Immediately following a natural disaster requiring Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR), a myriad of organizations respond. Typically, these early responders send small assessment teams to determine critical needs, which are then paired with the resources available. The needs can range from basic subsistence (food, shelter, and water) to transportation and infrastructure, yet the paramount factor among each team is the need to communicate. To assist in this effort, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) assessment team using standardized tactics, techniques, procedures and training to maximize effectivenessand comprised of members from multiple organizationscould provide a shared prospective among member groups that could ultimately produce a more objective and complete communications assessment. This in turn, could be transmitted immediately to the global response community via appropriate information sharing portals. As no such model exists at present, our research attempts to pioneer and explore this concept and capability by exploring and providing an outline of an ICT assessment team model. In this thesis, we examine its potential structure, methodologies, and equipment, as well as discuss prospective funding sources, and include in the appendices, checklists derived from our findings, thus improving and hastening early responders understanding of a disasters communications situation.
http://archive.org/details/informationndcom109456768
Lieutenant, United States Navy