In the wake of recent terrorist attacks and natural disasters in urban areas, disaster preparedness has been identified as a key factor to respond to such situations effectively, failing which casualties can be very high. This project aims to understand the effect of intervention options available to the authorities in the event of a natural or a man-made disaster in urban areas. The influence of information flow structures (or lack thereof) during a disaster and efficient use of infrastructure systems and services to contain the disaster is explored within this project.
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GOALS Simulate the impact of a given policy in a geospatial environment. Visualize the agent interactions and behaviors. Build a software system to prepare policymakers to better plan for emergency situations in an urban environment.
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OUR CURRENT PROTOTYPES DEMONSTRATE: Crowd simulation and management Movement of emergency vehicles 3D images of the disaster area and navigation Standards for storing building layout information Integration of information and interaction design |
EMERGENCY & DISASTER MANAGEMENT METHODS
To visualize the impact of policies to contain and/or manage an emergency situation, a representative part of the real world is simulated using a multi-agent modeling approach. The model consists of a set of autonomous agents, each having its own unique goals and beliefs. Agents respond to situations based on their beliefs to achieve their individual goals. Policies affect their beliefs or they might modify their goals, which in turn results in different behavioral patterns. Impacts of different and similar policies can then be compared based on pre-determined parameters. Visual representations of the simulation make it possible to use it as a training tool.
