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Decision‐making behaviour during urban search and rescue: a case study of Germany
Author(s) -
Hamp Quirin,
Reindl Leonhard,
Güthlin Denise
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/disa.12035
Subject(s) - urban search and rescue , search and rescue , reliability (semiconductor) , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , german , risk analysis (engineering) , occupational safety and health , order (exchange) , operations research , computer science , computer security , engineering , medical emergency , business , medicine , artificial intelligence , power (physics) , physics , archaeology , pathology , quantum mechanics , robot , mobile robot , finance , history
The objective of assisting with tasks and decisions during incident response is to reduce the risks to victims and rescue personnel while increasing the efficiency of the rescue operation. Handling uncertain information during urban search and rescue (USAR) missions represents additional stress to the decision‐maker. The aim of this study is to identify the decision‐making behaviour of rescuers during USAR missions to pinpoint trapped or buried victims in debris in order to design assistance technologies and decision‐support systems that meet their needs. In 2010, a survey was conducted among 10–15 per cent of all German rescue personnel specialised in search tasks. One of the major results of this survey is that a subjective assessment of the reliability of information available from heterogeneous sources influences the rescuers’ actions and that there is no methodology for decision‐making involving uncertain information. In addition, the study found that compliance with procedures does not require assistance.