Information coordination for multi-agency roadway incident response

Abstract

The incidents happening on the roadways require responses from several agencies as dictated by the incident scenario to clear the incident and restore the transportation service. Responding agencies have created incident management systems (IMS) based on their role and priorities in the incident response. However, the responses from several agencies if not coordinated result in inconsistent or redundant actions that delay the response. In this study, a system model is designed to facilitate multiple agencies to coordinate their responses to an incident. Coordination requires sharing of information as good information improves decision-making, avoids duplicative efforts, stops unproductive activities and helps in modifying approaches. The developments in information and communication technology (ICT) offer a greater advantage in realizing this need and are thus incorporated in the system model. An expert system is used to prepare a coordinated response plan. Extensible markup language (XML) technologies together with the related developments of SOAP and web services are used to define the structure of the communication between the agencies to share information. Further, the interoperable web services specified by the open GIS consortium are incorporated in the model as GIS is becoming essential in response planning. In addition, the standards specifying the contents of the information exchanges needed during an incident response are identified and an attempt is made to study the influence of those information exchanges during an incident response.