Non-military participation key to effective disaster response.

• Author: Wells, II, Linton
• Position: VIEWPOINT

The Defense Department is becoming more heavily engaged in missions such as post-war reconstruction, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

But the Pentagon usually is not the agency in charge of these missions. It supports the Department of Homeland Security domestically and the State Department overseas. Most contingencies, however, tend to rely on military equipment because it is functional, rapidly deployable and operated by trained personnel.

This approach has a downside, since military equipment is expensive, usually is committed to other operations and must be returned at the end of the mission.

Under a program called TIDES (transportable infrastructures for development and emergency support), the Defense Department is trying to understand how to better support populations in stressed environments. TIDES is part of a broader concept, known as STAR (sustainable technologies, accelerated research). The website is www.star-tides.net.

The project emphasizes information sharing and low-cost, transportable infrastructures--shelters, generators and other essential equipment--that can quickly be deployed during emergencies.

STAR-TIDES began as a collaboration among the American Red Cross, Johns Hopkins University, the office of the secretary of defense, the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, the Marine Corps, San Diego State University, and others. It is not a Pentagon-centric effort.

The National Defense University's center for technology and national security policy sponsored a series of TIDES demonstrations during the past year.

The demonstrations focused on seven infrastructures--shelter, water, power, integrated cooking (combustion, solar, retained heat), heating/lighting/cooling, sanitation, and communications technologies. It is important to note that STAR-TIDES does not give assistance directly to stressed populations. It provides information to those in charge of the operation.

The first phase of the program began in mid-October 2007, on a cold, dark field with no power, communications or water. Portable commercial 3 kVA generators were assembled. Subject matter experts from remote sites used teleconferencing to help solve urgent problems. Inexperienced work crews erected seven shelters of four different types--none of which took more than three hours to erect. The cost of the shelters ranged from $200 to about $2,500.

Solar panels and generators rapidly recharged AA batteries for low power personal cooling and...