Response Analysis refers to the analysis of mitigation plans for emergency

Emergency

An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative...

 or disaster

Disaster

A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...

 situations. These emergencies or disasters may be naturally occurring (e.g. hurricanes, earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

s, disease

Disease

A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

 outbreaks, etc.) or man-made (e.g. terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, bio-terrorism, industrial accidents, chemical spills, etc.). Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the following Anthrax

Anthrax

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...

 bio-terror attacks, and the disasters precipitated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, emphasis has been put on the development of mitigation plans to prepare for such situations. The field of response analysis is the effort to analyze, validate, and optimize these mitigation plans using quantitative data and computational tools.

Biological Emergencies

The Cities Readiness Initiative established a mandate for local governments to develop mitigation plans in advance of biological emergencies and implement such plans during these emergencies. The Strategic National Stockpile

Strategic National Stockpile

The Strategic National Stockpile is the United States' national repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins and other critical medical equipment and supplies...

 was established to support local governments by providing large quantities of needed medications or vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

s rapidly. Development of computational tools to analyze and optimize biological emergencies are currently under development at the University of North Texas Center for Computational Epidemiology and Response Analysis.