A DESIGN LANGUAGE FOR EOC FACILITIES

Some thoughts by Art Botterell


Ideally the physical layout of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) should reflect the organizational processes the EOC is meant to support. Over the years a few common layout approaches... paradigms, if you will... have emerged from thousands of real-world experiments. These suggest a basic design language that can facilitate discussions about EOC design.

In practice, of course, EOC design is informed by many less idealistic constraints and concerns. The size and shape of available space and the requirements of other, non-emergency uses of the same facility can have a strong influence on EOC layout. So can the layout of other agencies' EOCs that senior officials admire.

Even so, most EOC layouts can be described in terms of a few basic models, each of which has unique implications for the organizational dynamics it supports. These basic layouts are combined and hybridized to yield almost all real-world EOC floorplans.


BASIC DESIGN APPROACHES

Five basic EOC layout approaches are the Boardroom, Mission Control, Marketplace, Bull's-Eye and Virtual models:


BOARDROOM - As the name suggests, this layout gathers EOC staff around a single table or a horseshoe- or oval-shaped assembly of tables. The players are seated facing inward.

Symbolically and practically, this layout emphasizes interaction and collaboration, especially if the group remains small (typically a dozen or less.) The natural locus of control is at the end of the table, and as the group size increases the role of the chairperson becomes increasingly dominant.

The main visual displays, if any, are usually at one end of the table, either behind the chairperson's seat (to reinforce the chair's pronouncements) or at the opposite end of the table (to brief the chairperson.) It's not uncommon for walls all around the room to be lined with additional visual displays, but these aren't easily viewed by all players and tend to have limited impact.

Additional staff generally sit in chairs along the walls, forming a outer ring facing inward toward the table. (In expanded form this evolves into the Bull's-Eye layout, about which more below.) Observers may be seated in rows of chairs beyond the end of the table opposite the visual displays.

Most very small EOCs and the Policy workrooms of larger ones adopt the Boardroom layout. The Emergency Information and Coordination Center at FEMA Headquarters (basically, the Director's emergency meeting room) is an excellent example of a sophisticated Boardroom setup.


MISSION CONTROL - Modeled on technology-based command-and-control centers (military centers, missile launch control rooms, network control centers, etc.), this model seats the players in rows, side-by-side, facing toward a wall of large visual displays. The rows may be linear, or they may curve either inward or outward. (The direction of the curve might seem to suggest greater or lesser degrees of inter-personal collaboration, but as a practical matter the technical arrangements... computer monitors or consoles in front of the players' seats, for example... tend to mitigate against that sort of interaction anyway.)

This layout "mediates" the interactions of the EOC staff through a technological "knowledge-base" represented by the large visual displays in front. Technology dominates the process. In such layouts its not uncommon to see people seated only a few feet apart communicating by telephone, intercom or even e-mail rather than face-to-face.

(Remove the technology and Mission Control becomes the familiar Lecture Hall layout. Viewed this way the strong locus of control at the front of the room and the de-emphasis of direct interaction among the staff become more obvious. The Mission Control model simply replaces the human instructor / lecturer with technical displays.)

Where the task is basically technical this layout can make a great deal of sense, but if the underlying technical knowledge-base isn't complete or current, the quality of the EOC's work can suffer. It's not unusual for players to abandon their positions in a Mission Control EOC during crises to reconvene in separate "break-out rooms," usually laid out as Boardrooms, for face-to-face problem-solving.

Despite these drawbacks the Mission Control model has become very popular, at least partly because it looks great in TV news coverage. Also, contrary to the common mental image of an EOC as a constant bustle of activity, one of the chief activities in any EOC is sitting-and-watching ("monitoring," if you like), and the Misson Control layout is comfortable for that purpose. As a result, however, the risk of EOC processes becoming driven by news coverage or whatever else occupies the "big board" displays may be greater with this layout than others.

Examples of the Mission Control model include the main rooms of the Los Angeles County EOC and the new California Office of Emergency Services facility (although in both cases the design has been hybridized somewhat with a small Boardroom setup at the front of the room.) The California Independent System Operator (ISO) facility in Folsom is basically a hybrid of the Mission Control and Marketplace (see below) layouts.


MARKETPLACE - The marketplace model is basically a collection of small Boardroom-style tables scattered across a large space. Each table has a specialized function, and coordination is accomplished by communicating (frequently by getting up and walking) between tables.

This model emphasizes close collaboration among the specialists at each table with a relatively unstructured and flexible interaction between specialties. It maintains a relatively high level of autonomy for each specialty, while emphasizing "management by walking around" for top decision makers.

The "ERT-A" center at FEMA Headquarters in Washington is laid out on the Marketplace model. So are the Emergency Support Function areas in most FEMA Disaster Field Offices. As mentioned above the California ISO control room in Folsom is a Marketplace-style scatter of consoles, each specializing in a particular function, but all oriented toward a Mission Control-style display wall.


BULL'S-EYE - The Bull's-Eye model elaborates the Boardroom design with more extensive staff support at tables laid out in an approximation of concentric circles around the main table. Each staff section is seated behind their representatives at the main table.

This model emphasizes the standing of each of the main-table players as representatives of large organizations, an element of which can be seen in the background behind each player. Consultation with staff is facilitated and the amount of staff support to the decisionmakers is increased. This can, of course, reduce the actual interactivity of the work at the main table.

The Bull's-Eye model takes a lot of floorspace and I can't think of a pure real-world example in emergency management, although elements of the Bull's-Eye design are frequently hybridized into other layouts. Think of the UN Security Council chambers for an idea of what a pure Bull's-Eye layout might look like.


VIRTUAL - The Virtual model augments physical collocation with telephone, computer and video conferencing by players who may be participating in the emergency management process from remote locations (frequently, from their day-to-day offices.)

Virtual arrangements are hardly ever considered a complete alternative to some sort of physical EOC, but as a supplement they offer several potential advantages:

Challenges include:

Nonetheless, practical and economic pressures will probably lead to growing reliance on virtual tools to augment and extend EOC processes. For example, during hurricane "runups" senior staff at FEMA Headquarters in Washington and the National Hurricane Center in Florida frequently use videoconferencing to "splice" their Boardroom tables across the intervening miles.


CONCLUSION

Each EOC is unique, reflecting local constraints, priorities and traditions. Still, a design language for EOCs can facilitate discussion and help illuminate trade-offs in composing effective and appropriate solutions to specific EOC requirements.


ADDENDUM

Another common pattern isn't really a design, but a familiar phenomenon:

SARDINES - In this pattern any attempt at deliberate design has collapsed under urgent pressure to fit too many people into too little space. Tables and chairs are arranged for maximum density and a bare minimum level of personal safety. Specific layout stems mainly from the shape of the space and the furniture and the available wiring for power and telephones. Seating patterns are assigned first-come, first served, with subsequent adjustments for individual status and/or convenience. Subsequent adjustments in seating are negotiated ad-hoc; the resulting patterns can be quite revealing of the informal organizational structures within the EOC.

A Sardine EOC quickly develops a rich legacy of expedient cabling, document storage and user habits. Once established, the Sardine pattern is hard to adjust incrementally toward a more deliberate design. Although the number of people may be reduced, rearranging the space while it's in use still can be very difficult. Usually the easiest approach is to relocate entirely out of the Sardine workspace and then rebuild it from scratch.



(Copyright Art Botterell 2001, 2002)
Updated 1/23/2002 0810 PST