Measurement of information flows in rescue exercises in the aftermath of the collapse of a building

Collapsed buildings are one of the most complex challenges for rescue forces. The large amount of incoming information in particular is a major challenge to handle for the involved forces. The Assessment of this information is necessary in order to be able to give reliable statements about the number of buried and missing victims. To improve the handling of the information, the authors have developed a method to measure information flow during rescue exercises after the collapse of a building. This method has been developed within VERVE, a research project subsidized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The method has been evaluated and tested through two exercises.