Project ENSAYO: A Virtual Emergency Operations Center for Disaster Management Research, Training and Discovery

Disaster management, before, during, and after the event, is dynamic, complex, and ill-defined, and the events themselves are rare and diverse due to the many characteristics that define them. Prior decisions may be thoroughly documented via after action reports, but these may not cover every issue as frequently unique and unanticipated events arise during each emergency. The nature of the decisions, where they are made, who makes them, the data and information resources required to make and monitor them, and the location of available knowledge to drive them may sometimes be unknown, unavailable, or both. This paper describes the research activities of Project Ensayo, which seeks to support and enable multiple research projects investigating processes, functions and structures present at Emergency Operations Centers, including situational awareness, knowledge management, inferences from dynamic data, disaster management and mechanisms of command, control, communication and coordination.