ABSTRACT
Contemporary decisionmakers , such as disaster preparedness planners and first responders, face almost insurmountable challenges. They are confronted by an overwhelming collection of data obtained from such diverse sources as overhead imagery, real-time global positioning (GPS) feeds, electronic sensors, and on-site emergency services. The time frame in which decision makers, planners, and emergency managers must make critical choices has collapsed from days to minutes, and in this accelerated and noisy operating environment they are expected to manage multiple, and often conflicting, missions concurrently. To further complicate matters, traditional modes of hierarchical decision making are rapidly giving way to new models of collaboration; arenas in which decisions are necessarily made “on the ground,” at several levels within organizations, and simultaneously among multiple supporting agencies and organizations.
