Abstract
Timely and adequate communication is essential for the response to emergency situations. The current vision on emergency response embraces the networked organization as an answer to the dilemmas of communication and information flows in crisis situations. With stabilization of the network paradigm, the focus question turns into how networks are perceived and in what manner they function. We argue that there is a need to attend to the way networks and their functioning are assessed. From the agenda that we derive, we pay attention to the manner in which the time critical nature of the communication during emergency situations can be captured in network terms. The focus on how network interaction unfolds over time is demonstrated by attending to a case of a tunnel incident in the Netherlands. It is argued that a structure-oriented network analysis misses much of the actions and that using the data to probe the communication patterns with additional methods for time dependency enhances our insights. Three approaches, time slices, two-mode analysis and information pathways, are then introduced and the outcomes are interpreted.
We would like to thank colleagues at the Links Center University of Kentucky, SONIC at Northwestern, the Communication Department of the University of Illinois and three anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version of this paper. Mollee and Bím where supported through a grant of the Royal Academy Assistants program at the VU University Network Institute for the empirical work and part of the analysis. The first two authors equally contributed to the writing of the paper.
Appendix
Summary of Main Actors.
| Abbreviation | Organization | Function | Main Responsibility in Network (Collector, Aggregator or Disseminator of Information) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAS | Schiphol | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Employees | Collect information |
| AFO | Schiphol | Airport Fire Officer | Aggregate information |
| AMS | Medics | Airport Medical Services | Collect information |
| CCS | Schiphol | Coordination Center Schiphol | Disseminate information |
| DC_SR_K | Dispatch Center | Dispatch Center Safety Region Kennemerland | Disseminate information |
| FE | Fire service | Fire engines | Collect information |
| FF_HO | Fire service | Fire fighters Head Officer | Aggregate information |
| FF_O | Fire service | Fire fighters Officer | Aggregate information |
| KMar | RMP | Royal Military Police District Amsterdam Airport Schiphol | Collect information |
| KMar_CR | RMP | Royal Military Police Control Room | Disseminate information |
| NPSA | Police | National Police Services Agency in Driebergen | Disseminate information |
| NPSA_RP | Railway police | National Railway Police | Collect information |
| NS_SC | NS Rail | National Railway Command Center | Disseminate information |
| NS_Service | NS Rail | National Railway service personnel | Collect information |
| PSGR | Passengers | Passengers | Collect information |
| ProRail_BO | ProRail | ProRail Back Office | Disseminate information |
| ProRail_EOC | ProRail | Emergency Operations Coordinator | Aggregate information |
| RTC1 | ProRail | Rail Traffic Controller 1 | Disseminate information |
| RTC2 | ProRail | Rail Traffic Controller 2 | Disseminate information |
| SRC | ProRail | Switching & Report Center | Disseminate information |
| SRC_Technician | ProRail | Switching & Report Center Technician | Collect information |
| TD | NS | Traindriver(s) | Collect information |
Two-Mode Actor Overall Centrality Measures.
| Number | Actor | Degree Centrality | Closeness Centrality | Betweenness Centrality | Eigenvector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FFE | 0.692 | 0.923 | 0.036 | 0.242 |
| 2 | TDs | 0.769 | 1.000 | 0.116 | 0.245 |
| 3 | AAS | 0.692 | 0.947 | 0.033 | 0.243 |
| 4 | KMAR | 0.615 | 0.878 | 0.010 | 0.236 |
| 5 | NS_R | 0.615 | 0.878 | 0.010 | 0.236 |
| 6 | PSGR | 0.269 | 0.720 | 0.002 | 0.104 |
| 7 | RTC1 | 0.115 | 0.486 | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| 8 | RTC2 | 0.654 | 0.923 | 0.028 | 0.231 |
| 9 | CCS | 0.654 | 0.923 | 0.028 | 0.231 |
| 10 | SRC | 0.577 | 0.857 | 0.008 | 0.224 |
| 11 | SRC_Technician | 0.500 | 0.818 | 0.005 | 0.199 |
| 12 | RTCs | 0.500 | 0.818 | 0.005 | 0.199 |
| 13 | KMAR_CR | 0.500 | 0.818 | 0.005 | 0.199 |
| 14 | AFO | 0.692 | 0.923 | 0.036 | 0.242 |
| 15 | AMS | 0.615 | 0.878 | 0.014 | 0.228 |
| 16 | ProRail_BO | 0.615 | 0.878 | 0.014 | 0.228 |
| 17 | DC_SR_K | 0.654 | 0.900 | 0.017 | 0.240 |
| 18 | NS_SC | 0.615 | 0.878 | 0.010 | 0.236 |
| 19 | NPSA_Driebergen | 0.577 | 0.857 | 0.008 | 0.223 |
| 20 | AAS_HD | 0.577 | 0.857 | 0.008 | 0.223 |
| 21 | ProRail_EOC | 0.500 | 0.818 | 0.006 | 0.194 |
| 22 | NPSA_RP | 0.231 | 0.706 | 0.001 | 0.089 |
| 23 | FF_HO | 0.115 | 0.667 | 0.000 | 0.041 |
| 24 | FF_O | 0.115 | 0.667 | 0.000 | 0.041 |
Network Diagrams on 5 min Intervals.
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