Decision Aid Model for Disaster Management & Resource Allocation

Abstract

Governments and humanitarian organizations are taxed with complex disaster responses with little or no forecasts let alone reliable field information. Decision support systems come in handy when faced with the task of response of such complex tasks. The planning and management process of a disaster is quite complex with many decision makers involved and limited resources being required immediately, decision makers and victims (indirectly) can benefit from decision support tools. The current decision aid models are not dynamic such that they only focus on one type of disaster and do not take into consideration that one disaster can lead to other associated hazards. A decision process is displayed in this paper and the processes explained in brief. We came up with a prototype to illustrate how decision support would help humanitarian organizations and governments in multi-hazard disasters. The proposed solution included coming up with a model that assists humanitarian organizations and governments determine the need for opening a disaster recovery center in context of multi-hazards. The study allows significant efficiencies to be gained by taking a multi-hazards perspective during the planning process and furthermore, accounting for a risk package and not just a single type of risk but a more accurate risk assessment and finally aiding governments and humanitarian organizations in resource allocation during disasters. Keywords: Multi-hazard events, long-term planning, decision support systems, disaster operations management, disaster recovery center.