Using Precedence Diagram Method in Process-Oriented Disaster Response Management

When planning and modeling disaster response processes (DRP), the unpredictability of disasters precludes accounting for all eventualities in advance. DRPs are thus typically concretized and adapted after the disaster and during the process’s run-time. Since time is critical and uncertainty typical, planning of DRPs requires methods and tools that support disaster managers in process analysis, process adaptation, and decision making. This contribution presents an approach for identifying concurrent activities that, in needing identical resources at the same time in different locations, are jeopardized by such place-related conflicts. As solution, the approach allows managers to calculate valid execution sequences, eliminate place-related conflicts, and prioritize activities by total execution time. Results are shown to form a novel, reliable basis for contributing to disaster managers’ decision support.