Exploring Emerging Technologies and Concepts to Enhance Resilience
How many times in the past few years have you heard the term “historic event” or "unprecedented times?" Probably more than once, and that trend shows no sign of reversing. Natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, and extreme heat coupled with man-made problems such as ransomware, chemical or biological attacks, and civil disorder can have devastating effects on individuals, communities and entire regions.
Disasters start and end at the local level, and the emergency management community is experiencing a rapidly evolving threat landscape. Driven by this dynamic environment, S&T is using a collaborative, all-hazards approach to support resilience, leveraging new technologies and integrating existing research and development from academic and government institutions.
From artificial intelligence automation to next-generation data management, S&T is working to harness technologies that will better prepare tomorrow's emergency managers.
The emergency management (EM) threat landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace due to challenges like climate change, urbanization, and technological advancements. This shifting landscape requires a dynamic and adaptable approach to EM.
Current EM research and development challenges include:
- Resources for research, development, and innovation (RD&I) to support emergency managers at the state and local level are limited and fragmented across government, academia, and other institutions.
- There is no clear path for systematically transitioning to use the outputs of the nation’s research in the area of emergency management.
- There is no clearly identified lead for emergency management research at the federal government level.
Every great undertaking has to start somewhere and for this, over the past year S&T partnered with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to execute Emergency Management of Tomorrow Research (EMOTR) to:
- Assess the EM research landscape;
- Assess the artificial intelligence (AI) research landscape;
- Elicit capability needs from EM stakeholders;
- Conduct validation exercises; and
- Identify where technology, such as AI, may benefit the future of Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs).
Together, these efforts navigated the complexities of EM and AI to identify emerging trends, potential challenges, and strategic pathways to guide future investments based on current assessments and projected needs.
To date, EMOTR has identified AI-based technologies with a high probability of enhancing EM in the next decade:
| Highlighted Technologies | Enabling Technologies |
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In addition, the EMOTR validation exercises held in 2024, in combination with findings from the landscape assessments and stakeholder input, resulted in recommendations for a next-generation EOC:
| Concept-Based Recommendations | Supplemental Recommendations |
|---|---|
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What’s Next?
- Roadmaps outlining the feasibility, timing, barriers, and needs for implementation of near-term recommendations.
- Testbeds, operational field assessments, and pilots partnering government, academic, and industry with EM community stakeholders to test emerging technologies.
- Visioning exercises through university challenges to engage the next generation in out-of-the-box thinking.
- Continued stakeholder engagement to enable improved visibility and coordination of EM R&D efforts.
The Extreme Weather: Opportunities for Improved Preparedness and Resilience report is built on an S&T and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) joint workshop hosted at the University of Oklahoma National Weather Center in February 2024 to examine policy, mission, science, and technology requirements to support homeland security, emergency management and public safety missions in the face of extreme weather. These ongoing discussions have brought together representatives from across S&T, DHS components, NOAA, and other federal agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Geological Survey and Environmental Protection Agency, academia, and state and local agencies working on extreme weather-related issues, and representatives and leaders of the federal weather science community.
Resilience across homeland security missions, systems and communities is of increasing importance as natural disasters, extreme weather, and climate change impact society. De-risking the impacts of these drivers on homeland security and public safety missions and operations requires better understanding of the rapidly evolving global and technological landscape, the accompanying suites of options and new approaches that may be possible, and recognizing surge capacity cannot be the sole approach available in a poly-crisis environment. Ensuring the nation’s homeland security and public safety relies on robust scientific weather, water, space, and climate information and technologies to solidify critical supply chains, infrastructure sectors, and community response.
This effort focuses on understanding the state of extreme weather science (with an emphasis toward floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme heat and wildfires), advances in observational technologies and networks, and the emerging domain of environmental intelligence necessary to develop proper risk mitigation strategies and better enable frontline operations. The importance of interagency partnerships in extreme weather is increasingly vital as the confluence of events has been leading to the amplification of impacts. Information from fuel loads of invasive species to existing burn scars or environmental hazards, coupled to the richness of scientific instrumentation, can offer new means to inform first responders and public safety missions in more relevant and specific ways.
As We Move Forward
As the Department's science advisor, S&T is sharing the following white papers that support future research agendas on resilience, disaster preparedness, and climate change:
Addressing the Nation's Wildfire Problem: An S&T Roadmap
Earth Systems Science: Key Themes, Trends, and Emerging Concerns
For more information about S&T's efforts to address emergency management challenges, contact first.responder@hq.dhs.gov.