ePlan Multi-Surface: A Multi-Surface Environment for Emergency Response Planning Exercises

Emergency response planning is a process that involves many different stakeholders who may communicate concurrently with different channels and exchange different information artefacts. The planning typically occurs in an emergency operations centre (EOC) and involves personnel both in the room and also in the field. The EOC provides an interesting context for examining the use of tablets, tabletops and high resolution wall displays, and their role in facilitating information and communication exchange in an emergency response planning scenario. In collaboration with a military and emergency response simulation software company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we developed ePlan Multi-Surface, a multi-surface environment for communication and collaboration for emergency response planning exercises. In this paper, we describe the domain, how it informed our prototype, and insights on collaboration, interactions and information dissemination in multi-surface environments for EOCs.

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