Enhancing Capabilities for Crisis Management and Disaster Response

For more than 60 years, the NATO Science Programme, and subsequently the SPS Programme, have promoted practical cooperation and the training of scientists and experts in the field of civil science and technology in order to address emerging security challenges. SPS has grown into one of NATO’s major partnership tools, covering a wide range of issues, including cyber defence, counter terrorism, and increasing energy security. Over the years, the Programme has created an international network of scientists and experts, and more than 20 Nobel Laureates are associated with SPS. Throughout its existence, SPS has supported a variety civil emergency planning and crisis management projects, which provided training, shared knowledge, and developed solutions for a large range of natural and man-made disasters.

One thing that remains clear is the urgent need for close coordination and information sharing between emergency management and public safety agencies, the public and private health communities, the private sector, and across the “whole of government”.

When disaster strikes, multiple agencies and jurisdictions take the call and respond. Organizing, coordinating, and commanding large-scale events present significant challenges to participating responders. To overcome these challenges, effective collaboration, shared situational awareness, and decision support require the timely distribution of information across disparate systems and platforms.

Crisis management is one of NATO’s fundamental security tasks. It can involve military and non-military measures to address the full spectrum of crises – before, during and after conflicts – as outlined in the 2010 Strategic Concept. It is one of NATO’s strengths based on experience, tried and tested crisis management procedures and an integrated military command structure. The development of an international or regional Crisis Information Management Capability has been discussed several times over the past 30 years or so. The integration of telecommunications and information technology in the aftermath of a disaster can be of tremendous value in providing an adequate response. The growing consequences of disasters increase the need for more support in response actions. The financial realities of recent years however have led to a decreased level of expertise and size of the “footprint” on-site. Effective use of an incident command system can close this gap by allowing a coordinated response.

NATO Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center’s consequence management field exercise (FX) “Bosnia I Hercegovina 2017” was organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) and the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and had participation from 34 countries and 6 International Organizations. The consequence Management Field Exercise “SRBIJA 2018” was organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) and the Sector for Emergency Management of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia and 29 nations committed resources, equipment, exercise participants, directing staff and/or observers. The exercise “NICS-Montenegro 2019” was organized by Montenegro Directorate for Emergency Situations, MIT LL and with support from DHS & NCIA. This was the first field exercise organized exclusively by the Advanced Regional Civil Emergency Coordination Pilot (ARCECP) team members and partners and independently from other NATO exercises (e.g. EADRCC). Finally, EADRCC and the Crisis Management Center of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of North Macedonia jointly organized the Consequence Management Field and Command Post Exercise “NORTH MACEDONIA 2021”. The planning process for each exercise included formal planning conferences, in-progress reviews, training, command post exercises (CPX) and a capabilities demonstration day for invited dignitaries. This chapter describes how NICS was used in simulated disaster conditions.

Since 2016, the ARCECP flagship project has enabled the partner nations in the Western Balkans to acquire, deploy and customize the NICS system, in support of capacity building for emergency response and management in the region. Each year featured a demonstration to test and integrate standard operating policies, involving national emergency response and supporting agencies. The countries participated in NATO field exercises “Bosnia 2017”, “Serbia 2018”, “Montenegro 2019” and “North Macedonia 2020”. At these events, teams from the Crisis Management Center, the Ministry of Interior and other specialties operated the NICS application under exercise conditions. The ARCECP offered unique opportunities for young researchers from each nation to contribute to the program. The idea of engaging young researchers is to build or enhance capacity for their country and for their research to be relevant to emergency response. We used a cross-disciplinary approach to collect valuable industry and company information, build networks, practice and sharpen interview techniques, receive valuable career advice, and so much more.

This chapter presents concepts, achievements and insights from the integration of data analytics for decision support as it evolved over three NICS/NATO exercises: Tuzla/2017, Skopje/2018 and Podgorica/2019. The core idea was to integrate simulated social media messages into these live exercises as actionable information. The messages were represented as color-coded markers on an optional map layer within NICS. Messages were written in English as well as in local languages, using our closed SIMPOST platform, and were linked to specific objectives within the exercises. Due to the rapid pace and broad scope of the exercises, information needed to be distilled and integrated into a complex workflow. Messages needed to be verified against exercise conditions before response resources would be committed. Overall, we found the SIMPOST messages and analytics to be a useful addition to the exercises. We will conclude this chapter with some considerations relevant for larger volumes of inputs for the data analytics.