Designing a Decision Support System for Disaster Management and Recovery

Abstract

Returning to basic function and then to normalcy is important after a disaster. This level of resilience allows businesses to reopen, social and emergency services to act quickly and effectively in aiding citizens, and returns a feeling of safety and comfort to those affected. Unfortunately, those tasked with responding and managing the disaster are often overwhelmed and their decision-making taxed, causing the response itself to be inefficient. One way to aid disaster response teams is the introduction of a decision support system (DSS) to support decision making capabilities in time-critical situations. The purpose of this research was to create a framework for disaster recovery and a prototype DSS to aid both command center workers and those in the field. Our goal was to help make response easier and more efficient, as well as evaluate our prototype design for usability.