As noted, emergency response organizations (EROs) must have the flexibility to be able to deal with contingencies not addressed by emergency plans and procedures. These contingencies may be due to unforeseen occurrences or the overwhelming nature of the event. Our present research addresses this issue by providing a group decision support system, Emergency Management imPROViser (EMPROV), to support EROs in improvising; that is, in reworking their knowledge in a novel way in time to fit the requirements of the current situation. In this section, the design of a gaming simulation held in a training facility in the Port of Rotterdam is described. The system itself is described elsewhere (Mendonça et al., 2001).
The elements of the decision making process of an ERO are as follows. Knowledge is typically divided among various experts and decisions are often routed through the commander of the ERO, who is responsible for selecting and assembling posted actions; and solutions or recommendations are typically broadcast for discussion to the group as a whole. All this takes place in a stressful, time constrained setting.