Bringing Order to Chaos – Harnessing and Distributing Information at All Levels of Large-Scale Response

From the devastating terrorism at Ground Zero to the Deepwater Horizon industrial accident, and from the intentional Capitol Hill Anthrax biological attacks to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, quickly understanding the dynamic situation, reacting to the right circumstances, and bringing the right decisions and resources to bear proved essential.  However, doing this effectively and inside the necessary timelines is a challenge and remains allusive.  It continues to be consistently raised as a key factor in limiting our collective ability to minimize the consequences of industrial accidents, terrorist acts, and natural disasters.  Accurate, timely, and available information is also an essential element in accurate risk communications.  Much effort has been invested in improving the framework of the entire response system since 911, and a number of improvements have been put in place, but lessons learned from even the most recent events tell us that collecting, validating, and disseminating information remains critically deficient.  At every level, from responders in the field to the senior most decision-makers, it is essential to get ahead of the incident and be able to observe, orient, decide, and act quickly enough to minimize consequences and restore what was impacted.  Using recent case studies, and reviewing the current state of the art and research, this session will highlight the latest emerging best-practices and opportunities,  and identify the remaining gaps in information management and supported decision-making for rapidly evolving complex incidents.