Categorizing and Indexing Community-Based Resources

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Categorizing and Indexing Community-Based
Resources

• Douglas Troy, Miami University Resource Data
  Center

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Emphasis on the local community
Governments alone cannot achieve significant,
sustainable risk reduction Greater emphasis must
be placed on local approaches (Turoff et al.,
2003 Benson et al., 2001).
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Community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP)

• CBDP Local capacity building that leverages
  knowledge and capabilities of local community
  resources
• Basic needs Food, clothing, shelter
• Health care and equipment
• Transportation
• Equipment generators, lighting
• Heavy equipment and operators
• Animal care
• more

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Community resources Used by NGOs and govt
agencies

• Successful implementation of CBDP requires
  understanding of the local communities (Allen,
  2006).
• Community-based disaster responders including Red
  Cross and Salvation Army are well equipped to
  implement CBDP. These workers assess the needs of
  disaster clients and connect them with needed
  assistance.
• EMAs also need community resources.

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Mobilizing community resources can be difficult

• Many emergency response organizations use printed
  resource directories of community resources
• Out of date when printed.
• Cannot be updated in real-time.
• Cannot be shared easily with neighboring
  communities and regional or national emergency
  workers.

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Information technology is underutilized

• Researchers expect an increasingly important role
  for IT in information sharing in disaster
  preparedness and response (Arnold et al, 2004).
• Recent study found 42 of local community web
  sites have no disaster-related content and 2005
  hurricane disasters had little effect on
  municipal website content (Basolo et al., 2006).

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Critical component Local resource database

• A database of community resources is a critical
  component for CBDP (Turoff et al., 2003)
• Documents physical, informational and human
  resources.
• Indexed for easy searching.
• Readily available, Internet or off-line.

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Community DisasterInformation System (CDIS)

• Miami University and American Red Cross study of
  a database to support CBDP
• 3 year study funded by NIH/NLM.
• 7 Red Cross chapters and an emergency management
  agency.
• Central database, Internet portal, and
  applications for mobile laptops and PDAs.

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Project timeline
Prototype funded by Microsoft and Miami,
supported by Cincy and Dayton Red Cross
Greater Cincinnati/ Hamilton EMA
May 06
2002
2004
Development and testing funded by NIH/NLM,
supported by Red Cross national
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Focus for session resource categorization and
indexing

• A comprehensive categorization of resource types
  is required for database indexing and searching.
• NERIN project produced in a taxonomy of disaster
  services (http//www.211taxonomy.org/publicfiles/v
  iew/Disaster_Services.pdf).
• NERIN taxonomy is insufficient to support CBDP.

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AIRS 211 taxonomy used as foundation(http//www.2
11taxonomy.org)

• (Licensed from AIRS/211 LA County)
• Basic Needs
• Consumer Services
• Criminal Justice
• Education
• Environmental Quality
• Health Care
• Income Support and Employment
• Individual and Family Life
• Mental Health Care and Counseling
• Organizational/Community Services
• Target Populations

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Taxonomy hierarchy example (http//www.211taxonom
y.org)

• B Basic Needs
• BD Food
• BD-150 Community Wide Food Storage Facility
• BD-180 Emergency Food
• BD-180.820
• BD-180.820-18 Drinking Water
• BD-180.820-33 Ice
• BH Housing/Shelter
• BM Material Goods
• BR Temporary Financial Assistance
• BT Transportation

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Categories of resources for disaster preparedness

• Our study identified approximately 800 resource
  categories (including 700 bottom-level
  categories) to support community-based disaster
  preparedness and response.
• Our pilot database has approximately 6,000
  records with 11,000 indices.
• The following is a high-level overview of the
  categories identified.

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Basic Needs

• Food (pantries, water, baby, ethnic)
• Shelter/Housing (crisis shelters, supportive
  housing, building materials, utility
  connection/repair)
• Material goods (generators, household goods,
  personal goods, financial assistance)
• Transportation (auto rental, bus service, ferry
  service, disability and medical transport)

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Criminal justice / legal

• Correctional facilities (county, state, federal)
• Law enforcement agencies (state, municipal,
  sheriff)
• Legal services (towed vehicles, immigration)

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Environmental quality

• Communicable disease control
• Domestic animal services (animal shelters,
  veterinary services)
• Environmental protection (hazardous materials
  control)
• Municipal services (building codes, port
  facilities, sanitation, street lighting,
  emergency street clearance, traffic control,
  utility line location, waterworks)
• Public health (disease control, hazards cleanup,
  pollution testing, pest control)
• Public safety (emergency rescue, fire services,
  safety advisories, safety equipment)

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Health care

• Emergency medical care (medical transport,
  emergency care, intensive care, screening,
  supportive services, mercy flights, pharmacies,
  vaccine depots)
• Mother/infant care
• Inpatient facilities (hospitals, nursing
  facilities)
• Medical labs
• Outpatient facilities (clinics)
• Specialized treatment (burns, dialysis,
  immunizations)
• Specialized (dental, obstetrics)
• Substance abuse

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Income support and employment

• Job finding assistance
• Volunteer programs
• Public assistance (general relief)
• Medical public assistance
• Nutrition related public assistance (food stamps,
  WIC)

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Individual and family life

• Death certification / burial arrangements
• Day care (adult, child)
• Interpretation/translation
• Mutual support groups
• Protective services
• Hotels/motels
• Volunteer opportunities (equipment operators,
  disaster services)

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Mental health care and counseling

• Mental health facilities (inpatient, outpatient)
• Outpatient mental health care (crisis
  intervention, counseling)
• Psychiatric/mental health services

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Organizational/community services (cont)

• Community groups (mental health associations)
• Facilities/community centers (civic centers, drop
  in centers
• Travelers assistance
• Disaster services (government agencies and
  offices)
• Disaster preparedness (equipment and supplies,
  kits, information, partnerships, planning and
  response)

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Organizational/community services (cont)

• Disaster mitigation (relocation, protective
  measures, insurance)
• Disaster warnings (weather, terrorism, fire, road
  closures, curfew, etc)
• Disaster response services (emergency
  communications, evacuation centers, emergency
  medical care, mortality management, search dogs,
  USaR)

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Organizational/community services (cont)

• Disaster relief services (critical service
  information, post disaster food, clothing,
  shelter, child care, animal services, )
• Disaster recovery services (donation
  coordination, loans, service centers, housing
  assistance, )
• Donor services (food, building materials, office
  equipment, tools)
• Information services
• Occupational/professional associations

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Target populations indexing resources by group
or condition

• Active military
• Adults
• AIDS/HIV
• Animal/Pet issues
• Bioterrorism issues
• Burns
• Children
• Disaster/Emergency
• Hurrican victims
• Terrorism issues
• more

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Related concepts Cross-referenced related
categories

• Animals
• Blindness/Visual impairments
• Children and youth
• Community care facilities/Arrangements
• Death and dying
• Disabilities
• Disaster services
• Emergency services
• Older adults
• Transportation

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Demonstration Searching
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List of resources in a category
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Detail resource information
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CDIS information

• CDIS home page http//www.rdcmiami.org/cdis
• For more information
• doug.troy_at_muohio.edu

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References
Allen, K. M. (2006) Community-based disaster
preparedness and climate adaptation local
capacity building in the Philippines Disasters
30(1) 81-101. Arnold, J. L., B. N. Levin, R.
Manmatha, F. Lee, P. Shenoy, M. C. Tsai, T. K.
Ibrahim, D. J. OBrien, D. A. Walsh (2004)
Information-Sharing in Out-Of-Hospital Disaster
Response The Future Role of Information
Technology, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine
19(3) 201-207. Basolo, V., L. Steinberg, S. Gant
(2006) E-Government and the Preparation of
Citizens for Disasters, Proceedings of the 2006
National Conference on Digital Government
Research, San Diego, CA 255-256. Benson, C., J.
Twigg, M. Myers (2001) NGO Initiatives in Risk
Reduction An Overview, Disasters 25(3) 199-215.
Turoff, M., M. Chumer, B. Van del Walle, X. Yao
(2003) The Design of a Dynamic Emergency Response
Management Information System (DERMIS). Journal
of Information Technology Theory and Application
5(4) 1-36.