A simulation modelling approach enabling joint emergency response operations

A novel capability for modelling and simulating intra- and inter-organizational collaboration in an emergency-response domain is presented. This capability combines the prescriptive, top-down view of organizations, which describes how they work “on paper,” and the descriptive, bottom-up view, which describes how they actually work, by focusing on three components in the light of agent-based modelling and simulation tools-structural, functional, and normative. Our approach enables decision-makers to anticipate the evolution of an emerging crisis and evaluate the effectiveness of different configurations on the response. The initial results of our simulation, based on an experiment which investigates the impact of three separate parameters, are also presented and reveal the joint effectiveness of the organizations involved.