A Civilian Reporting Service to Guide Converging Resources for Search and Rescue in Disaster Response

Abstract

During disaster response, prioritization of limited resources is one of the most important but challenging tasks. At the same time, it is imperative to timely provide to the rescuers with the adequate heavy equipment to facilitate lifesaving operations. However, supply of high demand equipment is usually insufficient during the initial phase of disaster response, challenging lifesaving operations. At the same time, resources outside of the disaster affected zone converge into the area to assist the response efforts, which is the effect of convergence that often made resource coordination challenging in large scale disasters. Meanwhile, the initial condition of the disaster is usually best known by civilians already at the area before and during impact of the disaster. The knowledge of the civilians is not always received and considered by the responding organizations. With the help of these civilians, critical information such as victim location, infrastructure damage, and risk condition could be better know before any response actions are taken. To efficiently collect information and utilize the converging resources, this paper proposes a geospatial information repository for initial condition reporting and update to guide search and rescue operations and deployment of equipment with safety considerations for the rescuers in large scale disaster response scenarios.