Scalable Framework for Emergency Response Decision Support Systems

While responding to a disaster, emergency responders and managers make critical decisions based on limited available information. These decisions are critical for public safety and disaster recovery operation. There are many Decision Support Systems (DSS) available to assist the emergency responder community. Most current systems rely on continued availability of basic infrastructure such as electricity and communication networks, they may not be able to support emergency operations if there is loss of power and/or communication infrastructure. This paper considers a generalized scalable computing framework for Emergency Response DSS (ERDSS) designed to support emergency response operations even if a disaster causes disruptions to the power and communication infrastructure. It should operate at multiple scales of power consumption, network connectivity/bandwidth and computing resources. This framework would support (1.) a large computing system for emergency response planning (2.) laptop/tablet computers for on-site response management and (3.) handheld/ wearable device used in the field by the emergency responders. This framework will provide a unified, user-interface across different devices with the ability to optimize the use of available energy, computing capacity and communication resources to support the users.