Visualization of relevant information on mobile devices for emergency situations

In recent years it has been identified the need to use mobile technology in urban emergency response process, due to the importance of having information to make decisions in these scenarios. The data visualization in small mobile devices, such as PDAs or smartphones, is a critical aspect to make appropriate and on time decisions. This criticality is given particularly by the small-size of its screen and the type of information to show, which is usually geographically. This article presents a strategy to select and display the most relevant “Points of Interest” on a digital map, according to the emergency influence area. This strategy was implemented on the MobileMap tool, and then it was evaluated through simulated emergency situations, in which participated Firefighters Commanders of different Chilean Companies.