Serious games and environmental computer-based simulations can be useful training tools for people who have to act in emergencies. Currently, stakeholders who deal with crises have to make decisions under stress, for example in order to mitigate consequences or avoid negative impacts on high-stake elements.Many factors are critical in a training environment for ensuring that effective learning occurs, principally: experience improvement, engagement and immersion, and realism. This paper aims to identify the limits of existing learning systems for emergency stakeholders within a crisis cell and then to propose a set of recommendations in order to specify a system to improve the effectiveness of peoples' actions in case of a major crisis.The development of this approach requires the pooling of information concerning varied and multidisciplinary skills. The paper first focuses on the classical difficulties of crisis management, after which the notion of experience in decision-making is defined. The issue is studied from three points of view: the educational approach, the simulation system, and the training environment.The last section of this paper contributes to establishing a set of enhancements which can lead to the specification of simulation based learning systems for further development. More particularly, we specify the needed characteristics of our learning approach and teaching strategy. Finally, we propose a model with the main steps that have to be implemented in order to design a new learning system: a semi-virtual training environment for strategic crisis management.
The transportation of dangerous goods is a complex issue involving various potential consequences for a wide range of high-stake elements. Most particularly, hydrocarbon transportation requires the carrying out of a global study in order to assess the risks involved. The aim of this study is to develop a prediction code for analyzing different possible hydrocarbon supply routes in order to determine whether modifying the flow of hydrocarbon transportation significantly increases the risk (for people, infrastructure and the environment). On the one hand, this paper details the methodology proposed for assessing risk levels using hazard scenarios and the vulnerability of high-stake elements. On the other hand, it presents the modeling tool developed (CARTENJEUX), based on an existing geographical information system (MapInfo), through a case study (Paris, France). Several maps (severity of accident, vulnerability and risk levels) generated using CARTENJEUX are presented in order to illustrate how stakeholders can determine preferential routes at regional scale.
Emergency operations are on the rise today due to the different types of emergencies encountered, which include crises, accidents, natural disasters, and suicides. This increase can lead to problems in coordination and communication between those involved in an emergency operation. In addition, emergency services have independent medical devices, which are sometimes redundant; however, there is a lack of devices for taking suitable actions in heterogeneous environments (urban, rural, mountains). Therefore, it would be interesting to redesign ambulance services to take account of these issues. These improvements concern two objectives. First, to provide an optimal response to the victim during an emergency operation. Second, to facilitate the exchanges between all people involved from the initial order to the arrival at the hospital. This paper focuses on and illustrates a solution to simplify exchanges between first-aid workers in the field and medical practitioners in the hospital during emergency operations. In particular, it analyzes interoperability at the outset of the conception of a system that helps to exchange quickly and efficiently information for a medical emergency.
Within a few decades, the European coasts and seas endured major environmental incidents of chemical pollution. For example, the “Ievoli Sun” incident, October 31, 2000, which was transporting 4,000 tonnes of styrene or the “Ece” incident, February 01, 2006 in the Channel, with a cargo of 10,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid.
When a disaster occurs, authorities aspire to a faster and more effective management of pollution to limit the consequences. To this end, French authorities which take response measures for health or economic protection during a marine pollution incident need efficient software tools to assess the risks related to marine pollution. This allows them to quickly set up a relevant safety area, the aim being to protect the populations and the environment, to mobilize the appropriate response tools and to anticipate the situation in the short or medium term.
It is in this particular and significant context of crisis management of marine pollution that the CLARA (“Calculation related to accidental releases in seawater”) project was developed. This project, funded by the French Research Ministry, has been carried out, since November 2003, by the Ecole des Mines d'Alès, Cedre, Ifremer, Mítío-France and Ineris, in order to jointly simulate
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