214
M. J. C. van den Homberg et al.
early actions are the best to prevent loss of lives and to protect livelihoods and—after
the disaster has hit—which response actions to take.
Decision-making in the preparedness and response phase should be based on factual data about the needs on the ground, but is in reality a highly political process.
For example, damage and needs assessments are competitive and difficult processes
as agencies continue to see information on the impact of a disaster as something to be
“owned” in order to leverage resources and influence rather than as something to be
shared (Walton-Ellery and Rashid 2012). Responders also face “high levels of uncertainty, extreme stress with significant consequences of actions, compressed timelines
and significant lack of information available initially followed by extreme information overload” (Preece et al. 2013). In the case of Typhoon Haiyan, for example,
those responding considered the multitude of different information sources and formats generally as an information overload (Comes et al. 2013). Responders will have
different degrees of data literacy and cognitive abilities to deal with these circumstances and to make sense of the data and information that is available and accessible
to them. The degree of collective sensemaking that is reached among responders is
another important factor in decision-making between and within organizations (Wolbers and Boersma 2013). Important in sensemaking is having reliable, accurate, and
timely data. Getting such data right after a sudden onset disaster is challenging given
the chaotic and disrupted situation. In the case of floods in Bangladesh, the working group on Disaster Emergency Response (part of the Local Consultative Group
that coordinates between the Government of Bangladesh and the different development partners) established a Joint Needs Assessment project in 2014. The Joint
Needs Assessment project started a large survey to collect data in the field given the
absence of consistent, comparable information across the affected area, whereby they
had to trade-off between time, quality, granularity, and available resources (Wahed
et al. 2014). Harmonizing and coordinating the different assessments organizations
are doing is a difficult task and heterogeneity issues in the data sets that come out
of the assessments are most commonly unavoidable. Given these data-related challenges, it is evident that responders face information gaps. Whether it is not having
enough information at the very onset of a disaster or whether it is having too much
information later in the disaster; in both cases, their information needs are not adequately covered. These gaps will be more articulate in developing countries—often
data poor and low tech—than in developed countries.
18.2 Research Questions and Methodology
Three research questions were defined: (1) What are the information needs of disaster responders so that they can take appropriate decisions? What are the associated
timing constraints? (2) What are available and relevant data sources and when do
they become available? (3) How do these data sources currently meet the information
requirements? We conducted a case study to address these questions (Monné 2016).
The case study was part of a community-managed disaster risk reduction (DRR)
program that included setting up an innovative last mile early warning system using
M. J. C. van den Homberg et al.
early actions are the best to prevent loss of lives and to protect livelihoods and—after
the disaster has hit—which response actions to take.
Decision-making in the preparedness and response phase should be based on factual data about the needs on the ground, but is in reality a highly political process.
For example, damage and needs assessments are competitive and difficult processes
as agencies continue to see information on the impact of a disaster as something to be
“owned” in order to leverage resources and influence rather than as something to be
shared (Walton-Ellery and Rashid 2012). Responders also face “high levels of uncertainty, extreme stress with significant consequences of actions, compressed timelines
and significant lack of information available initially followed by extreme information overload” (Preece et al. 2013). In the case of Typhoon Haiyan, for example,
those responding considered the multitude of different information sources and formats generally as an information overload (Comes et al. 2013). Responders will have
different degrees of data literacy and cognitive abilities to deal with these circumstances and to make sense of the data and information that is available and accessible
to them. The degree of collective sensemaking that is reached among responders is
another important factor in decision-making between and within organizations (Wolbers and Boersma 2013). Important in sensemaking is having reliable, accurate, and
timely data. Getting such data right after a sudden onset disaster is challenging given
the chaotic and disrupted situation. In the case of floods in Bangladesh, the working group on Disaster Emergency Response (part of the Local Consultative Group
that coordinates between the Government of Bangladesh and the different development partners) established a Joint Needs Assessment project in 2014. The Joint
Needs Assessment project started a large survey to collect data in the field given the
absence of consistent, comparable information across the affected area, whereby they
had to trade-off between time, quality, granularity, and available resources (Wahed
et al. 2014). Harmonizing and coordinating the different assessments organizations
are doing is a difficult task and heterogeneity issues in the data sets that come out
of the assessments are most commonly unavoidable. Given these data-related challenges, it is evident that responders face information gaps. Whether it is not having
enough information at the very onset of a disaster or whether it is having too much
information later in the disaster; in both cases, their information needs are not adequately covered. These gaps will be more articulate in developing countries—often
data poor and low tech—than in developed countries.
18.2 Research Questions and Methodology
Three research questions were defined: (1) What are the information needs of disaster responders so that they can take appropriate decisions? What are the associated
timing constraints? (2) What are available and relevant data sources and when do
they become available? (3) How do these data sources currently meet the information
requirements? We conducted a case study to address these questions (Monné 2016).
The case study was part of a community-managed disaster risk reduction (DRR)
program that included setting up an innovative last mile early warning system using