Decision-making behaviour during urban search and rescue: a case study of Germany

• Published in: Disasters Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 84 - 107
• Main Authors: Hamp, Quirin, Reindl, Leonhard, Güthlin, Denise
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Case studies; Cognitive psychology; Decision analysis; Decision Making; decision support; Decision support systems; Decision Support Techniques; Decisions; Design engineering; Disaster relief; Efficiency; Emergency medical services; Emergency preparedness; Evacuations & rescues; Evaluation; Federal Republic of Germany; fusion; geographic information systems (GIS); Germany; Handling; Humans; Information science; Missions; Needs Assessment; Organizational Case Studies; Personnel; Personnel management; Procedures; Reliability; Reliability analysis; Rescue operations; Rescue Work - organization & administration; Risk; Risk Management - organization & administration; Search and rescue; Search and rescue missions; Searching; Stress; Studies; Subjective assessment; Support systems; survey; Surveying; Surveys; Tasks; Technology; Uncertainty; Urban Areas; Urban Population; urban search and rescue (USAR); Victims; Workers; Germany; fusion; geographic information systems (GIS); survey; decision support; uncertainty; urban search and rescue (USAR)
• ISSN: 0361-3666; 1467-7717
• DOI: 10.1111/disa.12035

The objective of assisting with tasks and decisions during incident response is to reduce the risks to victims and rescue personnel while increasing the efficiency of the rescue operation. Handling uncertain information during urban search and rescue (USAR) missions represents additional stress to the decision‐maker. The aim of this study is to identify the decision‐making behaviour of rescuers during USAR missions to pinpoint trapped or buried victims in debris in order to design assistance technologies and decision‐support systems that meet their needs. In 2010, a survey was conducted among 10–15 per cent of all German rescue personnel specialised in search tasks. One of the major results of this survey is that a subjective assessment of the reliability of information available from heterogeneous sources influences the rescuers’ actions and that there is no methodology for decision‐making involving uncertain information. In addition, the study found that compliance with procedures does not require assistance.