Research topics
The Research Topics investigated by the members of the World Alliance on Digitalization for Disaster & Emergency Management, span over a broad range of domains in various disciplines. In the following, examples of research topics are given under the following classifications:
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Disaster and emergency management:
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Awareness, disaster and emergency detection and monitoring: Aims to detect the effects of disasters efficiently and effectively, such as the damages made, conditions of humans and living creatures, etc.
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Demand modeling and generation: Based on the observed damages and the environmental conditions, demand lists are automatically inferred for the necessary resources so that aid operations can be executed efficiently and effectively. Demands for resources can be various, including rescue operations, fire fighters, ambulances, security forces, repair teams, shelters, transport vehicles for evacuation, heating and cooking facilities, food and water, etc.
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Optimization and scheduling : The available resources are optimally assigned to the inferred demands on time. In case of insufficient resources, prioritization, trade-off and/or dynamic selection techniques are applied.
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Performance measurement: The performance indicators of operations are defined formally so that the desired objectives can be specified and measured. Accordingly, ongoing operations can be monitored online and in case of deviations from the desired performance values, corrective actions can be executed.
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Tracking and control: This phase includes both monitoring, evaluation and controlling actions of the ongoing activities as well as coordination among the aid operations.
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Simulation and game playing: To determine the effect of a large set of prospective disaster scenarios, determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the disaster and emergency ecosystem platform, evaluate the necessary quantity of resources and to optimize the locations of logistics centers, simulation environments and techniques must be researched, designed and implemented. Even in times when no disasters are experienced, triggered by the simulated disaster scenarios, the platform must be continuously operational so that it can be optimized using online machine learning techniques.
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​​Computation: Realization of the disaster and emergency management system is not trivial and requires research in various
computer science disciplines: For example:
Event-based computation, Digital twins, Communication networks, Coordination, Platforms and Software Engineering Aspects.
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Sociological disaster research: It is the of the social relations amongst both natural and human-made disasters.
Simulation and game playing
These research activities aim at designing expressive simulation systems for analyzing and optimizing the disaster and emergency management systems. Examples of research topics are:
Scenario-based programmable probabilistic/stochastic generation of different kinds of disasters based on core models. Examples of such models can be for example, GIS based topologies, disaster cause models (such as fault lines, sea levels, water ways, etc.), conditions of buildings, ground mechanics, structure of urbanization, etc.
Simulation and gaming architectures
Modeling physical elements such as: Base Station, Bridge, Communication Network, Control Center, Electricity Network, Electricity Station (Transformers), Factory, Financial Center, Firefighter Station, Gas Network, Gas Pump Station, Government Building, Historical Buildings, Hospital, Logistic Center, Museum, Office Building, Police Station, Railway, Religious Building, Repair Center, Rescue Center, Residence, Restaurant, Road, School, Shop, Shopping Center, Square, Track, Tunnel, Vegetation, Water Network, Water Pump Station, Waterways, etc.
Modeling damages such as: Collapse, Fire, Flood, Landslide, Tsunami, Unhealth, etc.
Modeling emergent properties such as: congestion, pollution, contamination, destruction, etc.
Modeling task forces: Security, Rescue, Firefighter, Health, Repair, etc.
Modeling various kind of help providers such as: responsible authorities, aid workers for evacuation, food distribution, etc.
Dynamic modeling of living patterns before and after disasters such as: movement of people and vehicles, aid operations, etc.
Simulation of stochastic and probabilistic behavior
Simulation/gaming engine for interpreting the dynamic behavior
Definition and implementation of simulation constraints
Definition and implementation of the gaming rules
Simulation and gaming ontologies
Libraries
Machine learning techniques for enhancing simulation and gaming behavior
Gathering the necessary data for improving the disaster and emergency management operations
Simulation in the hardware/system loop meaning that the disaster and emergency management system must be coupled with the simulation gaming environment. As for the disaster and emergency management we refer to the situation detection, demand generation, resource optimization, performance monitoring and tracking subsystems
Multi-dimensional visualization of the effect of disasters and the aid operations
Simulation and gaming design environment for designing and testing the simulation and gaming scenarios
Standardization of game units, constraints, rules and architectural interfaces and protocols