Connected Communities: People, Information and Technology in Remote Emergency Management

Emergency management in remote, regional and First Nations communities presents challenges extending well beyond geographic distance. Effective preparedness, response and recovery depend on connecting people, information, technology and local knowledge across environments often characterised by dispersed populations, infrastructure constraints and limited communications redundancy.

This track explores how information systems and emerging technologies can strengthen the human and community networks upon which effective emergency management depends. It considers how emergency information is generated, shared, interpreted and acted upon across emergency services, government, First Nations organisations, volunteers and communities.

The track welcomes research and practitioner perspectives on First Nations and local knowledge, trusted information, community capability, artificial intelligence, data analytics, decision support, connectivity and interoperability. Its aim is to bring researchers and practitioners together to examine how information systems can better support communities to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, particularly where distance, infrastructure and resources create additional complexity.

While grounded in the distinctive context of Western Australia and the Indo-Pacific, the track invites international research and comparative experience addressing these increasingly global challenges.

Topics of Interest

• Information systems for remote emergency management: Design, implementation and evaluation of systems supporting emergency management where distance, connectivity, infrastructure or access present significant constraints.
• First Nations knowledge and information systems: Respectful approaches to connecting First Nations knowledge, community governance and contemporary emergency management systems, including co-design, Indigenous data governance and community-led practice.
• Community capability and trusted information: The role of community networks, volunteers, local organisations and trusted intermediaries in creating, communicating, interpreting and acting upon emergency information.
• Artificial intelligence, data analytics and decision support: Responsible use of AI, predictive analytics, automation and decision-support technologies to improve situational awareness and decision-making, including consideration of transparency, accountability and human judgement.
• Emergency communication and digital inclusion: Warning systems, telecommunications resilience and approaches to reaching communities and service settings experiencing connectivity, language, accessibility, mobility or digital-literacy barriers.
• Interoperability and information sharing: Technological, organisational and governance approaches to sharing information and developing common situational awareness across emergency services, government, First Nations organisations and communities.
• Resilient systems under disrupted conditions: Technologies, processes and community practices that maintain communication, situational awareness and coordination when conventional systems or infrastructure are degraded or unavailable.
• Systemic and compounding risk: The role of information and decision-support systems in understanding interconnected, cascading and compounding risks across communities, government, infrastructure and natural systems.

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