Yefeng Ma, Shengcheng Yuan, Hui Zhang, and Yi Liu on "Framework Design for Operational Scenario-based Emergency Response System" at ISCRAM 2013 in Baden-Baden. 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management 12-15 May 2013, Baden-Baden, Germany

1. Framework Design for Operational Scenario-
based Emergency Response System
--Improve communication between government and
public
Yefeng Ma, Shengcheng Yuan, Hui Zhang, Yi Liu
Institute of Public Safety Research
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
ISCRAM 2013, Baden-Baden, Germany
May 12-15, 2013

2. Background
Research Questions
System Requirements
System Design
Concluding Remarks
Outline

3. What is the first image for crisis communication
between government and the public in China?

4. Background : how to deal with crisis
information
View of Government:
Information should be
released carefully. The
more people know, the
worse chaos are. Mass
media should follow
government’s lead.
View of Public:
Information should be
released transparently
and timely. No information
should be hided from the
public.

5. Is there any misunderstanding or communication gap
between government and the general people?
PublicGovernment
Low trust
Too much worry

6. Background
Incident Jiaozhou Accident
April 28, 2008
Wenzhou Accident
July 23, 2011
Death toll 72 40
Injured toll 416 172
First response
team
Railway
administration
Railway
administration
Bury the damaged
carriages Yes Yes
Time of restore
traffic 21 hours 35 hours
Jiaozhou Train Crash (2008) & Wenzhou Train Crash (2011)

7. - A weibo post said the railway ministry announced that there
was no survivors and gave the order to stop rescue just 8
hours after the crash.
- And then a two year old girl was found in the last carriage of
D3115 train 14 hours after the announcement.
Key event:
The fact is…
- No one gave the order to stop rescue but stop searching for
survivors on the bridge.
Few people were willing to accept the explanation from
authority since the post was spread too quickly and widely.

8. What causes such a great scale of public
outrage in Wenzhou case?
Strong power of Weibo
(Chinese Twitter)
Information spreads faster
and wider on social media

9. In 2013, communication is immediate
and every person with a smartphone is
a journalist.
Source: NBC News. Pope Benedict 2005, Pope Francis 2013
Misunderstanding between government and
general public is more likely to get worse .

10. Research Questions
- How to help general public know better about what
happened and what’s going on during a crisis?
- How to help government know better about public opinion
and their behaviors during a crisis?
- How to help general public know better about government
decisions and response activities in dealing with the crisis?

11. Research Questions
- In face of rich and dynamic information from various social
media sources, how to filter information and map a situation
picture to help people get the right information at the right
time ?
- How to build an information system to support individuals
and government to improve the response to crisis?
- How to improve the communication between government
and general public?
Specifically…

12. System Requirements
- Synthesizing information from multiple sources: physical
domain, social domain and psychological domain
- Supporting information exchange and interaction between
government and general public
- tracking and presenting government’s decisions and response
activities in a better way

13. System Design

14. Framework Design: 1. situation awareness

15. Framework Design: 2. scenario analysis

16. Framework Design: 3. scenario evolvement &
4.Decision

17. Concluding Remarks
Expected achievement:
- Integrated information from three dimensions: Physical,
social and psychological domain
- Real-time analysis for social media information
- Integration of incident evolution, information dissemination
and decision-making
- An optimization solution for decision-making process
Improve cooperation
PublicGovernment

18. Concluding Remarks
Existing problems:
- What kind of information is most useful to help the affected
people and general public deal with specific crisis ?
- How to resolve the coupling issues between crisis evolution
and human behaviors?
- How to balance the conflict interests between government
and general public?

19. Framework Design Demo: organizing traffic
evacuation
Demo session, May 14, 2013

20. Thank you for your attention!
Questions & Comments
This research is supported by major research
plan of NSFC.