Page 38 - Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

APPENDIX I – A simulation of crisis generic three-step
management process: city watering system’s pollution

The following simulation specifies the generic emergency management process (Figure 3), which
consists of the following steps:

1. Preparatory step – before the crisis

2. Operational step – after registration of the event
3. Concluding step – elimination of the consequences.

More specifically, the second process step is analysed further into five phases (Table 2):

Table 2: The different phases of managing an emergency (in the context of water pollution)

Phase Focus Example
1 Identify the inflection point between Two facts became obvious: 1. The city’s entire water
the normal and crisis situations. supply is from the Loire, and 2. The water in the Loire
may be contaminated
2 What makes the risk acute? A reaction is needed and cannot be delayed further
without endangering people’s health
3 Possible decisions are considered If, for example, the city’s water supply is stopped, then
and the effects that will be triggered alternatives will be needed to get water to the people.
are identified.
4 Resources are assessed. The means to get water to the people are assessed
and the available resources measured.
5 The decision is evaluated. With the collected information, it is now possible
to evaluate the impact of the decision and possibly
suggest different options.
6 Action is taken and the collective The water supply is stopped and alternative water
system retracts against the crisis. supply measures are initiated. The scenario plays out

According to the above analysis, the generation and size of the crisis situation is first estimated from
the decision-makers’ points of view. In the case of the water supply to a city becoming polluted,
decision-makers need to specify what caused the pollution and its source – the river, underground
sources etc., or from the network.

• Right after the appearance of a crisis, risk perception is sharpened: we would see an “extension”
of the crisis. For managers, it is now clear that a “combination of factors forces intervention”.
The parameters characterizing the crisis situation are such that it is necessary to react “for the
whole community and not only for the plant staff” directly involved.
• A decision is then made in line with previous decisions using precedent to partially justify it. And
the effects of the decision have a direct and immediate impact on the evolution of the crisis.

28 U4SSC: Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations