Designing a diving operations crisis management model with a digital governance and smart technologies approach

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to design a diving operations crisis management model with a digital governance and smart technologies approach. Given the high-risk nature of diving operations and the decisive role of data, institutional coordination, and technological capabilities in prevention and response, this study was conducted with an exploratory qualitative approach and thematic analysis (Glazer et al., 2011). The research community included academic and executive experts related to crisis management, digital governance/smart city, maritime operations safety, and diving operations operators. Sampling was purposeful and continued until theoretical saturation was achieved, and finally, data from 19 semi-structured interviews were analyzed. In order to increase reliability, member review, expert review, and agreement between coders were used. The findings showed that the diving operations crisis management model can be explained in the form of four overarching themes: operational level, management level, governance level, and technology level. At the operational level, team readiness, competency assessment, equipment management, and environmental monitoring were identified as risk reduction factors. At the management level, the formation of the chain of command, the operations control center, the recording and analysis of mission data, and educational empowerment played a central role. At the governance level, standardization, digital regulation, data governance, protection of sensitive information, and inter-agency collaboration were extracted as the foundations of accountability and institutional learning. At the technology level, sustainable communication infrastructure, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, management dashboards, and digital twins were proposed as enablers of predictive decision-making and rapid response. The research results provide an integrated data-driven framework that can improve the resilience and safety of diving operations by transforming data into decisions and creating institutional coordination.