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<br />ROO-24 <br /> <br />Louise K. Comfort <br />University Center for Social and . <br />Urban Research <br />University of Pittsburgh <br />Pittsburgh, PA 15260 <br />E-mail: lkc@pitt.edu <br /> <br />An Interactive, Intelligent, Spatial Informlltion System (fiSIS) for Disaster Management: <br />A Community Model <br /> <br />Concept, Design and Current Status of the IISIS Prototype <br />The IISIS prototype, under development at the University of Pittsburgh, is moving this year to a trial <br />demonstration project involving three levels oflocal government -- university, city, and county -- in Allegheny <br />County, Pennsylvania. Designed for hazardous materials management to serve local needs, the basic design can <br />be adapted to decision making for a range of complex, dynamic policy problems. Initiated in 1993, development <br />of the current IISIS prototype has been supported by grants from a range of local sources -. public agencies, <br />private businesses, and nonprofit foundations, <br /> <br />The prototype IISIS links three types of information technology to create an event-specific knowledge base that <br />can provide timely, valid information to practicing managers as conditions change in a complex, dynamic event <br />and demands for coordinated action increase. The three technologies include: 1) interactive communication via <br />both Internet and secure intranetnetworks; 2) GIS and remote sensing imagery to provide graphic representation <br />of changes in the area; and 3) intelligent reasoning by the computer to provide estimates of known losses or the <br />probabilities oflikely changes that could result from interdependent consequences generated by the event, e.g. . <br />fires following accidents, failures in transportation networks, hazardous materials releases, or public health <br />needs, The system provides for two levels of access, professional and public. These levels of access serve <br />different purposes in community mitigation and response to risk. <br /> <br />The IISIS prototype supports decision-making at multiple levels of jurisdiction and action. The set of functions <br />for the prototype is organized in three basic subsets: 1) identification of the initial conditions of the community <br />as the basic knowledge base for coordinated action; 2) dynamic assessment of the impact of a hazardous event <br />upon the community, its population and infrastructure; and 3) creation of a continuous record of demands and <br />actions mobilized in response by the set of public, private and nonprofit organizations engaged in disaster <br />operations. In a given hazardous event, the IISIS prototype compares incoming information from the field to <br />stored information in the knowledge base, monitoring the performance of the community's vital lifeline <br />systems, It tracks the pattern of interactions among participating organizations, creating a common base of <br />knowledge for the event and enabling the participating organizations to adjust their actions simultaneously in <br />order to achieve the shared goal of protecting the community. Computer screens representing these functions <br />are designed to capture the dynamic flow of information and action that occurs in disaster operations and to <br />facilitate coordinated action among the range of organizations and jurisdictions participating in this process. <br /> <br />The primary goal of the IlS1S prototype is to assess the extent to which a flexible, timely information <br />infrastructure using advanced information technologies can facilitate increased coordination among multiple <br />organizations at different jurisdictional levels engaged in risk reduction and response operations. The problem <br />of coordination is especially difficult in mobilizing action among organizations within a given jurisdiction and <br />between several jurisdictions for the mitigation of, and response to, risk to a community. The IlSIS design <br />focuses on the problem of simultaneous lateral coordination of action among organizations within jurisdictions . <br />and vertical coordination of action between jurisdictions that is critical to effective response in complex <br />environments. Appropriate uses of information technologies create an informed knowledge base for practicing <br />managers to improve efficiency and effectiveness in response and recovery operations after a disaster event, but <br />more importantly, to reduce the vulnerability of the community to such events before they occur, <br />