DMT-EOC - an integrated approach for training and decision support of EOC members

To minimize loss of life the first three days after an earthquake are the most important and therefore demand the right decisions in a very complex environment. Beside the resulting responsibility and the time pressure members of an emergency operation centres (EOC) have to make their decisions on the base of limited, uncertain and dynamically changing information. A result of the work in the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 461: “Strong Earthquakes: A Challenge for Geosciences and Civil Engineering” is the Disaster Management Tool (DMT). One of its modules, the DMT-EOC, deals with these problems by providing a training environment for table top exercises (EOC-TRAINER) and assistance for EOC members after a real earthquake disaster (EOC-ADVISOR).
A major goal during the conception of the system was the development of a flexible and extendible architecture able to integrate different concepts and programming interfaces. The system provides a simulation to serve as environment for the exercises as well as a background for the evaluation of real decisions. The EOC-ADVISOR additionally combines operation research approaches for an optimal resource allocation with the reviewing of user decision by a rule-based evaluation using a multi-agent system (MAS). ... mehrThe decision support is based on the Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model, an approach to describe the natural decision-making process of persons in the disaster response domain. The paper gives an overview of the models behind the system components and their implementation.