Codifying a crisis: Progressing from information sharing to distributed decision‐making

A key challenge in crisis management is maintaining an adequate information position to support coherent decision‐making between a range of actors. Such distributed decision‐making is often supported by a common operational picture that not only conveys factual information but also attempts to codify a dynamic and vibrant crisis management process. In this paper, we explain why it is so difficult to move from information sharing towards support for distributed decision‐making. We argue that two key processes need to be considered: supporting both the translation of meaning and the transformation of interests between those on the front line and those in the remote response network. Our analysis compares the information‐sharing processes in three large‐scale emergency response operations in the Netherlands. Results indicate that on several occasions the collaborative decision‐making process was hampered because actors limited themselves to factual information exchange. The decision‐making process only succeeds when actors take steps to resolve their varying interpretations and interests. This insight offers important lessons for improving information management doctrines and for supporting distributed decision‐making processes.     

Cooperative situation assessment in a maritime scenario

In large‐scale, complex domains such as space defense and security systems, situation assessment and decision making are evolving from centralized models to high‐level, net‐centric models. In this context, collaboration among the many actors involved in the situation assessment process is critical to achieve a prompt reaction as needed in the operational scenario. In this paper, we propose a multiagent‐based approach to situation assessment, where agents cooperate by sharing local information to reach a common and coherent assessment of situations. Specifically, we characterize situation assessment as a classification process based on OWL ontology reasoning, and we provide a protocol for cooperative multiagent situation assessment, which allows the agents to achieve coherent high‐level conclusions. We validate our approach in a real maritime surveillance scenario, where our prototype system effectively supports the user in detecting and classifying potential threats; moreover, our distributed solution performs comparably to a centralized method, while preserving independence of decision makers and dramatically reducing the amount of communication required. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Real-Time Decision Support for Emergency Management: An Integration of Advanced Computer and Communications Technology

Responses to emergencies are typically based on contingency plans. However, unexpected events can occur during the operation that affect safety and/or effectiveness of the activated response plan. Latest advances in communications and information technology can collect and transfer a large amount of data to the on-scene commander in real-time. The commander can then assess the potential impact of such events and decide if and how to revise the planned course of action to maintain safety and efficiency of the operation. This paper proposes a new paradigm for real-time decision support for emergency response - operational risk management. Emergency response is modelled as a large-scale operational system, including a human-machine real-time controller. The decision model is based on a topological graph structure, where the nodes are decisions and the arcs the activities. The attributes of the activities are expressed as ordinal preference values. The optimal course of action is the sequence of activities with the highest preference for resolving the emergency situation. The implementation of the decision model into a prototype decision support system is discussed.     

Distributed situation awareness in an Airborne Warning and Control System: application of novel ergonomics methodology

This paper applies a distributed theory of situation awareness based upon the analysis of interactions between agents (both human and non-human) in an Airborne Warning and Control System (Boeing E3D Sentry). The basic tenet of this approach is that agents within a system each hold their own component(s) of situation awareness, which may be very different from, but compatible with, other agent’s view of the situation. However, it is argued that it is not always necessary to have complete sharing of this awareness, as different system agents have different purposes. Situation awareness is regarded as a dynamic and collaborative process that binds agents together on tasks on a moment-by-moment basis. Situation awareness is conceptualised as residing at a system, not an individual level. Data were collected from crew-members in theE3D during a series of simulated air battles. These data pertained to task structure, communications between the crew and the collection and analysis of crew actions at critical decision points. All phases of operations were considered. From these data propositional networks were developed in which key knowledge objects were identified. Analysis of these networks clearly shows how the location and nature of distributed situation awareness changes across agents with regard to the phase of operation/air battle.     

基于WebGIS的市级安全生产应急救援 指挥系统的研究与设计

为了满足对安全生产应急救援的指挥和日常应急管理的需求,本文从突发安全生产事件的应急处置流程出 发,结合广州市安全生产信息化建设实际情况,分析设计广州市安全生产应急救援指挥系统的总体架构和软件平台,制定出一 套结合了WebGIS 的应急指挥、监控管理等业务系统的切实可行的系统设计解决方案。     

Security model for emergency real-time communications in autonomous networks

Towards the proliferation of architectures, tools and applications that have the potential to be used during an emergency rescue mission, we present a framework for emergency real-time communication using autonomous networks, called emergency Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (eMANETs). By eMANETs we refer to networks that are deployed in emergency cases where default telecommunications infrastructure has failed. Our goal is to design a security framework that will secure real-time communications during emergency rescue scenarios. The proposed framework consists of a secure routing protocol, intrusion detection provision and security extension for real-time communications using peer-to-peer overlays. We envisage that the results of this work will aid and serve the needs of any society against any event that threatens serious damage to human welfare or to the environment.     

An emergency response decision support system framework for application in e-government

An emergency response decision support system (ERDSS) needs to assist decision makers to evaluate emergency plans and select an appropriate one during an emergency by supporting heterogeneous emergency response data sources and providing decision makers the access to appropriate emergency rescue knowledge. It also needs to provide differentiated services to meet requirements. Whether the system is effective or not depends on the framework it is based on. This study proposes an ERDSS framework that consists of ten functional modules: Emergency Service Helpdesk, Command and Coordination Center, Emergency Plan Management, Emergency Relief Supplies Management, Emergency Finance Budget Management, Emergency Organization and Activity Management, Emergency Knowledge Warehouse, Emergency Alarm Management, and Problem Analysis and Management. A case study is conducted on Shanghai emergency management decision support system, an EMDSS based on this framework and applied currently in Shanghai, China. The study demonstrates that the proposed ERDSS system framework can provide theoretical and practical guidance for designing and developing effective emergency response systems.     

OR challenges and experiences from solving industrial applications

When decision support systems are implemented in practice, a number of special aspects and requirements must often be considered. From an operations research (OR) perspective many of these can be very challenging and/or are counterproductive for the stated objective. They can appear in any part of the optimization process that includes problem formulation, modelling, solution and result evaluation. In this paper, we describe and discuss a number of aspects and requirements in industrial implementations where optimization has been a vital planning or execution tool. We discuss the reasons behind the requirements, the OR challenge, how the requirements were approached and implemented and present results and general experience acquired from these implementations. The applications cover tactical, operational and real‐time applications for several areas including transportation, scheduling, routing, inventory and process control.     

基于虚拟现实的机场消防救援虚拟演练平台

针对机场实地消防应急演练中人力物资消耗多、演练组织协调难,以及桌面式演练中情景感知支持不足等缺陷,提出一种基于虚拟现实技术的机场消防应急救援虚拟演练平台。基于虚拟现实技术的特点,采用三维建模技术构建机场消防救援场景中典型三维实体模型。利用粒子系统实现火灾虚拟场景及应急处置特效,并基于Unity3D引擎实现教员和学员人机交互界面。借助于虚拟现实头盔和手柄支持学员进入虚拟演练场景展开交互。平台测试表明:平台具有良好的易用性、稳定性和实时性,可以支持实现低成本、高沉浸感的机场消防救援虚拟演练。     

A Multicriteria Decision Support System using a Possibility Representation for Managing Inconsistent Assessments of Experts Involved in Emergency Situations

Within an emergency unit, the head manager is required to make difficult decisions based on experts’ assessments of many criteria, including personal injuries, environmental impacts, and economic and media consequences. Uncertainty in this collective assessment is related to the multiplicity of experts’ points of view and imprecise assessments. We are proposing a decision support system derived from a situation‐awareness model, generalized herein to the case of multiple actors. It is able of representing, merging, and aggregating expert assessments. Imprecise criteria assessments are first represented by intervals and then merged in the form of a possibility distribution that keeps track of all the information provided, that is, without any loss of information. Next, a Choquet integral based aggregation is carried out to consider the relative importance of criteria and interactions between criteria in the overall assessment of the foreseeable alternatives to get out of the crisis. Finally, a determination of the contributions of each criterion assessment uncertainty to the overall assessment uncertainty provides useful information to the head manager in controlling the decision deliberation by reducing the inconsistent points in the experts’ assessments. The proposals are applied to the emergency issues resulting from a traffic accident occurring at a grade crossing.     

矿井应急救援指挥通信装置卫星传输音视频的实现

针对矿井事故应急救援过程中临时铺设的救援通信系统缺乏天地井的实时通信功能而导致远程指挥中心不能直接了解井下灾情的问题,提出了一种井下有线语音视频通信系统和地面卫星视频通信系统相结合的矿井应急救援指挥通信装置,重点介绍了该装置中卫星传输音视频功能的实现方案。经过联机测试,该装置组网稳定、通信距离长、抗灾能力较强,解决了应急救援指挥中的天地井互联实时通信这一难题。     

信息不完全下极端气象灾害态势感知建模优化

极端气象灾害事件态势演化问题是应急决策者关心的首要问题,因为它是制定应急处置与救援措施的前提和依据.鉴于整个极端气象灾害的态势演化过程类似于一个隐马尔可夫状态转移过程,为此首先设计了极端气象灾害事件态势演化框架模型,在此基础上构建基于隐马尔可夫状态转移的极端气象灾害态势感知模型及其求解算法,实现对极端气象灾害的态势进行...     

民航机场应急救援大数据处理平台架构研究

安全是民航领域的第一准则,随着新一代信息技术和机场行业的发展,机场运行产生的业务数据呈爆炸性增长,论文依托大数据存储和处理技术,构建机场应急救援大数据处理平台,能更有效支撑现场指挥,智能决策,遇案推演,趋势预测,舆情监控等各项救援行动需求.通过结合目前国内外民航机场应急救援领域大数据技术的应用现状,梳理机场应急救援需求...     

Dynamic LTE resource reservation for critical M2M deployments

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are envisioned to be major contenders for long term evolution (LTE) cellular resources in the time of fifth generation (5G) wireless communications and beyond. They will be used for a variety of applications on which users will rely for managing many aspects of their daily life. One of the promising fields in which M2M communications can play a major role is the field of emergency services. In such situations, it is crucial to ensure the reliable allocation of communication resources to M2M communications to ensure the right decisions and actions are taken in a timely manner. One of the techniques that could be used to ensure sustained and reliable resource allocation is to use an LTE-based virtual resource-slicing scheme. This scheme ensures a dynamic and an uninterrupted allocation of the resources dedicated to M2M communications in such a way that accommodates the changing needs of the emergency operations. In this paper, we introduce two schemes to allocate LTE resources to M2M emergency deployments in an adaptive manner. These schemes ensure that the resource allocation responds to the changing needs of the underlying emergency application. The adaptation period is also varied in response to the speed of change of the allocation requirements. This is done to ensure that the devices involved in critical missions are not competing for resources with the rest of network clients. We conduct several experiments to assess the success of the proposed schemes in responding to the needs of emergency M2M deployments.     

Modelling situation awareness for Context-aware Decision Support

Situation awareness modelling is popularly used in the command and control domain for situation assessment and decision support. However, situation models in real-world applications are typically complex and not easy to use. This paper presents a Context-aware Decision Support (CaDS) system, which consists of a situation model for shared situation awareness modelling and a group of entity agents, one for each individual user, for focused and customized decision support. By incorporating a rule-based inference engine, the entity agents provide functions including event classification, action recommendation, and proactive decision making. The implementation and the performance of the proposed system are demonstrated through a case study on a simulated command and control application.     

Computer simulations vs. building guidance to enhance evacuation performance of buildings during emergency events

Computer technologies can play an important role in the establishment of dynamic building information by introducing predictive modelling where behaviours of structures or groups of people can be simulated and observed. This way they can facilitate the design of the built environment to cope with emergency events. Modelling and simulation applications can be particularly useful at pre-planning, predicting possible damage, training responders, raising public awareness, and performance evaluation for reconstruction. They can be used for the development of virtual scenarios that include aspects of rescue operations, social behaviour of building occupants, and basic design requirements to test the current building codes and regulations. Within this context, the contribution of crowd simulation to improving the design of the built environment and guidelines is highlighted in this paper. Current building guidance for emergencies are summarised and the methodology developed to use crowd modelling to define design information associated with exit preferences of people during evacuations is explained. The results of the case studies underlined that there is a difference between the assumptions used for static information in current building guidance.     

一种便携式消防救援通信箱系统的设计

在消防应急救援过程中,各种语音通信网络一般各自组网难以实现跨网通信,同时对应急现场和指挥中心的无线视频通信提出需求。结合COFDM无线视频通信技术和网络视频通信技术,利用IP交换机连接无线微波传输模块、异种网络语音互连通讯模块、网络视频传输模块,并放置在一个便携式箱体中,实现了异种网络语音互连以及无线远距离视频通信功能,保障了消防救援现场和指挥中心的音视频通信。     

Emergency decision making with extended axiomatic design approach under picture fuzzy environment

Timely and effective emergency decision making (EDM) is the key to control the spread of disasters and reduce the casualties and property losses caused by emergencies. However, due to limited time and insufficient data, it is difficult for decision makers to provide accurate information about emergency incidents. Moreover, the EDM problems become complicated and unstructured requiring the deployment of advanced mathematical techniques to derive the most acceptable response. In this paper, we propose a new EDM approach by using picture fuzzy sets and axiomatic design technique for determining the optimal rescue plan to reduce the damages of emergencies. The contribution of this paper is to apply the picture fuzzy sets to handle the uncertainty and ambiguity of decision makers' assessments on emergency alternatives, apply the picture fuzzy hybrid averaging operator to aggregate decision makers' opinions into a group evaluation matrix and extend the axiomatic design technique to identify the best emergency solution for EDM. Finally, a real example is provided, and the result is compared with existing methods to demonstrate the feasibility and practicability of our proposed EDM approach.     

The effect of reasoning logics on real-time decision making

The advent of satellite tracking and communications technology has motivated organizations to investigate centralized real-time support for remote and mobile units and operations. Transportation companies have begun to use satellite tracking systems, production and energy plants are employing intelligent monitoring systems, and on-site emergency managers are being supported by headquarters in their assessment and decision making process. Although different reasoning logics have been proposed for real-time decision making, little attention has been given to the comparative assessment of these approaches. This paper presents empirical evidence on the impact of alternative reasoning logics on individual decision making in real-time. Following the definition of the decision tasks for hazardous operations, commonly used reasoning logics are discussed. Then, results of an empirical comparison of different reasoning approaches are presented. The data were gathered during an experiment with experienced operators. The conclusions of this research are that the selection of the appropriate reasoning logic in support of real-time decision making is crucial