Creating and validating emergency management services by social simulation and semantic web technologies

One of the most promising fields for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is the implementation of intelligent emergency plans. By using AmI, it is possible to improve the collaboration and coordination strategy of response efforts in emergency situations. Despite AmI systems are generally evaluated by using Living labs, it is desirable to use simulations in the emergency case. Simulations have allowed emergency committees and emergency experts to improve the performance and efficiency of many emergency plans while decreasing the limitations of regular drills and AmI restrictions. However, despite their wide range of benefits, simulations are currently facing many problems. Among those, simulations are performed in an ad-hoc model and are usually “closed”. To improve this situation, this paper proposes using semantic web technologies as a powerful tool to reuse, extend, and combine different simulation components. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.