Situational awareness during mass-casualty events: command and control

Area of Science:

• Emergency Management
• Information Systems
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Traditional incident command systems utilize manual, paper-based methods for situational awareness.
• These methods lead to significant data latency and incomplete information, hindering effective resource allocation.
• This results in inefficient and often ineffective incident response operations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Warrior Information Incident, Situational Awareness, and Reporting System (WIISARD) as an advanced alternative.
• To demonstrate how WIISARD improves data collection, reduces latency, and enhances information quality for incident commanders.
• To present the WIISARD Command Center's novel visualization techniques for managing data overload.

Main Methods:

• Implementing the WIISARD system for real-time data acquisition during incidents.
• Comparing data latency and quality against traditional paper-based tracking systems.
• Developing and applying novel visualization techniques within the WIISARD Command Center interface.

Main Results:

• WIISARD significantly reduces data latency compared to paper systems.
• The system increases the quantity and quality of available information for decision-making.
• Novel visualization techniques effectively manage data overload and uncertainty in the Command Center.

Conclusions:

• The WIISARD system offers a substantial improvement over traditional incident command situational awareness methods.
• Enhanced data collection and visualization lead to more efficient and effective resource deployment.
• WIISARD provides a robust solution for managing complex incident information.