Introduction to Selected Papers on Communication and Information Systems Technology for Emergency Management

摘要

Persistent progress in Communication and Information System Technology has completely revamped the landscape of emergency preparedness and response. An emergency should here be understood as a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or the environment, that already has caused losses in such respect, and that it has a high probability of escalating. Until a few years ago the scarcity of information available during an emergency let responders in the dark. Pressing decisions had to be taken with very little knowledge of the situation.