Submit a Manuscript to the Journal

Information Technology for Development

For a Special Issue on

Emergency Management for Development

Abstract deadline
29 August 2023

Manuscript deadline
31 March 2024

Cover image - Information Technology for Development

Special Issue Editor(s)

Deepak Khazanchi, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
[email protected]

Jaziar Radianti, University of Agder, Norway
[email protected]

Juliana Sutanto, Monash University, Australia
[email protected]

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Emergency Management for Development

Disasters (“a sudden accident or natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life”) and crisis (a time of intense difficulty or danger”) have a devastating impact on development. It is well accepted that the notion of disasters, emergencies, and crises can and do overlap. Families lose homes, livelihoods and loved ones; communities lose businesses, jobs, and services; children miss school, and the list of impacts goes on (UNDRR, 2022). According to the United Nations office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2022): (1) Disasters are set to increase by 40%; (2) Extreme temperature events will triple; (3) The most vulnerable are the most affected; (4) Disaster costs are rising; and (5) More nations are adopting disaster risk reduction plans.  The UNDRR has concluded that the indirect impacts of disasters can also have wide-ranging cascading impacts on other aspects of structural or social inequality. According to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, “Nothing undermines sustainable development like disasters.” Economic losses from disasters can devastate whole communities. It is also accepted that disaster risk is not shared equally between rich and poor. People may be vulnerable because they are politically, socially, or economically excluded, with little access to resources, influence, information or decision making. Socioeconomic development becomes essential in enabling recovery efforts to be sustainable. In this context,  broadly speaking, sustainable development is described as a process of development wherein economic, social and environmental policies are designed to result in a development which is sustainable, i.e. which maintains ecological balance. This implies the use of available resources in such a manner that the needs of the present generations are balanced against those of future generations. Simply put, a sustainability mindset ensures that a nation’s economic development does not come at the expense of social and environmental well-being (Barrier, 2017).

The Covid-19 pandemic, the Haiti challenges, Ukrainian and Afghanistan Wars, Cyberattacks, Wildfires, Failing Infrastructure, and Natural disasters have illustrated that humanitarian crises have become increasingly complex and protracted needing innovative solutions. Whether this means the use of technologies such as drones or the need for advanced analytics including Machine Learning, technology has a pivotal role to play in addressing sustained humanitarian challenges. The pandemic and other recent natural and man-made disasters or crisis have also illustrated the need for building resilient societies that respond rapidly and effectively to health challenges and the associated economic consequences and adapt to be more responsive to future challenges. Around the world, digital technologies are driving high-impact interventions. Community and public health leaders are handling time-sensitive tasks and meeting pressing needs with technologies that are affordable and inclusive, and don’t require much technical knowledge. The ultimate goal of research and development in this domain is to shift from a passive approach to a more proactive one in order to become resilient. When a disaster does strike, effective use of ICT can have a positive impact with systems and contextual awareness raising to reduce both human and economic loss. Furthermore, emerging technologies may offer many opportunities for humanitarian action, but this also presents several challenges that need further research (Sandvik et al, 2014).  Faced with unforeseen events that require rapid responses, panic can produce contradictory information which requires verification. Reliability and security are thus essential aspects for the development of these dedicated information systems. Moreover, the concept of resilience and systemic risk reduction, in particular the resilience of a region facing possible extreme phenomena or disasters, is ripe for rich multi-disciplinary research.

Building upon more than two decades of research on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (De Walle et al. 2014), this ITD special Issue aims to provide practical guidance, collect insights and lessons learned, and promote theories and applications relating to the design, implementation, management, use, and evaluation of technologies for crisis response and management that have the potential of impacting systemic disaster risk reduction and human development positively.

We invite authors to submit novel work that focusses on the impact on society impacted by crisis, both from a researcher and practice perspective. We also encourage authors to look beyond the traditional models and explore novel, potentially disruptive tools, technologies, and methods for addressing crisis response and disaster risk reduction that impacts humanitarian development.

The submitted papers should address the UN Sustainability goals, and the interests of the united nation agencies such as UNDRR, UN-Spider, UNDSC, and UNOOSA. We welcome manuscripts from all disciplinary lenses and multidisciplinary perspectives that apply quantitative, qualitative, design science or mixed-methods research approaches. The author is expected to also check the aim and scope of this journal.

In this special issue, we are particularly interested in the followings topics  but are not limited to them.

  • ICT for Enhancing Situational Awareness, Collaboration, and Information Sharing
  • ICT for Building Resilient Societies
  • Understanding and Managing Systemic risk
  • ICT Development for Humanitarian Crisis Coordination, Collaboration and Response
  • Digital identity systems for Refugees Settlement and Coordination
  • ICT and Information Management for Climate Change, and Risks to the Society
  • Fast Response Virtual Teams
  • Universal Design of ICT for Emergency Management ….
  • Enhancing Protection of Critical Infrastructures
  • Technologies for First Responders
  • Social Media for Crisis Management
  • ICT for Reducing Systemic Risks of Disasters
  • Command and Control Studies
  • Collaborative Robots for Emergency Situations
  • Infrastructure Health Monitoring During Crisis and Socioeconomic Impacts
  • Automation including robotics and AI for Crisis Response and Management
  • Practice of ICT-enabled Emergency Management for Human Development
  • Other relevant topics to this special issue journal.

Submission Instructions

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit original papers using the journal submission and reviewing web site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/itd. Please be sure to select the special issue "Emergency Management for Development."

Submissions to the special issue should be full research papers or practice-oriented papers.  Each submitted paper will be peer-reviewed in the same manner as other submissions to the Journal of IT for Development. Relevance, quality and originality of the contribution are the major acceptance criteria for each submission.

After initial screening, papers are reviewed by selected members of the editorial board and peers from an international pool for quality, consistency, and research contribution. Authors are welcome to nominate one of the special issue editors or preferred reviewers when submitting their paper where no conflict of interest exist (an existing business or professional partnership, past or present association as thesis advisor or thesis student, and/or collaboration on a project or on a book/article/report/paper or co-editing of a journal, compendium, or conference proceedings constitutes a conflict of interest). Papers submitted to this journal must contain original results and must not be submitted elsewhere while being evaluated. If a duplication is found, papers are subject to being rejected for that reason alone. For invited long papers from the ISCRAM 2023 conference, extensive improvements are required for this journal (at least 30% of the contents) and subject to detailed review.

The overall schedule for processing submissions is as follows.

  • Notification of initial acceptance: February 15th, 2024
  • Deadline for revised papers: March 31, 2024
  • Notification of final acceptance: April 30, 2024
  • Tentative publication date:  June 2024

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