A Conceptual Architecture to handle the influx of information in Emergency Situations

Emergency situations are characterized by their complexity and the heterogeneity of the available information. Emergency managers are frequently confronted with redundant or irrelevant information, causing the problem of information overload. Evidence of this problem was identified in an exploratory survey conducted in the Center for Integrated Command and Control of Rio de Janeiro (CICC-RJ). In this paper, we present a conceptual architecture that allows a user to handle this influx of information. From a set of available data, a manager can select those of interest, which can then be transformed and mapped into one or more views, and organized in a dashboard. The whole process is interactive, allowing the manager to redefine his/her dashboard as needed. In addition, we provide collaborative mechanisms, given that, at times, it is not possible for a single user to handle such large datasets alone.