DMSim: A virtual environment for managing natural disasters

Abstract

Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc., often result in wide-scale destruction of national infrastructure and public properties apart from loss of precious human lives as well as causing injuries to people. During the chaotic scenes of a natural disaster, it is of utmost importance to have an efficient and working communication system at the affected locations so that localized disaster-related information could be quickly passed on to relevant governmental agencies for taking appropriate relief actions for the affectees. Further, the relief agencies should be well-trained for carrying out relief efforts in a disaster-hit location promptly. However, ensuring or building a properly working communication network and suitable decision-making skills of people involved in relief efforts are challenging and require large scale rigorous training which might be infeasible due to associated financial cost. We, in this paper, have developed a simulator to help in managing disaster scenarios, building ad-hoc communication networks, training human resources, evaluating rescue strategies and contingency plans at a larger scale. Our simulator also provides a platform for conducting cutting-edge research in the emerging areas relating to technological advancements from the perspective of smart cities.