Harmonization of Terminology for Emergency Management
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Terje Gjøsæter
University of Agder Norway
terjeg@uia.no
Author(s):
Mikael Snaprud1
1Tingtun, Mikael.Snaprud@Tingtun.No, NOR
The lack of a common terminologies and map interfaces, as well as different information needs among different first responds groups are hindering effective information sharing in disaster situations to get a common operational picture (COP).
An ongoing national research project aims to contribute to common situational understanding between actors in disaster situations by addressing these issues, in particular through harmonization of terminologies, to facilitate efficient communication and avoid misunderstandings between different emergency management actors and organizations. One of the project partners is developing an app and a web browser extension that can be used for looking up different definitions of terms from relevant standards and reference documents. In particular, “The Rescue Handbook” published by Norwegian Rescue Services is used as a test-document, allowing users to look up any word in the handbook and where particularly relevant words are underlined to indicate that you will be able to find a definition.
In spring 2021, the software has been tested in a series of workshops with relevant stakeholders, for eliciting comments, suggestions for improvement, and opinions about the usefulness in emergency management where actors from different rescue organizations have to work together. The preliminary results are very positive, and the participants have evaluated the software as “useful” (57%) or “very useful” (24%) after trying it, compared to their expectations before trying it: “useful” (52%) and “very useful” (14%), illustrating that it has exceeded their expectations. The definitions provided by the software were also found to be mostly well aligned with their own understanding of the terms (52% yes, 43% partly). It was noted that some organizations had firewalls blocking the software, thereby hindering the participants in testing it on their work devises. The functionality still worked fine on their mobile devices for those who tested. The software does not work with Internet Explorer. This browser will be phased out by 2022.
The availability of common or contrasting definitions of core terms from different emergency organizations can then be used as a starting point for harmonization of the terminologies among them. The harmonised result can then be used to update the terminology included in Redningshåndboka. We expect this results to be used for larger events with rescue organizations from neighboring countries handling a cross-border disaster on land or on the sea. The main contributions of this work is to enable users to look up definitions directly from texts and for harmonisation of glossaries we provide a search across relevant glossaries and ways to compare glossaries automatically to highlight similarities and differences. Overall this can contribute to a common terminology and clear unambiguous communication and information exchange between different actors and organizations in a disaster situation.
Exploring Future Work Practices for Information Sharing and Achieving Common Situational Understanding in Disasters