Emergency Control Centers - Coursework Example

Lecturer Emergency Control Centre (ECC) The ECC illustrates appropriate location where a agency or ity can enhance interagency decision making and also improve interagency coordination that provides critical support towards incidence response. The coordination processes are conducted by the ECC through three key issues. The issues are; resource management, information acquisition, and priority illustration and setting. The discussion covers three aspects of ECC, location, design and staffing. ECC Location The ECC illustrates the physical location where coordination processes on resources and information is applied in the enhancement of incident management or the on-scene processes. The ECC can involve temporary facilities. Alternatively the ECC can entail permanently installed facilities in the higher categories of the organization. The ECC are majorly arranged through key functional disciplines and jurisdiction. The functional disciplines include; fire services, medical facilities and law enforcement. The jurisdiction aspects involves; federal, state, city, county and regional. There are six key factors that influence ECC location. The factors are; accessibility, versatility, size, systems capability, safety and survivability. The accessibility factor determines if the significant staffs can get in the ECC facility appropriately within time frame. The timeframe for the significant ECC staffs varies, and is influenced by emergency complexity, size and type. The location of ECC should be easily accessible, during the emergency situations. The suppliers and several significant personnel can ECC facilities as fast as possible when needed. Several operational periods need second shift staffs. More complex emergencies also need extra ECC staffs. Long term emergency activities need the support of key suppliers in the ECC venue, to enhance vendor support. ECC accessibility is continuously reviewed because of increased population growth and also adequate access to transport means. The location of the ECC should be adequately safe. It is be appropriately located in areas that are free from natural disasters and several other related hazards. The location should also be free from cascading events that are significantly high risks. The areas that have high terrorist risk level, should not host the ECC. There should be adequate processes or removing or disposing harmful products like asbestos. The ECC buildings must adhere to the professional building codes or regulations. The size of the ECC must be adequate to accommodate entire operations. Regions operations should be considered especially during the large scale disasters. The regions are effective in coordinating mutual operations. Department ECCs should be utilized in managing the day to day emergency operations and communication. Systems capability is a critical issue in ECC. The operation activities should be extended appropriately. The critical systems capability requirements involve water, electricity, telephone and air conditioning. The services enhance the emergency operations of the ECC. The systems capability should be influenced through the expected population in terms of staff numbers and beneficiary numbers. The survivability factor entails ability of the ECC to remain in operations for extended time durations, especially during the emergency scenarios. Survivability considers damage to the supporting infrastructures. The ECC must be able to ensure that the supporting infrastructures can withstand the emergencies. Survivability is greatly influenced by the location and the design of the ECC. ECC Staffing A key requirement for the ECC entails the staffing needs. The staffing needs are determined by several key factors. Staffing is responsible for illustrating several issues like; the nature of the activities to be performed, the timeframe required to achieve the activities, the knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities needed in performing the activities, and finally the decision making authority during the operations of the EEC. The ECC has several functions during the emergency situations. Effective recognition of the critical functions is necessary for the effective operations of the emergency facility. The entire operations of the ECC revolve around the activities to be performed. If the key functions are not adequately illustrated, the necessary work arrangements will be insufficient. The functions should not be excessive; this can result to confusions in the operations of the ECC. The timeframe aims at creating the possibility of extended operations during cases of increased emergency complexity or scale. Extended operations of the ECC require; second or third shift staffs, back up employees, and also the support staffs. Alternative employee assignments become very significant in the extended operations durations. Hence, all work positions have competent employees at all times, 24/7. The support staffs are majorly responsible for performing non-core work activities like cleaning, food preparation, administrative and maintenance activities. The decision making authority at the ECC is very important. Delegation of authority is a critical aspect of the decision making processes. Delegation of authority is mostly appropriate during emergency situations. The concept is also appropriate during ECC activation, or when the normal distribution and process channels are disrupted. The deletion of authority processes is generally stopped during the end of the emergency and crisis situation, and also during effective restoration of normal operation channels. In emergency scenarios, delegation of authority is very critical. The delegation enables the initiation of rapid response; for instance, the savings of many lives during a catastrophic natural calamity like earth quake or severe earth tremor. Delegation of authority adequately illustrates the chain of command at the ECC. It is normally senior staffs who give work instructions to the junior staffs at ECC. The succession order is another significant factor at ECC. It enables the organization to immediately fill key leadership or managerial positions when they become vacant. This removes the leadership uncertainties, which may occur during emergency situations because of the death or incapacitation of key staffs. The essential functions should always be conducted, even if the staff numbers are minimal. Effective performance of the essential functions is realized through conducting training programs for all staffs of ECC. The training equips the staffs with additional competencies, knowledge and experience, that are applied during emergency situations. Four organizational models are utilized in organizing work operations at ECC. The models are; major management activities, incident command system, emergency support function, and multi-agency coordination system. The staffs are very critical in any emergency situation. They should, therefore, be adequately trained on operational and emergency processes. The staffs should also be motivated to perform effectively, especially through recognition and rewards for exceptional efforts. ECC Design Form adheres to function involves a principle that is in line with the 20th century industrial design and also modernists architecture. According to the principle, the shape of a building or alternatively an object should be determined by the expected function. The key functions of ECC involves; information collection, policy formulation, public information, hosting visitors, operation management and activities coordination. The space of ECC should be appropriately utilized. The seating arrangement must aim at enhancing communication between ECC stakeholders. The leaders of ECC should be given the front seat arrangements. This ensures that they provide visionary leadership in the decision making processes. The seating arrangement at ECC should also enhance eye contact. Eye contact is critical during communication and decision making process, because it explains the urgency of the decisions involved. Technology is also another design issue. The ECC should have adequate telecommunication facilities that utilize the internet and computer software dealing with emergency response. Geographical Information System should be effectively installed in any ECC that handles natural emergencies such as floods, droughts, or earthquakes. The space is also another critical factor in the design of the ECC. The facility should be located in a place that has minimal noise or distractions. Sound proof materials are appropriately applied in the construction of the ECC. The ECC can be designed using one of the several layouts. The traditional multipurpose layout is very flexible and has diverse applications. However, the layout requires relatively more time to adopt. The layout desires the application of complex technology that utilizes a bigger storage space. The clustered layout of ECC is reconfigured according to the response groups. It enables space designation depending on the response groups. The layout can adjust into the variable numbers. The clustered layout has no central focus that is applied in the processes of information display. The layout relies on the lesson learnt to restructure the next level of deployment. The storage capacity and the dedicated services of the ECC layout can result in conflicts. The horse shoe layout has adequate room for the employee in the support section. It enables the centralized focus of the displays. The layout also enables eye contact between individuals and also the audio contact. This improves the communication processes during the emergency operations. However, multiple communications have the likely effect of enhancing the noise levels, and thus cause disruptions. The layout also has very minimal collaboration, and this hinders the effectiveness of the emergency operations. The stadium layout of the ECC follows the mission control concept. The layout display is effectively seen by all individuals. The leader can communicate with all individuals at once, and it has the capability of being started quickly. The discussion thus illustrate that the ECC is the situation where uncomfortable individuals engage in meetings in the unaccustomed environments, so as to perform unfamiliar activities, adopt unpopular decisions determined by insufficient information, and within minimal time resources. Read More