Scenario 4 - Optimising emergency response

by Dmitrii Trutnev, St.Petersburg National Research University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics, Russian Federation; Tomasz Janowski, United Nations University - International Institute Software Technology, Macao

Natural or man-made disasters (flooding, fire, earthquakes, storms, acts of terrorism, industrial accidents, etc.) take place particularly in densely-populated urban areas, affecting large numbers of people in need of timely and organised response from emergency services (police, fire department, medical services, search and rescue, coastguard, etc.) and local authorities.

In the situation of emergency, affected populations, members of emergency services and local authorities have difficulties to properly assess the situation and to react promptly and adequately to it, thus decreasing the effectiveness of the response and recovery efforts and failing to reduce the impact on the affected population.

The new solution supports actors and stakeholders to cope with such disaster cases as follows:

  • Any citizen with a mobile phone is a potential source of valuable information to inform emergency response efforts including information about the person's whereabouts, and the recipient of the personalised instructions to aid in rescue and evacuation efforts.
  • Emergency personnel is a source of information about performance of emergency relief efforts, and recipients of instructions about optimal performance of their operations.
  • Local authorities receive and process information from affected citizens, emergency personnel and other sources, and use such information to coordinate the response and recover efforts.

The new solution supports in two situations:

Training based on insights from simulations of potential disaster situations: Early modelling of possible situations of emergency is based on mathematical models of the environment. Expected behaviour of affected population and previous experiences in similar situations are included in such approximations. Simulations are performed in order to collect data and develop, validate and disseminate instructions for citizens and emergency personnel to recommend specific behaviour in emergency situations in order to minimise the adverse impact of such situations.

Coping with disaster situations to prevent damages and harm: Reaction to the situation of emergency is based on instantiating in real time the model to the location and circumstances of the actual emergency. The execution of the model helps to calculate the optimal evacuation (for affected population) and response (for emergency personnel) routes in this situation. It also supports in disseminating relevant information to all affected parties through their mobile phones (localised to the actual geographic positions) and other channels (not localised).

The solution embarks on a number of ICT-supported tools such as GIS, mobile network (positioning and communication), traffic and movement simulation, an extensive knowledge base, an expert system, etc. What is key thereby is that the list of environment types (urban, rural, industrial plants, high-raise buildings, schools, airports, train stations, public places, etc.) and types of emergency situations (flooding, fire, earthquake, storm, act of terrorism, industrial disaster, etc.) needs to be expanded. Sensor networks shall support to automate the discovery of emergency situations and to accelerate the processes of emergency management. The solution also embarks on sources of public data and departmental information (population registries, address databases including points of care, engineering infrastructure schemes, date and place of mass events, public transport positions and routes, etc.).

The added value of the solution is in decreasing the impact of emergency situations on human life and increasing the effectiveness of response and recovery efforts.