Managing of Traffic Incidents via Customized IMS in the UAEs Interior Ministry - Research Proposal Example

Name: Subject: Professor: Date: Table of Contents Chapter 1 3 Introduction 3 Literature review 4 Chapter 2 8 Statement of the problem 8 Justification (importance) 9 Objective 11 Chapter 3 11 Methodology 11 Ethical considerations 12 Chapter 4 12 Comparative implications 12 Conclusion 13 Appendix 14 Works Cited 14 Study plan 15 Managing of Traffic Incidents via Customized IMS in UAE’s Interior Ministry Chapter 1 Introduction Accidents resulting from traffic mishaps cause adverse effects on the society’s socio-economic and environmental framework. For instance, recent statistics presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that injuries resulting from traffic incidents account to 90% of the deaths recorded annually in developing countries. It makes road traffic injuries the world’s eighth principal cause of humanity’s demise. Moreover, prospects predict an increase in the percentage of the accidents in the near future, unless developing countries take strategic counteractive measures. Recent innovative studies via Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) prove the suitability, efficiency and effectiveness of Incident Management Systems (IMS) in road accidents, specifically by enhancing the management and coordination of police rescue undertakings (Yang, Yang and Plotnick 1854). Unfortunately, the developed countries are the singular benefactors of the IMS. In other words, the developing countries are yet to adopt such systems. If developing countries adopt IMS that befits there context, they stand a high chance of preventing disasters such as alienating road injuries and saving countless lives. However, there are ongoing debates that raise concerns over the adaptability and applicability of IMS in developing countries. It is because; the effectiveness of IMS relies on a complex socio-economic and technological advancement of that particular country, which is absent or poorly, developed in developing countries (Faouzi, Werghi and Al Blushi 57). This research proposal seeks to present a justification for the adoption of a customized IMS in by the interior ministry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via a case study assessment on the socio-economic and technical capabilities of the internal framework of the country to deal with rising cases of road accidents. Literature review Recent research findings show that there is a high rate of traffic related causalities and fatalities in UAE and neighbouring Persian Gulf states in comparison to other developing and developed countries. The adverse effects of road accidents are far reaching, such that the countries’ expenditure in curbing the injuries takes an estimated amount of 100 billion US dollars, which exceeds by the double the annual international aid awarded to the particular developing countries. Unfortunately, it is clear that as developed countries reduce the rate of road injuries, the situation is vice versa in developing countries. In this regard, the UAE’s annual police report shows a 6% higher margin of traffic accident fatalities compared to western countries (El-Sadig, et al. 475). It recently emerged that traffic-based injuries account to high numbers of death in UAE second only to heart diseases. The UAE ministry of interior released statistics that showed a constant escalation of traffic-related injuries over the past decade with a 16.8% average increment margin every year. It amounts to a traffic-associated injury after every 2 hours and traffic-related death after every 15 hours. The public uproar on the increased incidents of traffic accidents forced the government to put in several safety measures. Some of the notable measures include harnessing the media coverage to create public awareness on significance of road safety, adopting and implementing tough traffic legislations, increasing penalties on offences resulting from violation of traffic rules, and an increase of inspection protocols by the UAE police, among other stringent measures. Moreover, recent studies suggest an incorporation of IMS testing by various police departments in traffic emergencies to streamline communication process and optimize response actions. When road accidents occur, the promptness of accessing the specific agency or rather specific information plays a crucial part in the success-ability of the rescue mission. As such, IMS represents a technological breakthrough that coordinates the communication between the Command and Control Centre (CCR) and the Response Patrol Units (RPUs) on a real-time basis characterized with zero-margin error of communication. Other benefits of IMS include facilitation of inter-agency and inter-departmental communication, allowance of post-accident statistical analysis, and optimization of the decision making process. However, for UAE to benefit from the IMS, it needs to assess its socio-economic and technical capabilities. The assessments of the capabilities correspond directly to the analysis of the appropriateness, sustainability, management change and customization of IMS in UAE. In the context of appropriateness, different sources show that IMS traffic remedies design and development coincides to the framework contexts of developed countries. However, there is a variance in budget priorities and incident management strategies between the developed countries and the developing ones. As such, it is inappropriate to assume that it is possible to incorporate, for example, US’s traffic IMS in UAE’s internal ministry structure. Appropriateness, therefore, refers to a characteristic that confers a remedy customized to that particular context. The context involves a wide scope of factors such as environmental, institutional, linguistic, economic, technical, social and cultural factors (Yang, Yang and Plotnick 1864). It calls upon developing countries to take into consideration the degree that each factor influences the application of IMS. Moreover, the influence of each factor varies from one region to another; therefore, systems designed for urbanized areas such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not practically applicable in less urbanized areas such as RAK and Fujairah. At the same time, appropriateness encompasses the development designs of IMS for either developed or less developed countries that rely on the simplest form of technology available to fulfil the intended traffic purpose. On the other hand, sustainability embodies the alertness, detection and management of threats that negatively influence the long-term applicability of IMS. The threats vary in such a way that some involve financial and technical risks, while others involve hindrances associated with interests, capabilities and public safety institutions. Research shows that applicability of IMS in many developing countries fails due to the fact that the governments of the particular countries do not anticipate the sustenance costs to surpass the original budgeted cost. Therefore, the complex sustainability process of IMS goes beyond acquiring new methodologies of collection and interpretation of data by end-user to coordinating police rescue missions (Faouzi, Werghi and Al Blushi 63). The process needs to fit the socio-technical context of the specific organization, whereby, management takes care of both the available technology and the immediate surrounding people. Similarly, IMS implementation requires substantial coverage of knowledge such as technical knowledge, business knowledge, project knowledge, and IMS creation-based knowledge. The initial experiments concerning the applicability of IMS in UAE failed when it came to sustainability of the systems thereby prompting the police department to resort to alternative measures and solutions of controlling traffic as discussed earlier in the text. In other words, the IMS remedies did not solve the intended problems or streamline the workability of the CCR thereby making the new IMS communication process meaningless to the end-users. It propelled the end-users to question the viability of the system in the traffic rescue operation, because the end-user needed to press several buttons via a particular protocol to complete one transaction. As such, the end-users portrayed a reluctant approach in embracing the new system, due to the complexity of the system over time (Mohamed, et al. 533). That explains why the initial trails on applicability of IMS in UAE did not succeed. Therefore, it emerged unsustainable on long-term basis as rescue units struggled to conform to the new systems. Additionally, the end-users lacked professional skills and motivation to manage and maintain the system on a long-term basis. Even if the internal ministry outsources experienced professionals in early stages of implementing the system, the aspect of sustainability still remains a questionable engagement to the capabilities of UAE. In the scope of management change, the IMS implementation in developing countries requires introduction of new institutional practices. In fact, several failures of IMS result from over-concentration on end-user strategies that allows the adoption of the new system to align with the ongoing expectations of resolving traffic problems even when various discrepancies mar the strategies. Furthermore, the adoption of appropriate IMS in UAE does not mean implementation of systems that befit low levels of IT skills and knowledge of end-users (Yang, Yang and Plotnick 1867). Therefore, it is clear that the implementation of IMS requires adoption of new institutional practices that are compatible with the new system and end-users, but offers an additional advantage of reliability over the initial practices. The developing countries, therefore, require institutional changes to cope with the new IMS approaches that surpass the localized approaches of traffic safety management. However, specific agencies need to assess the management changes masterminded by the introduction of new IMS strategies to ensure that they do not accentuate the threats of implementing the systems. It is because; statistics show that many of IMS adoptions failed in developing countries due to the differences arising in IMS concepts of management design and the existing organizational management realities. Some of the projects that failed include South Africa’s health IMS initiative, Thailand’s project of computerizing tax collection and Mexico’s initiative of automating the general hospital’s library. Lastly, in the context of customization, adaptation plays an important role in appropriateness and sustainability of IMS in any developing country. Whereby, many designs of IMS conform to the characteristics of large metropolitan cities in developed countries with the ideology that the system befits all cities in all countries in the world. However, that is not the case, in this regard, cities differ in terms of socio-technical and economic characteristics. Many cities in under developed countries lack reliable ICT and financial capabilities to adopt and sustain the IMS strategies, especially the ones imported directly from developed countries. Moreover, the attempts of tailoring the systems to befit the socio-technical context of the developing countries sometimes results in high purchase and operational costs, which prompts the current ignorance to implement such systems in developing countries (Faouzi, Werghi and Al Blushi 65). The only alternative to customization hindrances is to conduct a feasibility studies on IMS adaptability before implementing the fully customized system in UAE. In a nutshell, previous studies document customization, sustainability, appropriateness, and management change as aspects that influence adoption and implementation of IMS in UAE, however, the benefits of IMS to the internal ministry in responding to traffic rescue missions calls for a complete case study to assess the adaptability of IMS in UAE. Chapter 2 Statement of the problem Currently, the process of reporting incidents in UAE starts when a person dials a 999 call to the CCR. The CCR call respondent takes the person’s call and records the incident’s details in notebook manually. The correspondent conveys the recorded details to the available dispatcher. In case the dispatcher is absent, the correspondent acts as a dispatcher. In other words, whichever the case, the process allows broadcasting of the incident’s details to reach the emergency rescue units via analogue wireless gadgets. If the emergency rescue units near the incident’s scene are unavailable to respond, the correspondent needs to call the police station that is near the incident’s scene. At the police station, the policeman on duty records the incident’s details and dispatches an emergency unit to the scene. The conveyance of the dispatch message occurs via the phone. After the dispatch unit clears the area of incident, it reports back to the policeman on duty or the correspondent at CCR, whichever the case to signify the completion of the task. It is evident that the process suffers from many limitations that directly affect risks and disaster management. For instance, the process lacks a central database of detailing the response information; it requires intensive labour due to massive paper work; it consumes a lot of time; it is vulnerable to human-introduced errors; it lacks streamline coordination between involved individuals; it does not pinpoint the availability or the location of the emergency patrol units and finally, it does not optimize the process of decision making. Therefore, there is need to conduct a case study to provide an adaptability approach of IMS in UAE to curb the current problems experienced in responding to traffic incidents. Justification (importance) The computer-based IMS’s design befits its intended purpose, whereby, it allows real-time collection of data and streamlines a collaborative communication approach between various concerned parties such as incident reporter and CCR correspondents, the CCR correspondents and the dispatcher, and emergency response units and the dispatcher. To accomplish such capabilities the design of IMS envisages various technological advancements. Moreover, there is a possibility of tailoring the systems to match with UAE’s social-technical and financial context. The tailored systems are far much effective and efficient compared to the off-the-shelf systems that do not conform to the socio-technical and financial capabilities of UAE or hiring experienced professionals from developed countries in the initial implementation of the systems. Also, off-the-shelf systems are not only expensive, because the designers produce them for large metropolitan capitals, they do fit in the status quo of cities in developing countries and contain complex incident management approaches that surpass the capabilities of UAE’s internal ministry. It is important to note that so far, there is no IMS design that befits underdeveloped areas such as small cities and towns. As such, there is no previous study that documents a case study intended to decipher the applicability of IMS in developing countries. What makes off-the-shelf IMS adoption in developing countries difficult is the fact that the small cities vary also in their socio-technical contexts. It means that a system designed for one particular small city does not directly mean that it is applicable in other small cities. Therefore, customization of IMS is city-specific, whereby, the IMS experts design systems for a particular city like Abu Dhabi based on its socio-technical and financial capability. The city-specific customization of IMS represents a technological breakthrough that will coordinate the communication between the Command and Control Centre (CCR) and the Response Patrol Units (RPUs) on a real-time basis characterized with zero-margin error of communication. Other benefits of IMS will include facilitation of inter-agency and inter-departmental communication, allowance of post-accident statistical analysis, and optimization of the decision making process. Objective The case study’s main objective is to justify the applicability of customized IMS in UAE’s internal ministry by focusing on alienation of traffic accidents. Whereby, the adoption of a customized IMS in UAE is possible via a case study assessment on the socio-economic and technical capabilities of the internal police framework of the country. Chapter 3 Methodology The case study will rely on two sources of data, in this aspect, primary and secondary sources. As such, primary sources will entail interview-based questionnaires. The secondary sources such as scholarly journals and books will play a vital role in presenting the fundamental theoretical and practical background of the case study in UAE’s internal ministry. Additionally, the case study will analyze various documentations related to the initial experimentation of IMS in traffic response missions. Finally, the study will analyze relevant institutional reports concerning the organizational management and sustainability of the IMS in UAE. Such analysis will aid in answering the initial question of the case study. Alternatively, it will allow a comparison concerning the applicability of IMS between UAE and US. The collection of primary data will involve the use of open-ended questionnaires. The open-ended questionnaires will allow the interviewees to give detailed information of previous experience with IMS and provide professional opinion on how to customize the IMS to befit the socio-technical and financial context of UAE. On the other hand, the collection of secondary data will involve the use of libraries and trusted online archives, among other sources. The study will use archived police reports on traffic incidents and mechanisms of response to identify the appropriate strategy of adopting and sustaining IMS in UAE. The analysis of the collected data will involve the use of theoretical, normative and statistics models highlighted earlier in the case study. The case study will present the analyzed data in the study’s main column to show unbiased analytical procedure of the collected data. As such, the analysis of primary data will use comparative figures such as tables and graphs. Thereafter, the study will use the analyzed information in discussing the initial objectives of the case study. Ethical considerations Similarly to all literary works, the study will conform to the protocols of case study research. In this regard, the study will not only authenticate the researcher’s hard work, but also provide credible evidence to prevent the researcher from facing legal jurisdictions that may arise from plagiarism. Chapter 4 Comparative implications For a country that uses IMS like the US, when a traffic-based incident happens, a person present at the scene of incident dials 911 to report the details of the incident to the CCR. The GIS-based application at the CCR captures the person’s phone number via a serial port reading class (Faouzi, Werghi and Al Blushi 168). Thereafter, the application retrieves the person’s information by conveying the number to the RDBMS. As a result, the application pinpoints the exact location of the incident by use of the information retrieved from the person. The CCR call-taker records the incidents details in line with reported information. The details include the type of incident, the traffic incident location, the number of people involved, and the severity of the damages, among other details. The recording of the information automatically triggers the Decision Support System (DSS) application on the computer. Whereby, the DSS provides response details that automatically trigger the GIS-based correspondent software application. Consequentially, the correspondent alerts the available emergency unit that is near the scene of the traffic incident. The correspondent uses text messages to alert the emergency unit via a GSM-connected mobile phone system. This means that the mobile phone system connects directly to the CCR applications and the emergency units’ laptop which in turn allows automatic update of the incident’s location and other related details (Faouzi, Werghi and Al Blushi 184). The IMS processes occur in a sequential manner thereby preventing any mishaps. After the emergency police unit completes the mission it notifies the CCR on all details via a text message accompanied with the mission’s report. The CCR reviews the report and closes the case when satisfied on the actions implemented by the police emergency units. It calls upon the police departments of developing countries such as UAE to take into considerations the findings of the case study to customize IMS that replicates the functions of IMS in US. It is because; the US is one of the developed countries while UAE is one of the developing countries. They vary in terms of economic, social, cultural and technological advancements. Therefore, the customized IMS needs to befit the context of UAE’s socio-technical and financial capabilities to ensure IMS’s appropriateness, sustainability and management change. Conclusion The IMS built for large metropolitan cities like New York in the US are complex, because they befit needs of the particular context. Recently, with the high rate of globalizations, many developing countries acquire such systems and tend to customize them to fit their localized needs. It is, however, reported that there are major failures with the customization of the off-the-shelf systems particularly on the basis of appropriateness and sustainability. Alternatively, there are many benefits that accompany the adoption of IMS in UAE, particularly in the internal ministry’s approach of dealing with risk and disaster management. Whereby, due to the increase rate of traffic accidents it is important for the UAE’s police department to adopt IMS not only to streamline the emergency response missions, but also to act provide a system that props the existing measures put in place to prevent traffic accidents. As observed in the discussion, the IMS represents a technological breakthrough that coordinates the communication between the Command and Control Center (CCR) and the Response Patrol Units (RPUs) on a real-time basis characterized with zero-margin error of communication; it facilitates inter-agency and inter-departmental communication; allows post-accident statistical analysis, and optimizes the decision making process. Therefore, it is important to conduct the proposed case study to justify the applicability of IMS in UAE’s police rescue missions by focusing on the city-specific customization of the system that fulfils the needs of UAE’s internal ministry and conforms to the country’s socio-technical and financial contexts. Appendix Works Cited El-Sadig, Mohammed, et al. "Road traffic accidents in the United Arab Emirates: trends of morbidity and mortality during 1977–1998." Accident Analysis & Prevention 34.4 (2002): 465-476. Kamoun, Faouzi, Naoufel Werghi, and Mohammed Al Blushi. "GENIMS–a user-centric and GIS-enabled incident management system." International Journal of Information and Communication Technology 2.3 (2010): 167-185. Kamoun, Faouzi, Naoufel Werghi, and Mohammed Al Blushi. "On the Appropriateness of Incident Management Systems in Developing Countries: A Case from the UAE." Journal of technology management & innovation 5.4 (2010): 57-69. Saad, Mohamed, et al. "Towards a conceptual framework for early warning information systems (EWIS) for crisis preparedness." Advances in Information Systems and Technologies. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013. 523-534. Yang, L., S. H. Yang, and L. Plotnick. "How the internet of things technology enhances emergency response operations." Technological Forecasting and Social Change 80.9 (2013): 1854-1867. Study plan First Quarter of 2015 Second Quarter of 2915 and Third Quarter of 2015 Fourth Quarter of 2015 Conduct extensive literature review concerning the background of IMS applicability Develop statement of the problem and justification of the study Develop a justification of the study Enlist the necessary objectives Identify the importance of the study Formulate the study’s methodology Conduct the study, which will involve collection of primary and secondary data Analyze and discuss the results of the study Present the findings to the internal ministry of UAE and recommend the implementation of the findings Follow up the progress of implementation and identify any areas that needs further research for clarification Read More