Decision support system for emergency management: Road tunnels
Recent disasters have shown that road tunnels are especially complex environments for decision making. A fast and effective response to emergencies in road tunnels is a key factor for life safety. This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) for emergency management in road tunnels. Based on a specific methodology, the system provides the operator with decision recommendations to deal with the emergency in real time. Furthermore, the system uses predictive tools to estimate the severity of the accident or incident, as well as rescue and evacuation times. This information is very useful during the first stages of an emergency when information is scarce, incomplete and inaccurate, yet the tunnel operator is required to make the right decisions under a high level of stress. The DSS reduces the decision circle and allows the operator to make critical decisions based on dynamic alternatives. The system has been tested in various hypothetical emergency cases based on the Tunnel of Lantueno in the A-67 Highway, Spain. The application cases show that the DSS provides reasonable and consistent results.
Not sure what to describe here
Simulation – stochastic analysis; The system displays the course of actions to deal with the emergency situation in an optimized manner.
Based on a specific
The stochastic analysis performs multiple simulations and provides reliable results for evacuation times in less than 5s
Simulation; input data: tunnel characteristics, probability data
Goal of paperThe paper describes three models integrated in the DSS. It also shows the application cases for different hypothetical emergencies in a tunnel.
Decision making was based on current contingency plans for Spanish tunnels. Future developments of the system will encompass application to more complex tunnels and situations.
The application cases show that the DSS works adequately for different emergency situations providing a course of decisions in real time that permits responders to minimize the consequences of an accident while avoiding human failures and delays. Furthermore, the additional information about the severity of the emergency and the evacuation times permits decision -makers to obtain a wider overview of the situation and to optimize decisions that include the emergency services and other authorities.(Note from TNO: not tested with users, only through simulation. So I don’t know how they came to these conclusions)
Simulation The system has been tested in various hypothetical emergency casesThe DSS was applied to different emergency situations in Lantueno Tunnel. Three incident locations were considered (three scenarios). Different emergency situations and numbers of vehicles directly involved were considered for each of the three scenarios (different cases).
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