A concept development methodology: Disaster relief operations

Environmental management of military activities is of growing global concern by defence forces. As one of the largest landholders in Australia, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is increasingly concerned with sustainable environmental management. This paper focuses on how the ADF is maintaining effective environmental management, especially in environmentally sensitive marine protected areas. It uses Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) as a research example to examine environmental management strategies conducted by the ADF. SWBTA is one of the most significant Defence training areas in Australia, with a large number of single, joint and combined military exercises conducted in the area. With its maritime component contained in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA), and abutting Queensland’s State Marine Parks, it has high protection values. It is therefore vital for the ADF to adopt environmentally responsible management while they are conducting military activities. As to various tools employed to manage environmental performance, the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) is widely used by the ADF. This paper examines military activities and marine environmental management within SWBTA, using the Talisman Saber (TS) exercise series as an example. These are extensive joint exercises conducted by the ADF and the United States defence forces. The paper outlines relevant legislative framework and environmental policies, analyses how the EMS operates in environmental management of military activities, and how military activities comply with these regulations. It discusses the implementation of the ADF EMS, including risk reduction measures, environmental awareness training, consultation and communication with stakeholders. A number of environmental management actions used in the TS exercises are presented to demonstrate the EMS application. Our investigations to this point indicate that the ADF is complying with all relevant legislation and policies. Further research is required to confirm compliance and conclude that military activities have good accord with environmental management objectives.

High levels of coordination, cooperation, and collaboration between involved aid providers are needed for efficient logistics processes. In the immediate response phase, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration are firstly required when nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) assess the beneficiaries’ needs by sending field assessment and coordination teams into the disaster area. This research explores the Malaysian scenario of humanitarian logistics as well as the challenges in collaborations between government agencies and NGOs during disaster relief operations in Malaysia to achieve healthy communities during pandemic Covid-19. Thus, this study used past literature to propose a conceptual framework and identified two factors namely, trust and coordination as the key factors in the successful humanitarian logistics framework. In addition, the role of NGOs during a disaster is also important to reduce the burden on government agencies in managing the humanitarian aid distribution process. Collaboration between government and NGOs is pursued in the mitigation and long-term recovery phases, where decisions are taken with caution, and NGOs strategies are adjusted to others without time pressure. The most important driver for successful collaboration is trust. Coordination provisions will increase trust between agencies involved in disaster relief operations. Therefore, building trust between parties involved in certain tasks in disaster relief activities can be enhanced by adding up a contract agreement to ensure both parties will work efficiently and coordinate with the job and minimize the risk that could occur.

Aim:The purpose of this pilot study was to analyze the current cold chain storage methods of Class 8 stores, specifically thermolabile medications and temperature sensitive diagnostics, dressings, and fluids, for the Australian Army in a training area within Australia. This research was designed to identify deficiencies in current storage methods, including the inability to maintain the recommended storage temperature of pharmaceutical stores in accordance with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, as well as foster communication between key stakeholders, including the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and the Department of Defence Joint Health Command, and to develop a cold chain protocol specific for the Australian Defence Force.Methods:This pilot study identified the common occurrence of breaches in a specific climate and recommends that current mission essential equipment be replaced. It also discusses the need for clearly defined guidelines with accountability of the stakeholders to ensure that the provision of health support to all Australian Defence Force personnel is in accordance with civilian standards.Results:This pilot study identified that the carried thermolabile medications and temperature sensitive diagnostics, dressings, and fluids were commonly exposed to temperatures outside the range recommended by the manufacturers. These findings related mainly to the storage equipment for Class 8 stores used by the Army. As a result, it is recommended that such equipment is replaced so that the cold chain storage meets the Therapeutic Goods Administration Guidelines to ensure that health support to Australian Defence Force Personnel in the field is in accordance with the standard of care expected at a civilian health facility.Discussion:This pilot study has enabled the Australian Defence Force to qualify and quantify the temperature exposure of the medications and stores and engage with key stakeholders to trial and apply new technologies and processes for the management of the cold chain.

government's objectives. First, it is clear that there are insufficient funds available for both the large capital acquisition programme and ongoing personnel/operational costs. This in itself has the potential for having long-term negative effects on- the Australian Defence Force. Secondly, recent events show that the government apparently did not take into account the potentially serious security problems for Australia posed by instability in the island micro-states in the South Pacific, as well as the possible unreliability of New Zealand as an ally In total, fundamental deficiencies can be identi fied as emerging in Australian defence. The evident result of these problems is that the U.S. security alliance will continue to be essential, if not increasingly so, to Australian security.

BackgroundInternet social networking tools and the emerging web 2.0 technologies are providing a new way for web users and health workers in information sharing and knowledge dissemination. Based on the characters of immediate, two-way and large scale of impact, the internet social networking tools have been utilized as a solution in emergency response during disasters. This paper highlights the use of internet social networking in disaster emergency response and public health management of disasters by focusing on a case study of the typhoon Morakot disaster in Taiwan.DiscussionIn the case of typhoon disaster in Taiwan, internet social networking and mobile technology were found to be helpful for community residents, professional emergency rescuers, and government agencies in gathering and disseminating real-time information, regarding volunteer recruitment and relief supplies allocation. We noted that if internet tools are to be integrated in the development of emergency response system, the accessibility, accuracy, validity, feasibility, privacy and the scalability of itself should be carefully considered especially in the effort of applying it in resource poor settings.SummaryThis paper seeks to promote an internet-based emergency response system by integrating internet social networking and information communication technology into central government disaster management system. Web-based networking provides two-way communication which establishes a reliable and accessible tunnel for proximal and distal users in disaster preparedness and management.

Social networking technologies have commanded a lot of recent attention because they have changed the manner in which individuals have traditionally and historically accessed and shared knowledge. Although these technologies provide individuals with the opportunity to access and to utilize a plethora of knowledge created by others, the knowledge still needs to be organized, interpreted, and incorporated by the user in order for it to be useful. This research sought to better understand how social networking technologies can aid a firm's efforts to establish a knowledge management and a generative learning environment. The study closely followed one of the United States leading aerospace and defense firm's efforts to utilize new information and communication technologies to facilitate knowledge exchange and communications within the organization. This investigation provided a rich source of evidence for how social networking technologies can aid a firm's ability to encourage knowledge exchange, as well as networking and communication within the firm. We provide four key research-related findings and offer practitioners several key strategies, tactics, and pitfalls to avoid that they should consider when attempting to use SNT to aid in the establishment of a knowledge management and a generative learning environment.

The release of the Australian Government’s Nation Action Plan (NAP) in 2012 signaled the recognition by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) that implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was imperative to improving military capability and increasing operational effectiveness. Since then, the ADF has made considerable inroads toward ensuring that the practical implementation of the NAP achieves the WPS outcomes being sought by the Australian Government. Moreover, this chapter observes that the ADF have in recent times employed the NAP to ensure that its political, social, aid, and diplomatic actions align closely with those of allied armed forces with respect to gender mainstreaming. Indeed, the ADF has focused on gender as an important element in the planning and conduct of national and international military peace and security efforts. This chapter argues that since the adoption of Resolution 1325, Australia has been actively involved in, and supported, a large number of high-level commitments to addressing the role of women in peace and security. In the main, this has been focused on political, social, diplomatic, and aid responses to crisis and conflict management, human rights, gender equality, and peacekeeping.

Injury prevention during physical activity in the Australian Defence Force

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has used mefloquine for malaria chemoprophylaxis since 1990. Mefloquine has been found to be a plausible cause of a chronic central nervous system toxicity syndrome and a confounding factor in the diagnosis of existing neuropsychiatric illnesses prevalent in the ADF such as posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Overall health risks appear to have been mitigated by restricting the drug's use; however serious risks were realised when significant numbers of ADF personnel were subjected to clinical trials involving the drug. The full extent of the exposure, health impacts for affected individuals, and consequences for ADF health management including mental health are not yet known, but mefloquine may have caused or aggravated neuropsychiatric illness in large numbers of patients who were subsequently misdiagnosed and mistreated or otherwise failed to receive proper care. Findings in relation to chronic mefloquine neurotoxicity were foreseeable, but this eventuality appears not to have been considered during risk-benefit analyses. Thorough analysis by the ADF would have identified this long-term risk as well as other qualitative risk factors. Historical exposure of ADF personnel to mefloquine neurotoxicity now also necessitates ongoing risk monitoring and management in the overall context of broader health policies.

This chapter principally discusses the two primary reasons why the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is not yet ready for the proliferation of uncrewed and autonomous technology that is expected to occur throughout the coming decade. First, the ADF does not know what to do with such technology, and second, it is not planning for the step change from automated to autonomous systems. The ADF needs to formulate a plan soon, or it will be forced to continue playing catch-up. Ultimately, a few more years are needed to determine what the ADF will do with the data to turn this (expensive) uncrewed force into decision/targeting superiority and effects, and this chapter argues that the crash of the autonomy tidal wave can afford to wait a little longer.

In September 1993, the Australian media was abuzz over a Naval Board of Inquiry which investigated allegations of sexual abuse on the HMAS Swan. Following the Board of Inquiry and media coverage, the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel referred the matter to a new, broader Senate Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in the Australian Defence Force. This inquiry received 122 submissions and handed down its final report in August 1994. The HMAS Swan inquiries were neither the first nor the last major reports investigating abuse in the Australian armed forces. Indeed, media reports and new inquiries every few years suggest a cycle of serial epiphanies – to borrow a phrase from Aboriginal researcher Maggie Walter – about cultures of abuse within the ADF. Yet, what set the HMAS Swan scandal apart from earlier ones was: 1. The interest and interventions taken by the political class, and 2. That it centred on sexual abuse and the status of women in the Australian Defence Force (ADF). This article revisits the HMAS Swan inquiries thirty years later, exploring their findings, legacies and shortcomings. It explores why what could have been a turning point in the treatment of women in the ADF instead became just another inquiry.

The study investigated the impact of potentially traumatic events on mental health outcomes among males who had ever served in the Australian Defence Force. Data from a nationally representative household survey of Australian residents, the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, were used for this study. Compared with community members, Australian Defence Force males were significantly more likely to have experienced not only deployment and other war-like events but also accidents or other unexpected events, and trauma to someone close. For non-deployed males, Australian Defence Force members were at increased risk of accidents or other unexpected events compared to community members. After controlling for the effect of potentially traumatic events that were more prevalent among all Australian Defence Force members, the increased risk of mental disorders among Australian Defence Force members was no longer evident. For non-deployed males, Australian Defence Force and community members were at comparable risk of poor mental health outcomes. A significant minority of Australian Defence Force members had onset of a mental disorder prior to their first deployment. Deployment and other potentially traumatic events among Australian Defence Force members can help to explain their increased vulnerability to mental disorders compared with community members. Providers should routinely enquire about a range of potentially traumatic events among serving and ex-serving military personnel.

Peer-based prevention programs for homeless youth are complicated by the potential for reinforcing high-risk behaviors among participants. The goal of this study is to understand how homeless youth could be linked to positive peers in prevention programming by understanding where in social and physical space positive peers for homeless youth are located, how these ties are associated with substance use, and the role of social networking technologies (e.g., internet and cell phones) in this process. Personal social network data were collected from 136 homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA. Respondents reported on composition of their social networks with respect to: home-based peers and parents (accessed via social networking technology; e.g., the internet, cell phone, texting), homeless peers and agency staff (accessed face-to-face) and whether or not network members were substance-using or non-substance-using. Associations between respondent’s lifetime cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine use and recent (previous 30 days) alcohol and marijuana use were assessed by the number of non-substance-using versus substance-using ties in multivariate linear regression models. 43% of adolescents reported a non-substance-using home-based tie. More of these ties were associated with less recent alcohol use. 62% of adolescents reported a substance-using homeless tie. More of these ties were associated with more recent marijuana use as well as more lifetime heroin and methamphetamine use. For homeless youth, who are physically disconnected from positive peers, social networking technologies can be used to facilitate the sorts of positive social ties that effective peer-based prevention programs require.

• Responses to mass fatality disasters may require military and police collaboration. • Effective scene examination (Phase 1) is complex and requires preparation. • We review lessons learned from deployments, training and collaborative exercises. • Valuable but limited research is available on Phase 1 preparation and collaboration. • We develop a proposed research agenda for military and police Phase 1 preparation. The scene examination, or Phase 1, is the recovery phase of the disaster victim identification (DVI) process, which involves the systematic recording, documentation and retrieval of the bodies of the dead following a mass disaster incident. A wide range of government and non-government organisations and volunteers can be involved in this phase of the DVI process. The need for collaboration between organisations, such as police and defence forces, in managing the aftermath of disasters has been increasingly recognised. Yet it is unclear whether, how, and to what extent practitioners are prepared through joint training and exercises for their roles in scene examination. This paper presents a review of the literature on collaboration across organisations in preparing for disaster incidents. It explores the findings from research and practitioner-oriented literature on the lessons learned from international DVI deployments, training initiatives, and collaborative DVI exercises. It identifies gaps in existing research to inform a research agenda on collaboration in the preparation for disasters among Australian and New Zealand police and defence force personnel.

Students, social network technology and learning in higher education: Visions of collaborative knowledge construction vs. the reality of knowledge sharing