The Use of Decision Support in Search and Rescue: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Whenever natural and human-made disasters strike, the proper response of the concerned authorities often relies on search and rescue services. Search and rescue services are complex multidisciplinary processes that involve several degrees of interdependent assignments. To handle such complexity, decision support systems are used for decision-making and execution of plans within search and rescue operations. Advances in data management solutions and artificial intelligence technologies have provided better opportunities to make more efficient and effective decisions that can lead to improved search and rescue operations. This paper provides findings from a bibliometric mapping and a systematic literature review performed to: (1) identify existing search and rescue processes that use decision support systems, data management solutions, and artificial intelligence technologies; (2) do a comprehensive analysis of existing solutions in terms of their research contributions to the investigated domain; and (3) investigate the potential for knowledge transfer between application areas. The main findings of this review are that non-conventional data management solutions are commonly used in land rescue operations and that geographical information systems have been integrated with various machine learning approaches for land rescue. However, there is a gap in the existing research on search and rescue decision support at sea, which can motivate future studies within this specific application area.

Person Mobility Algorithm and Geographic Information System for Search and Rescue Missions Planning

“…The mentioned shortcomings regarding the complexity of the planning procedure can be avoided by using appropriate decision support software [22,23] or an expert system that can propose the whole search procedure; it generates action maps (much faster than human planners), uses maps based on updated orthophoto terrain maps collected by UAVs at the very beginning of the action, and uses statistical data for searches based on As already stated, the available online maps used in GIS may be quite old and sometimes misleading. Changes can be significant when comparing maps taken during different times of the year.…”

Methodologies and Handling Techniques of Large-Scale Information in Decision Support Systems for Complex Missions

“…This type of system has already been developed for realistic cases in the political sector for addressing natural disasters [10], epidemic incidents [11], transportation of inflammable or other hazardous materials, etc. [12] and in the security sector for search and rescue missions [13], urgent air transportation of patients [14], supply missions [15], and other similar complex missions in several areas in case of emergency situations [16] (see Appendix A).…”