Crisis Response Planning: A Task Analysis

The ability to respond eeectively and eeciently to crisis is an important objective in many problem-solving domains. In this paper, we identify three central elements of crisis: threat, urgency, and uncertainty. We deene the space of competent problem solvers for crisis response through a task analysis (Newell and Si-mon, 1972). Speciically, we bound the space of problem solvers by determining the features of problem spaces and search control strategies necessary to address the central elements of crisis. We also outline an evaluation method for problem solvers in crisis domains. The task analysis provides a framework for improving crisis response strategies as well as developing intelligent assistants for crisis response.