General

Emergency and disaster management has become a widely researched area in the last decade. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been highly advocated for addressing the obstacles and improving decision-making in the event of a disaster. A number of ICT support systems and frameworks, both conceptual and application-based, have evolved over time to support the highly time and collaboration intensive task of emergency and disaster management. The use of ICTs like GIS has helped the relief worker to a great extent.

In this article, we suggest the use of the Gini Index to measure the inequality in infrastructure services provided within an urban region. We develop a functional form for the Lorenz Curve, the basis of measurement of the Gini Index. The sparse nature of data available to measure the distribution of infrastructure services within an urban region results in a challenge in estimating the Lorenz Curve.

Emergency and disaster management involves four stages: Mitigation (Planning), Preparedness, Response and Relief. Concerned authorities at different levels (central, state, district, etc.) play different roles and have different responsibilities in each phase of emergency and disaster management. GIS-based tools have been shown to be useful in the response and recovery phases of an emergency. In this paper, we propose how GIS-based simulation tools can be used in the Mitigation and Preparedness phases of emergencies and disasters.

With the increase in simulation of urban environments for the purpose of planning, modelling vehicular traffic has become important. While empirical evidence on traffic flow is relatively sparse, models representing the same are being increasingly used for planning urban roads and environments. In this paper, a simple explicit model is proposed to approximate the speed versus density of vehicular traffic flow.

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Evidence can be a powerful tool for policy change; however, when the corridors of power are closed, how does one ensure that public policies are based on evidence?

Across India, the lack of adequate data on air pollution is a challenge to addressing air pollution. After all, if you do not know what pollutes and by how much, how can you find solutions? Going in blind has rarely been an effective strategy for solving a problem.

In this interview, Dr VS Arunachalam speaks on technology — the great leveller — and how the strategic application of science and technology can help India meet its policy goals.

We see an urgent need for integrated decision-support systems for now and the future, to address every conceivable emergency. It is time we built such a system in India to deal with our emergencies. With ingenuity and foresight, we can replace fear with hope and confidence.

Think tanks can play the role of a mediator, critic and facilitator, by exploring technology beyond the designer’s tunnel vision to look at the big picture.

This article was originally published in the On Think Tanks Annual Review — 2019–20. You may read the complete review on this link.