Natural hazards such as floods are likely to occur more often in the near future. Modern information technology can simplify the workflow of disaster management. However, none of the existing tools is tailored to the requirements of action planning. The major challenge lies in the sheer quantity of complex information the planner has to account for. The choice of the right action at the right time depends on a variety of factors and cannot be automated. Moreover, since the course of events cannot be exactly predicted, numerous, alternative scenarios have to be considered. This project is dedicated to research in the field of visual analytics for the development of a novel decision-support system with two major goals in mind: First, users will be able to create a large scenario pool without the need for engineering skills. Second, first responders will be empowered to exploit this scenario pool for decision making in time-critical situations.

This project is funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) through project ICT12-009.