The WORKPAD Project Experience: Improving the Disaster Response through Process Management and Geo Collaboration

In complex emergency/disaster scenarios teams from various emergency-response organizations collaborate with each other to achieve a common goal. In these scenarios the use of smart mobile devices and applications can improve the collaboration dynamically. The lack of basic interaction principles can be dangerous as it could increase the level of disaster or can make the efforts ineffective. The paper focuses on the description of the main results of the project WORKPAD finished in December 2009. WORKPAD worked on a two-level architecture to support rescue operators during emergency management. The use of a user-centered design methodology during the entire development cycle has guaranteed that the architecture and the resulting system meet the end-user requirements. The feasibility of its use in real emergencies is also proven by a demonstration showcased in July with real operators. The paper includes the qualitative and quantitative showcase results and mentions some guidelines which can be useful for persons who want to develop emergency-management systems.