3.1. Data acquisition
The stage of data acquisition aims to generate the data needed for model testing. Given the number and locations of the
affected areas by the 1st assumption, the proposed method is employed to determine the time-varying consuming relief demands
in the crucial rescue period. Here the unit length of a time interval is set to be 4 h (thrice a day). Therefore, the test
scenario involves fifteen time intervals, i.e., 5 days, termed as the test period. This study uses the official statistics in the 921
earthquake special report (Executive Yuan of Taiwan, 1999) as the historical database to test the model’s validity, where
Table 1 summarizes the aggregate statistics in terms of the disaster effects as well as the corresponding population data
associated with the affected areas of the study site.
Based on the official statistical report (Executive Yuan of Taiwan, 1999), this study collects the instantaneous data
points (Xi(t)) regarding the accumulated number of fatalities associated with each affected area i in each time interval
t during the 5-day test period. The data obtained at this stage are used for the comparison with the output of the model
(i.e., the projections of Xi(t) based on the multi-source data fusion results). Note that these are post-event statistical data,
which are not perfectly available in the aftermath of the earthquake. That is, the acquisition of adequate real data for
dynamic relief-demand forecasting is nearly impossible in this study case. This is also the reason why we propose
the model to predict the accumulated number of fatalities through the mechanism of multi-source data fusion. Moreover,
due to the concern of missing data points existing in the collected real data points (i.e., Xi(t)), this study generates
the simulation data replacing the missing data points to complete the historical database. The following details the simulation-
data generation procedure.