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Subject: Re: [emergency-msg] CAP dictionary issues
At 06:36 PM 6/2/2003 -0700, Art Botterell wrote: >[...] >At 6:17 PM -0500 6/2/03, Weltman, Jerry wrote: >>Cap:event_cat: What is the purpose of this element? Is it to indicate which >>organizations would be responsible for handling the alert? > >It's chiefly to allow receiving systems to determine whether its a message >to which that device should respond, and secondarily to inform message >routing systems. And to provide a categorization for later indexing too, >I suppose. Basically for any automated process that cares about hazard >type but isn't brainy enough to interpret the free-text description in ><event_desc/>. > >The current list is definitely up for discussion... I've been told there's >a standard list of 23 or so hazard types out there somewhere... maybe >someone can provide a pointer? In working on the Disaster Help Portal just about one year ago, we checked around and could not find a consensus standard for hazard types. Here's what we have done. Our primary objective is to support searchers in the discovery of information sources and services relevant to Disaster Management. We regard the Disaster Help Portal as a "referral service", i.e., it helps searchers link to information sources and services of other organizations. Accordingnly, a key part of the Portal is a set of "referral records", each describing an information resource relevant to disasters. The referral record set is, in effect, an annotated bibliography or catalog of information. So, we documented "Cataloging Notes" to guide those who create the referral records. Here below is an excerpt of the Cataloging Notes that addresses four aspects by which each referral record is categorized. ------------------------------------------------------------------- There are four category data fields as part of each referral record: Role in Disaster Management, Phase in the Disaster Management Cycle, Type of Disaster Event, and Place of Interest. Each category field can contain values as described below. 1. Role in Disaster Management: The "role" category of the referral can take one or more of six defined values. These values are recorded as: "citizen", "business", "non-government", "non-Federal", "Federal", and "media". Usage of these values is discussed in "Scope Notes (role)" below. 2. Phase in the Disaster Management Cycle: The "phase" category of the referral can take one or more of four defined values. These values are recorded as: "preparedness", "response", "recovery", and "mitigation". Usage of these values is discussed in "Scope Notes (phase)" below. 3. Type of Disaster Event: The "type" category of the referral can take one or more values from a list of disaster event types. These values and their usage are discussed in "Scope Notes (type)" below. 4. Place of Interest: The "place" data field of the referral record can take one or more values that characterize the place of interest as a location on the surface of the Earth. These values are designated either by named place (e.g., "Montana") or by latitude/longitude coordinates. These values and their usage are discussed in "Scope Notes (place)" below. Two special values are also defined across all four categories: "any" and "unknown". The value "any" means that this referral record should be regarded as matching any of the values defined for this category. The value "unknown" means that this referral record does not have an assigned value for this category. Therefore, every valid referral record must have at least one value (including the value "unknown") for each category. Scope Notes (role) - The "role" category distinguishes among various roles that a person or organization may have with regard to Disaster Management. From the perspective of an information or service provider, such a role might be regarded as a "target audience". A particular searcher, of course, does not think of himself or herself as a target audience. Rather, the searcher uses the role category to differentiate among perspectives that vary according to different roles. citizen: Use this value if the referral content is not designed for any of the other, more specialized roles. This includes anyone needing information as a family member or individual victim of a disaster. Note that the word "citizen" is merely a shorthand label and there should be no implication of distinction as to the searcher citizenship. business: Use this value if the referral content is designed for persons or organizations whose perspective would be as a business affected by a disaster. non-government: Use this value if the referral content is designed for the many organizations that are active in the field of disaster management but are not affiliated with government. The American Red Cross is one such example. non-Federal: Use this value if the referral content is designed for officials of State, local and Tribal governments. This includes, but is not limited to: political and civil service leadership; emergency managers; homeland security advisors; and first responders (e.g., law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical services). Federal: Use this value if the referral content is designed for officials of U.S. Federal government agencies, or others officially designated to act in such capacity. media: Use this value if the referral content is designed for journalists, reporters, and others members of the media. Scope Notes (phase) - The "phase" category distinguishes among four parts of a cycle that progresses over time. Prior to the actual occurrence of a disaster event, the dominant disaster management activity is "preparedness". As the event unfolds, disaster management actors become involved in the "response" phase. There is a period of "recovery" following the response to the disaster event. The "mitigation" phase then occurs as disaster management improvements are made in anticipation of the next disaster cycle. preparedness: Use this value if the referral content is designed for the preparedness phase, when governments, organizations, and individuals develop plans to save lives, minimize disaster damage, and enhance disaster response operations. Preparedness measures include preparedness plans; emergency exercises/training; warning systems; emergency communications systems; evacuations plans and training; resource inventories; emergency personnel/contact lists; mutual aid agreements; and public information/education. response: Use this value if the referral content is designed for the response activities that follow an emergency or disaster. Such response activities are designed to provide emergency assistance for casualties, to reduce the probability of secondary damage, and to speed recovery operations. Response measures include activating public warning; notifying of public authorities; mobilizing emergency personnel/equipment; emergency medical assistance; manning emergency operations centers; declaring disasters and evacuating; mobilizing security forces; search and rescue; and emergency suspension of laws. recovery: Use this value if the referral content is designed for the disaster recovery activities, which continue until all systems return to normal or better. Recovery measures, both short and long term, include returning vital life-support systems to minimum operating standards; damage insurance/loans and grants; temporary housing; long-term medical care; disaster unemployment insurance; public information; health and safety education; reconstruction; counseling programs; and economic impact studies. Information resources and services include data collection related to rebuilding, claims processing, and documentation of lessons learned. mitigation: Use this value if the referral content is designed for the disaster mitigation activities, which actually eliminate or reduce the probability of occurrence of a disaster, or reduce the effects of unavoidable disasters. Mitigation measures include building codes; vulnerability analyses updates; tax incentives/disincentives; zoning and land use management; building use regulations/safety codes; allocations and interstate sharing of resources; preventive health care; and public education. Information resources and services important in mitigation activities include GIS?based risk assessment; claims history; facility/resource identification; land use/zoning; and building code information. Use of modeling/prediction tools for trend and risk analysis is also important. Scope Notes (type) - biological: an intentional or accidental disaster event caused by a biological agent such as anthrax. chemical (Used For: poison, pollution, toxic, hazmat, contamination): an intentional or accidental disaster event caused by a chemical agent such as a poisonous gas. civil (Used For: refugee, riot, war) disease (Used For: epidemic, pandemic) drought (Used For: climate, water) earthquake electric utility (Used For: power outage, blackout) explosion (Used For: bomb) fire (Used For: wildfire, forest fire, urban wild-land interface) flood food (Used For: famine) gas utility hurricane (Used For: tropical cyclone, typhoon) internet (Used For: cyber crime, cyber attack, cyberspace) landslide (Used For: avalanche, mudslide) nuclear ocean or coastal (Used For: iceberg, tsunami, coastal hazard, algal bloom) oil spill radiological (Used For: nuclear reactor, dirty bomb) severe weather (Used For: blizzard, dust storm, hail storm, heat wave, lightning, storm, snow storm, wind) space (Used For: asteroid, geomagnetism, magnetic storm, space weather) terrorism tornado transportation (Used For: airplane, highway, ship, train, aircraft) volcano Scope Notes (place) - 1. place names - The named value of "place" may be drawn from two sets of names: states of the United States and nations of the world. The place "United States" indicates an area spanning more than one state or territory of the Unites States. The place "international" indicates an area spanning more than one nation. The area associated with the place value will be converted to "bounding box coordinates" for searching purposes. Therefore, the place value must be the largest area that encompasses all relevant areas. For example, if a referral for hurricane tacking includes Caribbean nations in addition to parts of the United States, the appropriate value for place would be "international". 2. place coordinates - The latitude/longitude value of "place" is recorded as an ordered set of four decimal values. For example, the state of Montana can be designated by latitude/longitude as (49.61 -116.66 43.75 -103.44). The four values correspond to: northernmost latitude, westernmost longitude, southernmost latitude, and easternmost longitude. Latitude coordinates range from -90 (south pole) to 90 (north pole). Longitude coordinates are negative from -180 to zero west of the prime meridian (defined by the position of Greenwich, England), and positive from 0 to 180 east of the prime meridian. Typically, the values are generated through a pre-defined list of named place coordinates, or through an interactive facility that allows the cataloger to outline an area on a map. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Eliot
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