EMERDEC

EMERDEC

EMERDEC Logo



The extensive transformation processes in energy supply and provision, the mobility sector, industrial manufacturing, residential construction, and waste management require rapid and flexible adaptation by emergency responders to changed framework conditions. In the event of an incident, such as a large release of energy carriers like hydrogen, LNG, or ammonia, or fires involving vehicles and storage systems with lithium-ion batteries, critical decisions must be made under time pressure. The training and experience background of emergency responders (“Operational Bias”) also significantly shapes decision-making.

Currently, many decision support systems are based on the well-known “leadership cycle,” which abstracts the leadership process and thus does not detail the decision-making phase. The precise mechanisms of information processing and decision-making play a central role in decision support and are currently not sufficiently investigated.
Digital support systems can only make concrete, beneficial suggestions if these decision-making mechanisms are understood and defined accurately enough for digital processing. The currently low use of digital support systems, despite a comprehensive offering, indicates the need for fundamental research findings on decision-making among emergency responders.

The project EMERDEC aims to investigate these fundamentals and thus create an improved development basis for digital support systems.
EMERDEC employs methods of empirical field research or cognitive task analysis to gain insights into decision-making processes of emergency responders in real missions. In addition, wearables (e.g., eye tracking) and mobile devices for real-time data collection are used. The use of simulation-based experiments in VR environments serves to study decision situations in realistic environments within the project.

Based on the improved understanding of decision-making processes, the project will subsequently address the question of which technological and ethical conditions must be met to implement automated systems in decision support. EMERDEC provides insights into how information must be prepared and presented to integrate it into decision-making processes as needs-oriented, gender-fair, and seamlessly as possible, without causing information overload. Moreover, it explores whether AI systems can learn from human experiential knowledge and provide improved decision support in hazard response.

EMERDEC lays the foundation for the design of decision support systems in emergency response and ensures a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges and needs of decision-makers.

EMERDEC is a cooperative and interdisciplinary research project supported by experts in psychology, sociology, data science, emergency management, and from emergency organizations.

Project Homepage: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emerdec-project/

Team:

Partners:

  • IRIS – Industrial Risk and Safety Solutions e.U. (Coordinator)
  • University of Graz – Cognitive Science Section
  • Disaster Competence Network Austria – Kompetenznetzwerk für Katastrophenprävention
  • Hochschule Furtwangen
  • JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
  • Bundeshauptstadt Wien
  • Landesfeuerwehrverband Kärnten

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Duration: 01.01.2025-31.12.2026 (24 Month)

Funding: Supported by FFG KIRAS