Developing Situation-Aware Applications for Disaster Management with a Distributed Rule-Based platform

In order to enhance interoperability and productivity in the develop-ment of situation-aware applications for disaster management, proper mecha-nisms and guidelines are required. They must address the lack of semantics in modelling emergency situations. In addition, the ever changing and unpredicta-ble nature of disaster scenarios present challenges for information processing and collaboration. This paper proposes a framework that combines the follow-ing elements: (i) a foundational ontology for temporal conceptualization; (ii) well-founded specifications of structural and behavioral models; (iii) a CEP en-gine based on a distributed rule-based platform for situation management; (iv) a model-driven approach. We illustrate the operation of the framework with a scenario for monitoring tuberculosis epidemy.