A Supporting System for Emergency Vehicles Dispatching Planning Under a Disaster Situation

Japan is an earthquake-prone country; however, it is also affected by other types of disasters such as typhoons, floods, volcanoes, and landslides. These disasters cause significantly severe damage in affected areas. During large disaster events, the fire departments of affected areas are expected to bring help to these areas. Unfortunately, the number of emergency vehicles and firefighters are limited. Therefore, if emergency calls are handled in a first-in first-out manner, the ability to respond to all calls is compromised. Thus, in order to consider the priority of calls based on the best strategies, call triage is discussed in this study. Call triage requires a thorough investigation of possible situations; however, as a variety of situations exist, investigation on paper is difficult. This study proposes a support system for emergency vehicle dispatch planning using the best call triage. The effectiveness of the system is verified through subject