Event-based framework for disaster planning

1. Event-based framework for disaster planning Adriaan ter Mors*, Jeroen Valk, Cees Witteveen Welcome everyone I’d like to tell you about a framework for disaster planning that we are currently developingWelcome everyone I’d like to tell you about a framework for disaster planning that we are currently developing

2. The aim of disaster planning -there have been reservations / criticisms of a planning approach to emergency response, so first we should ask ourselves why we would plan at all -planning: high level of abstraction what must be done, and by whom -management: management of emergency responders given the particular situation of the current disaster -management of a disaster can be facilitated by the disaster plan-there have been reservations / criticisms of a planning approach to emergency response, so first we should ask ourselves why we would plan at all -planning: high level of abstraction what must be done, and by whom -management: management of emergency responders given the particular situation of the current disaster -management of a disaster can be facilitated by the disaster plan

3. Shortcomings in current Dutch disaster plans Long, paper-based, ‘notationally challenged’ Dependencies between activities are only specified vaguely Information on one subject is dispersed throughout the document It is unclear which parts of the document should be read by which emergency responders -We have only looked at Dutch disaster plans, but we suspect the situation is not much better in other countries -Probably as a result, studies of past disasters have shown that very few emergency responders knew anything about the disaster plan, or even of its existence-We have only looked at Dutch disaster plans, but we suspect the situation is not much better in other countries -Probably as a result, studies of past disasters have shown that very few emergency responders knew anything about the disaster plan, or even of its existence

4. Proposal for a new disaster plan format Tasks specify the basic work that needs to be done A Hierarchy relationship between tasks encodes a task-subtask relation Precedence constraints specify dependencies between tasks Events can both trigger and inhibit the execution of a task -For instance an outbreak of a fire will both trigger a fire-fighting task, and inhibit a rescue task-For instance an outbreak of a fire will both trigger a fire-fighting task, and inhibit a rescue task

5. Example disaster plan fragment -rectangles tasks, circles are events -task evacuate citizens triggered by event... -we can perform evacuate citizens by executing all of its subtasks, namely, - we can perform the latter either by -rectangles tasks, circles are events -task evacuate citizens triggered by event... -we can perform evacuate citizens by executing all of its subtasks, namely, - we can perform the latter either by

6. Disaster management Plan monitoring Deployment of agent technologies for e.g. task allocation and plan repair -If we have a more formalized disaster plan, then we can distinguish a number of disaster management tasks that can be facilitated by the disaster plan-If we have a more formalized disaster plan, then we can distinguish a number of disaster management tasks that can be facilitated by the disaster plan

7. Questions?