90-795 - Technology and Policy
for Disaster and Humanitarian Response

Spring 2007

News:

The posting of class slides is now up to date.

Course information,
instructor contact information,
grading,
and other course policies.

Schedule of Classes and Assignments

This syllabus is likely to be updated, with some changes to topics and additional readings likely. Check back each week to find updates, including links to homework assignments.

Week	Date	Topic	Readings/Exercises to Prepare Before Class	Materials From Class
1	3/20	Introduction - General principles of disaster management		General disaster concepts slides An Overview of Disaster Management - United Nations Disaster Management Training Programme Triggering agents, vulnerabilities and disaster reduction: towards a holistic paradigm , David A. McEntire, Disaster Prevention and Management (This journal is available when on-campus, or when connected via the VPN, but may not be available from off-campus. Install VPN software on your computer, or use http://www.vpn.cmu.edu/)
1	3/22	Guest Speaker Larry Hokaj Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank	None
2	3/27	Guest Speaker Thrishantha Nanayakkara University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka	Hambantota Disaster Management Operation
2	3/29	Disaster Information Management - History	Read pages 68-73: An Overview of Disaster Management - United Nations Disaster Management Training Programme (Consider the type of information that is useful in managing an emergency) Skim, getting a sense of the nuts and bolts information gathering of an NGO: Disaster Programme Information and Reporting Skim, getting a sense of the effort necessary estimate the impact of potential disasters on a community: Understanding Your Risks: Identifying Hazards and Estimating Losses Skim, keeping an eye out for the mention of information management and sharing: National Disaster Reduction: A Plan for the Nation Read a bit more carefully, especially to get a sense of the disaster information network they are proposing: Harnessing Information and Technology for Disaster Management Read: Reducing Disaster Losses Through Better Information	Class slides (with class project info)
3	4/3	Disaster Information Management - Technology	The third era starts here (Read) Introduction to XML (Read all 7 pages, focusing more on the XML. Get a general understanding of DTDs also even if you don't understand the details) OASIS Approves New Standards for Emergency Communications (Read) Common Alerting Protocol (Read pages 4-9, 29-32) Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) (Skim)	Class slides
3	4/5	Disaster Information Management		Class slides Reducing Disaster Losses Through Better Information US Disaster Information Network National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction Grand Challenges for Disaster Reduction Emergency Interoperability Consortium
4	4/10	Disaster Communications - Problems in Emergency Communication and a Communications Primer		Class slides Wireless Networking in the Developing World How America’s Fragmented Approach to Public Safety Wastes Money and Spectrum Interoperability Innovation: State Best Practices & Models for First Responder Communications
4	4/12	Disaster Communications - Interoperability Standards Guest Speaker: Bab Carryer, RemComm, Inc.		Class slides Project 25 Tactical Interoperable Communications Scorecards Telecommunications Industry Association
5	4/17	Disaster Communications Policies - International		Class slides Easing the way to Disaster Mitigation: The Tampere Convention Note: this is a Word document Tampere Convention Executive Summary Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications
5	4/19	Guest Speaker: Jon Peha, Carnegie Mellon
6	4/24	Humanitarian Information Centers		Class slides Online forums supporting grassroots participation in emergency preparedness and response You have to be on campus, or connected via the VPN, to access this document. An Evaluation of Humanitarian Information Centers
6	4/26	Disaster Relief and Community Development		Class slides Disasters and Development: Part I. Relationships between Disasters and Development Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters Words Into Action: Implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action
7	5/1	Review	Study quide Single large file of all slides
7	5/3	Final exam
Thursday 5/10 8:30am-11:30am		Final presentations HBH 1004 (not our normal classroom)