Battelle Supports Emergency Managers with Automated Decision Support System

Industrial accidents, natural disasters, and structural failures often generate panic and disarray in the localities where they occur. Emergency managers must respond rapidly to incidents ranging from oil and other chemical spills, toxic releases, and explosions to fires, floods, and earthquakes. As they try to implement emergency response plans, managers are under tremendous pressure from time, risk, and inadequate information.

Researchers at the Battelle-managed Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a powerful new tool that supports emergency planning and response for facility accidents or disasters. EMADVANTAGE© is an automated decision support system that provides situation planning (“what if” scenarios) and response capabilities for a large multi-user environment.

Emergency response teams using EMADVANTAGE© can simultaneously access information from within the Emergency Operation Center (EOC), from remote locations using a web browser, or via wireless hand-held devices (personal digital assistants). Hospitals and other key resources can be notified in real time of events and updates during an emergency. The system enables an EOC to plan for potential emergencies, perform daily operations, and respond to emergencies.

EMADVANTAGE© provides users with the following capabilities and allows them to access information and make operational decisions within each major area: Activity Descriptions Hazard Modeling and Threatened Area Risk Identification and Protective Action Decisions Electronic Plan Generation/Execution EOC Activation/Emergency Declaration Facility/Resource Management Activity Tracking, Reports, and Status Boards User Defined Status Boards Web-based Operational Status Boards (Web OSB).

The system is now supporting emergency management activities for oil refineries in Mexico. It was tailored for use at PEMEX refineries by translating the user interface and on-line help into Spanish, providing site-specific equipment and chemical databases, and adding several new models, including toxic release, fire, hydrogen fluoride, and BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions). Electronic plans were constructed to directly support the daily operations and response activities at the Minatitlan Refinery. Site-specific status boards are used for daily operations, EOC activation, and emergency status.

One of the greatest strengths of the system allows EOCs to tailor status boards to meet client’s specific needs. This capability has been used extensively in the field. Status boards may contain text, numbers, locations, dates, and other types of information that are identified and organized by the user. This information can be shared between users as well as between EOCs. User-defined status boards are so flexible that pre-created boards and situation reports can be updated “on-the-fly” during an incident as information becomes available. Up-to-date reports can be easily transmitted to shelters, schools, hospitals, government offices, and others via web-based operational status boards (Web OSB). Web OSB is accessible via an Internet browser using a secure log-in ID. This unique feature allows information to flow to those who need it.

EMADVANTAGE© provides management personnel with the information and resources to better manage and control emergency situations.

For more information visit www.pnl.gov/emadvantage/ or contact Dave Millard at (509) 375-2947, dave.millard@pnl.gov.