System Design

The system's essential elements include the ability to support:

• Real-time communication across departments, agencies and jurisdictions
• Real-time access to distributed databases that can be used to define the nature, scope and potential impact of emergency situations
• Real-time access to GIS systems to map critical events and responses
• Rapid assessment of probable risk to different groups and sections of the community under threat, using computer calculations that compare incoming information about the threat to stored information about the community's population, infrastructure and vulnerability, and
• Calculation of time, cost and consequences of alternative strategies for action, based on priorities and risks specified by emergency managers.

Knowledge bases to support decision processes in emergency management need to be developed for the operating context, conditions and constraints of participating organizations. IISIS staff use a basic system design for the prototype, but fit this design to the particular characteristics of a region, consistent with national standards.

The concept underlying IISIS is that of a self-organizing, learning system in which individuals, computers and organization search for an exchange information to address shared problems. IISIS's function is to simplify and coordinate the inherently complex process of emergency management, not to create a process that is complex in itself. IISIS incorporates rule-based and probabilistic models of intelligent reasoning for the computer. Rule-based models build on the official rules and standard procedures that have been accepted by emergency managers and their organizations. Probabilistic models use the computer to calculate the impact of a given event on the population or built infrastructure of a community, under a range of different conditions. 

Scope

The IISIS prototype differs from other emergency management software programs in that it combines current theory in organization design, feedback and learning with experienced judgement from practicing managers who have worked in dynamic disaster environments. Consequently, functions of the software directly address the stated needs of emergency managers.

The intelligent reasoning component of the IISIS prototype presents new features in decision support for emergency managers. Creating a shared, distributed knowledge base to support IISIS functions strengthens cooperation among participating organizations. Consulting and training services to assist a local community develop its own IISIS, with different types of organization that have different needs for information, will be included in the final product. 

Prof. Louise K. Comfort is a professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh. She has been part of developing the interactive system. She can be contacted at lkc+@pitt.edu