Crisis Response Management Network (CRMNet)

Crisis responders face challenges that can be reduced by substantially improved monitoring, up-to-date situational awareness, and timely dissemination of data to responders. Information technology advancements will be leveraged to provide COTs drivensolutions that greatly improve the monitoring and decision-making processes required for rapid response. Conversion of the vast amounts of data to knowledge is key to the scalable crisis management system architecture to be developed under Phase I.Components in sensor monitoring, situational awareness, and knowledge dissemination to facilitate rapid response under challenging conditions are addressed.ORINCON will develop a rapidly deployable, scaleable, crisis management system architecture using commercial technologies for shipboard, pierside, and land-based monitoring, and data dissemination to responders. This architecture will provideinteroperability, integration with legacy systems, and built in reliability, performance and security. Users will benefit from context sensitive procedural reasoning and flexible displays that combine the vast amounts of data stored in data warehousesinto information required by the response team. A sensor Interface Design Language will facilitate extensibility while knowledge dissemination, via a web-based architecture, will achieve a flexible system that provides coordination with multiple levels ofresponders at military, national, and local levels. ORINCON's system will contribute to homeland security objectives. Effective knowledge management techniques, employed with efficient, coordinated crisis response processes are needed at numerous locations, including high security facilities, such as military sites, hazardous material sites, such as nuclear and chemicalproduction, handling, and storage facilities, and transportation and public sites, including air and sea transportation centers, and public works facilities. A flexible architecture that can be readily scaled to meet the demands of each facility isrequired. Components of the crisis response system architecture can be applied to reasoning systems for medical, health, and related applications. A notional system architecture built around commercial technologies, open interfaces, and plug-and-playcomponents can be easily extended to the specific user's needs. Domain specific response, which can be easily modified by subject matter experts for dissemination during high-stress crisis situations, can dramatically increase the effectiveness of thefirst responders, and provide improved information to subsequent crisis response personnel. Users are guided through interactive, context sensitive doctrine based on subject matter expertise that best matches the crisis situation, provides improvedeffectiveness, and reduced risk to personnel. The cost of the system is offset by reduced training and manpower costs.