Message-ID: <950528180513_15512400@aol.com> Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 18:05:14 -0400 From: mailto:Abenini@AOL.COM> Subject: Simulations, humanitarian To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
COMPUTER SIMULATION FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTION Material to download
Computer simulation, a technology well advanced in military strategies and tactics, has been used somewhat for response to natural disasters. With equal benefit it can also be applied to the field of humanitarian action in armed conflict, such as for the management and planning of relief actions, public resource mobilization for humanitarian actions, and for training personnel for violent work environments.
Two organizations (see below) with wide links to the disaster management community have been kind enough to create folders in their respective gophers to hold material for the study and modelling of complex emergencies and to carry some of our simulation material.
The material on simulations of humanitarian scenarios lets the reader see how simulations work for agencies assisting the victims of armed conflict and how he or she can become active in simulation personally.
How simulation works is demonstrated with the help of a model for estimating the effectiveness of protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict, inspired by the action of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Mali, West Africa.
Simulation follows the dictum of philosopher Karl Popper that it is better to let scientific hypotheses die rather than human beings. It seems particularly relevant in the fast changing relief world having to contend with pervasive situations of violence, little time to fathom out alternative courses of action under emergency pressures, and increasing use of computers also in the field. Our approach, however, favors personal and institutional creativity, use of existing equipment and applications, and tolerant styles of communication to share scenarios and insights. You can be the next person to experiment with simulations!
The sites are:
VITA - Volunteers in Technical Assistance lets you find the folderby going to Disasters, then Information, Programs, Complex Emergency Modelling. For those browsing the Web, the name of the link is:
gopher://gopher.vita.org/11/disaster/info/programs/cmplxmdl
The Emergency Preparedness Information Exchange EPIX at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, has enlarged the Training and Exercises directory to now include a special section on simulations. The WWW URL is:
gopher://hoshi.cic.sfu.ca:5555/11/epix/topics/training/simulation
The authors are grateful for comments, questions, your own experience, and references to related work.
Aldo Benini & Janet Bradford, 170-C Brisco Road, Arroyo Grande CA 93420, USA, Phone: (805) 481-6609, To leave a message: (805) 481-2135. e-mail: mailto:<abenini@slonet.org >