Customisable IT tool for on-field assessments to support disaster management

Information and technology (IT) based tools are widely used in all phases of the disaster management cycle (DMC), improving the effectiveness of the prevision-prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery phases. The availability of on-field collected data provides an answer to the need to represent the scenario in which decision-makers will intervene. In this context, disaster management experience has shown that in many cases the users of on-field assessment outcomes (i.e., decision-makers) need: a data collection tool quickly and simply adaptable to better respond to specific and conditional needs; the automated elaboration of situation results; and the ability to exchange the information between the different phases of the DMC. This paper illustrates the IT tool, called "SPRINT-Engine", which was developed to meet these requirements. The SPRINT-Engine has been specifically developed and improved to permit easy and rapid customizability, even in near real-time. The paper presents some applications in real cases of on-field assessment managed by SPRINT-Lab researchers in support of institutions in various activities and projects at different scales and in different phases of the DMC.