A data model for operational and situational information in emergency response

Abstract

Many software systems have been created to help the emergency responders in their activities all over the world. These systems are usually dedicated to a specific emergency situation or emergency response sector. Exchange of information between the different systems is difficult or not possible. While much progress is observed in accessing and sharing existing data, management of field (or dynamic) data is often overlooked. A lot of information coming from the field operations is either not archived or is stored in an unstructured way. This makes the analysis of data a difficult and slow process. This paper presents a data model for the management of dynamic data. The data model captures the situational information—incident and its effect—and the operational information—processes activated, people and departments involved. New data types are created for temporal and spatiotemporal information: dynamic counts, e.g. the number of injured or missing people, moving point and moving region, e.g. the position of vehicles or people and the gas plume. The model is derived from the emergency response procedure in the Netherlands. The information needs resulting from this procedure are, in a large part, valid for emergency situations everywhere, therefore the model can be easily adapted for other countries.