1. Disaster Management in Uruguay
A novell field for Operations Research
Ing. Omar Viera

2. Abstract
Disasters are problems that causes human, material and other losses and requieres assignment of important resources to predict, mitigate and recovery from.
This implies the need for effective, often real time cost reducing techniques.
OR and OR researchers can provide up to date knowledge and experience in order to reduce the overall costs.

3. Outline PART I Definitions Types of disasters Disasters in numbers
Disaster and disaster management
Types of disasters
Disasters in numbers
Emergency management
PART II
What is Operations Research (OR)

4. PART I Disasters are events that may have a huge impact in societies.
Disaster management is a scientific approach to deal with disasters.

5. Definitions
Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
“A disaster is a situation or event which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request to a national or international level for external assistance.”

6. Definitions http://www.ifrc.org
A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources.

7. Definitions http://www.businessdictionary.com
Calamitous, distressing, or ruinous effects of a disastrous event (such as drought, flood, fire, hurricane, war) of such scale that they disrupt (or threaten to disrupt) critical functions of an organization, society or system, for a period long enough to significantly harm it or cause its failure.

8. Definitions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OFDA
A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard (e.g. volcanic eruption, earthquake, or landslide) which affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or lack of appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, their resilience.This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability“.

9. Definitions http://www.fema.gov/
A nonroutine occurrence that has resulted in property damage, deaths, and/or injuries to a community that requires the use of resources from outside affected community.

10. Definitions In common: A nonroutine event. Strong social impact.
Disrupts the functioning of a society.
Exceeds the or society’s ability to cope using its own resources.

11. Types of disasters http://www.fema.gov/
Chemical, Dam Failure , Earthquake, Fire
Flood, Haz. Material, Heat, Hurricane
Landslide, Nuclear, Terrorism, Thunderstorm
Tornado, Tsunami, Volcano, Wildfire
Winter Storm

12. Types of disasters http://www.ifrc.org Drought Earthquakes Epidemics
Famine/food insecurity
Floods
Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons
Man-made disasters
Population movement
Technological
Volcanic eruption

13. Definitions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OFDA
Emergency management (or disaster management) is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks It is a discipline that involves preparing for disaster before it happens, disaster response (e.g. emergency evacuation, quarantine, mass decontamination, etc.), as well as supporting, and rebuilding society after natural or human-made disasters have occurred.

14. Definitions
Drabek, T. E. (1991). The evolution of emergency management. In T. E. Drabek & G. J. Hoetmer (Eds.), Emergency management: Principles and practice for local government. Washington, DC: International City and County Management Association.
“The discipline and profession of applying science, technology, planning and management to deal with extreme events that can injure or kill large numbers of people, do extensive property damage, and disrupt community life”

15. Definitions http://www.fema.gov/, FEMA, 2000
“A range of measures to manage risks to communities and the environment”

16. Definitions
In common:
A scientific approach to manage disasters.

17. Disasters in numbers

18. Disasters in numbers

19. Disasters in numbers

20. Some numbers in Uruguay
Floods (web SINAE)
Evacuated / Dead political and geographical district ( )
Departament # Evacuated # Dead
ARTIGAS
CANELONES
CERRO LARGO
COLONIA
LAVALLEJA
DURAZNO
FLORES
FLORIDA
MALDONADO

21. Some numbers in Uruguay
Political district # Evacuated # Dead
MONTEVIDEO
PAYSANDÚ
RÍO NEGRO
RIVERA
ROCHA
SALTO
SAN JOSÉ
SORIANO
TACUAREMBÓ
TREINTA Y TRES
TOTALS

22. Some numbers in Uruguay
Wildfires Dirección Nacional de Bomberos / Diario La República
Year # Interventions

23. Emergency Management
“OR/MS research in disaster operations management”, N. Altay, W. Green III, EJOR, 175 (2006),
Emergency management is described in terms of:
Mitigation
Preparedness
Response
Recovery

24. Emergency Management Mitigation: Preparedness: Response: Recovery:
Prevent or reduce impact.
Preparedness:
Prepare for response.
Response:
Preserve life, property, environment and social, economic and political structure.
Recovery:
Long term actions to stabilize community and normalcy.

25. Emergency Management Activities Mitigation: Land use controls.
Barriers
Tax incentives o disincentives
Risk analisys.
Insurance. …

26. Emergency Management Preparedness: Recruiting personnel.
Emergency planning.
Training.
Budgeting resources.
Maintenance of emergency supplies.
Communications systems. …

27. Emergency Management Response: Activating planes. Opening shelters.
Fire fighting.
Evacuation.
Search and rescue. …

28. Emergency Management Recovery: Cleanup. Financial assistance.
Rebuildning facilities.
Full restoration of lifeline services. …

29. Emergency Management Characteristics of Emergency Management:
Social and political in nature.
Multi-organizational in nature.
Multi-functional in nature.

30. Emergency Management
What about vulnerability
Shit happens…or

31. PART II
OR is well suitable for all the activities and structures of Emergency management.

32. What is Operations Research
… operations research (O.R.) is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions.

33. What is Operations Research
it can be described as a scientific approach to the solution of problems in the management of complex systems. In a rapidly changing environment an understanding is sought which will facilitate the choice and the implementation of more effective solutions which, typically, may involve complex interactions among people, materials and money.

34. What is Operations Research
…is the research on operations to achieve the optimal objective of a system or the improvement of it.

35. What is Operations Research
That is: OR is a scientific approach that
uses advanced analytical methods to obtain
optimal decisions for problems in the
management of complex systems.

36. What is Operations Research
Lack of control.
Soft OR (Problem Structuring Methods)
Mo delling  Guiding solving steps
Non-Mathematical.
Dialogue.
Participation.

37. What is Operations Research
Characterised by:
Multiple actors.
Multiple perspectives.
Conflicting interests
Uncertainties.
Objective facts and perception used to solve complex problems.

38. Conclusions
OR and OR research has an enormous potential in the field of Emergency Management.
This potential is even greater in Uruguay due to the lack of research and applications.
Making decision makers concientious about the need to quantify is a big and necessary step.
OR based DSS can not only help to save lives but to reduce overall costs and contribute to state policies in the field.

39. Conclusions
Multi-organizational.
Multi-disciplinary.

40. Conclusions Do or do not – there is no try
(Master Yoda, Star Wars Episode V,
The Empire Strikes Back)

41. Future research Soft OR. Soft System Methods. Decision Theory.
Information Systems in real time.
Information management.
Konwledge management.
Insurance.
Logistics.

42. Future research
Organizational management.
…Disaster Management….