Between chaos and continuity: A common operational picture in support of emergency response networks

A common operational picture is often seen as a valuable contribution to a networked response to crises and emergencies. The constituent parts of the network maintain and share their own picture of the emergency situation as part of the common operational picture, and in so doing they continually and iteratively frame, elaborate, question and reframe the situation. This thesis sets out to look at three areas in which there are knowledge gaps: • What patterns of involvement can be discerned in organisational networks that respond to emergencies? • How can the communication strategy of a collaboration of emergency response organisations make a difference to an emergency’s overall impact on the community? • How does maintaining a common operational picture during an emergency response contribute to collaborative sensemaking between those at the front line and those in more remote parts of the response network? A key finding from the study is that the common operational picture can be seen as a two-way, semi-transparent mirror between the emergency situation and the emergency response network, providing a coherent view on both. A second important finding is that, to be effective, this view needs to be both multi-faceted and multi-level. It needs to be multi-faceted in that it is made up of the different perspectives that the collaborating teams and organisations have on the emergency situation. These different perspectives need to be available to all teams and organisations to help with the continuous and cyclical collaborative sensemaking process of framing, questioning and reframing the emergency. The common operational picture needs to be multi-level in that it is used to share not only factual information but also higher levels of knowledge. Significant effort is required to provide a multi-faceted and multi-level common operational picture that is both up to date and sufficiently rich in content; it may therefore not always be possible to codify complex and rapidly evolving situations and to share this codified perspective with others in the network in real time. The common operational picture provides a solid basis for command and control throughout the organisational emergency response network, as it reflects both the goals and interests of the organisations involved and the response measures. In this way, it can easily be used to monitor the progress of the response and to ensure that all interests are properly weighed against each other. Because the common operational picture also provides a view on the emergency response organisation itself, it also provides a basis for continuously shaping the response network.