Enabling semantic querying in mobile and location-aware DSS for mass gatherings

Location information is one of key pieces of information for real-time decision support systems that are used in emergency management. In the context of mass gatherings, mobile and location-aware Decision Support Systems (DSS) can significantly improve split-second decision making, facilitate coordination of team members and reduce medical response time. While existing location-aware DSS enable tracking patients, medical emergency staff and resources, they have limited or no support for semantic querying and reasoning. Semantic search provides the ability to produce more precise and accurate results compared to the syntax-based search. The use of ontologies in DSS not only enables capturing and sharing the domain knowledge but provides the capability to perform semantic querying and reasoning. In this paper, we introduce a mobile and location-aware DSS architecture for medical emergency management in mass gatherings that integrates a domain ontology and provides reasoning and semantic research capabilities. The implementation and evaluation of the proposed architecture using an Android phone are described.