• Resource: resource utilization management and dependencies;

• Information: task-critical information collection, analysis, and distribution;

• Decision: decision roles, rules, and structures; and

• Responder: relationships, team-think, group dynamics (such as culture), organizational dynamics, and so forth.

 

This framework conceptualizes the “ during-incident” response stage as comprising two dis-

Decision

tinct coordination patterns: On-site response ^Responder coordination ( Mini-Second Cycle) and Remote response coordination (Many-Second Cycle).

Task Flow Resource

Information

COORDINATION LIFE CYCLE

Here, we discuss coordination patterns along the entire coordination life cycle, based on our proposed framework.

Coordination in Pre-Incident Response. Pre-event coordination establishes the level of operational capacity and overall readiness for resilience during emergency response. A typical disaster includes several invariants, defined as ^Managerial those factors that remain _Interactions unaffected by the changing conditions of the emergency, such as: cre- _Operational ating emergency shelters in appropriate places; dealing with a surge in hospital admissions; working with degraded capacities; maintaining law and order; arranging evacuation across geographic boundaries; and other factors. These issues are addressed during coordinated planning and training exercises involving the stakeholders and results in the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Planning also addresses issues such as setting up contractual agreements with business entities for providing supplies during an incident and creating infrastructure to deal with first and second responder issues (including effect and behavior). During major emergencies, the limits of local capability are soon reached and multiple agencies are involved in supporting additional response efforts. This typically requires both spatial and temporal coordination with organizations and personnel who follow different norms and practices. Training and

exercise help in establishing necessary understanding
between different players (whether from the same
agency or from different ones) and catalyzes smoother
interaction between them during an actual incident.
Setting up such training activities and table–top exer-
cises also requires coordination. Therefore, coordina-
tion is a key issue in pre-incident activities. Table 2
includes the application of the framework to pre-inci-
dent activities.
Coordination During
Incident Response.
During Incident Coordination
(Mini- and Many-Second Coordination during an
Coordination Cycles)
incident impacts both
^{Post-Incident} short-term and long-term
Coordination
outcomes. A plan-based
approach to emergency

Figure 1. Emergency response response relies heavily on coordination life cycle. pre-incident preparedness and this sometimes leads

to response inflexibility in the face of unexpected events.

Variants in a disaster originate from hazard uncertainty; uncertainty as to the course of incident development; informational uncertainty; task flow uncertainty (whether sequential, consequential, or cascading); organizational structure uncertainty; and environmental uncertainty. Uncertainties are managed by improvisations, prioritization, and dynamic sourcing of capacities from other communities and external agencies, such as neighboring counties, state and federal agencies [ 5]. The variant or situation-dependent layers of knowledge create a context from which one can then understand the Incident Commander’s intent. These layers may indeed serve as temporal agents during mitigation.

To support fast response during complex incidents, responders must make rapid coordination decisions, which pose constraints on their capabilities to analyze coordination problems and explore the solution domain. Response to disasters can be viewed as consisting of an onsite response coordinating entity and a remote management entity such as an emergency operations center (EOC). Onsite response is usually reactive and the time window for coordination is small. We characterize this as the “Mini-Second Coordination Cycle.” It is typically characterized by working with the local picture stemming from the local scenario.

Without a proper understanding of the global pic-

Pre-Incident Coordination

Facilitation

Large Time Window (Many-Second)

Higher Coordination Capacity

Small Time Window (Mini-Second)

Lower Coordination Capacity

Figure 2. Mini-second and many-second coordination cycles.