Decision Support System and New Technologies

Abstract

This chapter highlights the application of emerging technologies to a decision support system. When a disaster occurs, many agencies and companies start to conduct disaster response for rescue, evacuation, relief supplies, shelter, and so on. For effective disaster response, it is very important to build common situational awareness of the disaster among various organizations. SIP4D (Shared Information Platform for Disaster Management), which we developed, is an interagency cooperative information-sharing system. This system was utilized at every disaster countermeasure headquarters (government and prefectures) in recent disasters in Japan and its effectiveness was well recognized. As a result, “ISUT: Information Support Team” was put into operation from 2019 lead by the Cabinet Office, and SIP4D will continue to be used as a basic distribution network of information for resilience to natural disasters. To expedite yet more effective and dynamic decision support in disaster response, we will pursue technological innovation by evolving SIP4D into CPS4D—Cyber-Physical System for Disaster Resilience—which blends real space and virtual space at an advanced level and leads disaster response through information. A future decision support system will require automatically analyzing disaster dynamics. We must actively continue applying technologies to actual disasters and improving the system by taking in various forms of evidence from the institutions and organizations that are actually engaged in disaster response.