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DEVELOPING AN AGENT-BASED SIMULATION MODEL OF THE USE OF DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE COORDINATION

Our research focuses on communications among a variety of organizations that coordinate their rapid responses to catastrophic disasters. Within the context of FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center, we constructed an agent-based simulation model of the inter-organizational communications happening via their Web-based Emergency Operations Center, email, phone calls, and face-to-face conversations as the support requests were addressed and fulfilled. We developed our model based on FEMA documentation, observations, interviews, and exercise data. In this paper we outline our model development process and provide details about our simulation model to highlight and address some of the particular challenges one faces when developing simulation models of disaster response activities. We describe what specific aspects of communication media and situational factors our model was developed to test, and also present the design and select results of our first research experiment using this model.