Disaster management: The structure, function, and significance of network-centric operations

Poor information flow both within and among the organizations/agencies involved in the preparation for, and management of, disasters is among the principal source of failures whose cost often reaches millions of dollars and thousands of unnecessarily lost lives. Typically, inadequate information distribution is the direct consequence of human error, faulty or non-existing interoperability of information systems, inter-agency conflicts, or political considerations. The paper discusses the advantages of a network-centric approach to disaster management and the associated improvement in handling information/knowledge tasks associated with complex, multi-domain operations. By providing a real time, unfettered flow of factual information and knowledge among all disaster management participants, Network Enabled Capability (NEC) constitutes the essential platform for the development of effective mission priorities and adaptive management in the context of an "All-Hazards" approach. Currently, real-time access to factual, operations-pertinent information and to the relevant supporting data requires a complex, time-consuming effort at all levels of disaster response activity. Most disasters have clearly shown that much of such an effort is unproductive, leads to misleading or conflicting results, and may actually hamper rather than increase operational effectiveness. NEC eliminates such problems.