Welcome addresses Welcome to ISCRAM 2011Message from the Conference Chair It is my great pleasure to host the 8 th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM2011, and to welcome you to LNEC and Lisbon. The topic of ISCRAM2011 bridges two areas that—partly due to advances in information and communication technology—can now be linked as never before. In the area of preparedness, possibilities are emerging for information systems to support education and broader social preparedness for crisis response and management. In the area of warning systems, existing and new technologies are being used—sometimes in ad hoc, unexpected ways—to transmit and exchange information on unfolding crisis events. Linking preparedness and warning means developing tools and the underlying theory that can successfully support human activity in reducing the disastrous effects of a crisis. Given the increasing awareness on crisis information, with particular emphasis on the new challenges arising from large-scale communication and information systems (such as social networks), the conference theme attracted a wide range of participants. Over 200 participants from 32 countries will attend the Conference. The number of presentations have also exceeded our expectations. We will have 124 presentations, 44 full papers and 60 short papers, 17 posters, and 3 demos. In the tradition of past Conferences, the PhD Colloquium, two tutorials, a Sahana workshop and a CEM®/AEM Prep Course and exam will take place on Sunday. Speakers and Participants come from academia and industry, government and non-government organisations, including researchers, practitioners and operational people from the defence services that will turn ISCRAM2011 into an excellent forum for learning from new technical developments and different experiences, exchanging ideas and creating friendships. In the end, it will contribute to a better crisis response management. A lot of people made ISCRAM2011 possible: Julie Dugdale and David Mendonça, The Program Chairs; Simon French who served as the ISCRAM Board liaison for the Organising Committee; all the 38 track chairs and more than 150 reviewers who made a wonderful job selecting the most valuable papers that will be presented; my colleagues Luísa Sousa, Eliane Portela, Anabela Oliveira, Armanda Rodrigues, Henrique Vicêncio and Teresa Fonseca; all the Secretariat, other support personnel from LNEC and volunteers. Thanks are also due to all contributors and participants, including the invited Keynote lecturers, without whom the Conference would not take place. I also thank to our Sponsors and Exhibitors. On behalf of this great team, I hope that after these four days of intense work and tight schedule we will get scientifically richer and better prepared to face the new challenges that crisis response and management pose to all of us. I wish you all a stimulating and enjoyable stay in Lisbon. Maria A. Santos, ISCRAM2011 Conference chair. Message from the Programme Co-Chairs This year’s ISCRAM conference is being held—fittingly—in Lisbon, Portugal, where some say that modern emergency management began with the Marquês de Pombal in the aftermath of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Our goal this year has been to provide attendants with opportunities to discuss, debate and be inspired by this history, and by state-of-the-art advancements in the science, engineering and application of information systems for crisis management. Since the first ISCRAM conference seven years ago, community-building has been an important goal of the ISCRAM Association. The previous seven ISCRAM conferences—along with ISCRAM workshops, Summer Schools, publications and numerous other activities—have established a tradition of research excellence and close interaction with the profession of crisis management. Out of this tradition have come many successful partnerships within and across academia and industry, and a growing body of work that has come to define our community. ISCRAM 2011 brings together an exciting selection of state-of-the-art work in the area of information systems for crisis response and management. The contributions span the breadth of our domain and we hope that these works will engender a lively discussion throughout the conference and inspire new and valuable lines of work. The sheer number of different countries involved in, well over 30 in total, gives testimony to the truly international nature of ISCRAM. In these few days people from all over the world are joining together at ISCRAM 2011 to share our knowledge and experience of crisis management and to push our domain forward. For your participation, and for all the hard work leading up to this, we extend our sincere thanks. The activity of ISCRAM 2011 is not just confined to a conference but is supported by several satellite events including two tutorials, the CEM®/AEM course and exam, the Sahana workshop, and of course the PhD Colloquium which is now an established part of ISCRAM conferences. The Colloquium reinforces ISCRAM’s commitment to supporting and training PhD students for a career in crisis management. PhD students are joined by senior faculty members from the USA and from Europe and through discussions and presentations they explore the practical and theoretical issues surrounding doctoral research. Lastly, what conference would be complete without a social program! The organised events provide us all with the opportunity, not only to learn about the beautiful city of Lisbon and its culture and traditions, but for us to get to know one another a little better and to build our networks and share ideas. A note on the refereeing process The work presented at this year’s conference spans multiple disciplines, incorporating a range of methodological approaches and specific domains of application. The following types of submissions were available for ISCRAM 2011: 1. Full papers , which report on completed research; 2. Short papers in two categories:
3. Posters , which provide short synopses of ongoing work or projects. Review criteria (and maximum length of submission) differed depending on the type of submission.
For short papers, a less restrictive set of criteria were used to enable a broader range of topics and approaches to be covered:
Papers were subject to at least two double-blind reviews, as well as to an editorial review by the chair of the track to which the paper had been submitted. Acceptance rates A total of 162 submissions across all categories—full and short papers, posters and demonstrations—were made. Of the papers originally submitted for consideration as full papers, 44 (approximately 50%) were ultimately accepted as such. Also included in the proceedings are 60 short papers, as well as a list of titles and author(s) of the 17 accepted posters. Papers originally submitted as “full” but accepted only as “short” or “poster” are included in these latter two totals. Copyright Agreements All authors of the papers in this proceedings have agreed to the ISCRAM 2011 Proceedings copyright agreement, which is compliant with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This copyright agreement and use license state that an author retains copyright. It also permits any user—for any noncommercial purpose, including unlimited classroom and distance learning use—to download, print out, extract, archive, distribute and make derivative works of an article published in the ISCRAM 2011. Proceedings, as long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and the source of the work, and all derivative works are placed under the same license. This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely available as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive. Acknowledgements There are a huge number of people who have helped in producing this conference. The Program Committee organized all tracks of the conference: soliciting authors, recruiting reviewers, and keeping a watchful eye on deadlines. The Scientific Committee provided immeasurable assistance in ensuring the scientific rigor of all submitted work and went well beyond the call of duty to ensure high quality and consistency of accepted papers. The reviewers performed the herculean task of reviewing all submissions. The Local Organizing Committee worked to secure space, plan activities and attract sponsorship so that the conference, once begun, would run smoothly. Our sponsors provided financial assistance for which we are extremely grateful. The ISCRAM Board has also worked behind the scenes in encouraging and supporting us. Last and by no means least we want to thank you for your participation at ISCRAM 2011! We thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to this conference, and we look forward to the latest installment of the ISCRAM tradition. Julie Dugdale and David Mendonça, ISCRAM2011 Programme co-chairs
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