Background

Major emergencies, such as train accidents, natural disasters, or terrorist attacks, are highly stressful for emergency responders on site as well as for command and control centres. Both must act swiftly and efficiently under chaotic and unpredictable conditions. One major challenge is making sense of the overwhelming volume of information during crisis situations, as such information overload can compromise decision-making processes and reduce overall efficiency.

A context-aware common operational picture, as proposed by Luokkala et al. (2017), can reduce information overload and pave the way for clear, actionable insights. In this project, I examine methods to provide such a comprehensible operational picture and its potential to enhance the overall effectiveness of emergency response.

Project Content

Crisis Resource Management (CRM) and training teams to perform effectively under pressure have led to better outcomes in high-stakes emergencies. However, miscommunication and information overload remain major challenges. This research explores the interplay between human factors and visualization technologies, and how crisis management practices can be improved through their use. The focus lies on enhancing decision-making, collaboration, and resource allocation in cross-border emergency scenarios, with particular attention to the Austrian–Czech border. A multi-device approach addresses the needs of different roles in crisis management, ensuring that on-site responders as well as command and control centres can access the information they need to act swiftly and effectively.

Aims

Visualization tools are increasingly used to manage information overload, but current systems often lack real-time processing capabilities and underperform in incorporating contextual information. In this project, I investigate how such additional information can be successfully integrated to improve resource allocation and decision-making during stressful situations in major emergency incidents. The following research questions are addressed:

• How can information visualization enhance situational awareness and collaboration for on-site emergency responders and command centers during major incidents at borders?
• What are the key barriers to communicate information in cross-border emergency management during major incidents, and how can they be mitigated with cooperative data visualization?
• What features are essential in a multi-device data visualization method to support diverse roles during international major incidents?

Methods

The project builds on a Design Science Research approach (Brocke et al., 2020) to develop, implement, and evaluate a data visualization tool.

In Phase 1, qualitative interviews and participatory workshops with Austrian and Czech emergency responders are conducted to identify cross-border communication challenges and user requirements.

Phase 2 focuses on designing and developing a functional visualization prototype through a user-centered process guided by Munzner’s Nested Model (Munzner, 2009). This phase includes characterizing the problem, abstracting relevant data types and operations, designing interaction and encoding strategies, and implementing scalable algorithms.

In Phase 3, the prototype is evaluated in a controlled, multilingual deployment exercise involving multiple organizations, actor patients, and evaluators. Quantitative measures such as task completion time and response time, together with qualitative feedback, are used to assess usability, decision accuracy, and information flow.

References

Brocke, J. V., Hevner, A. & Maedche, A. (2020). Introduction to Design Science Research. In Progress in IS (S. 1–13). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46781-4_1

Luokkala, P., Nikander, J., Korpi, J., Virrantaus, K., & Torkki, P. (2017). Developing a concept of a context-aware common operational picture. Safety Science, 93, 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2016.11.005

Munzner, T. (2009). A Nested Model for Visualization Design and Validation. IEEE Transactions On Visualization And Computer Graphics, 15(6), 921–928. https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2009.111

Funding

The content does not necessarily represent the view of the state of Lower Austria or the funding agency. Neither the state of Lower Austria nor the funding agency can therefore be held responsible for the content.