after a large-scale earthquake. This project identifies the technical issues required to realize a software-supported earthquake management system and offers an architectural solution.