Situation awareness in systems of systems ad-hoc environments

Abstract

In disaster management environments with systems of systems operating in an ad hoc manner, the utilization of environmental resources, also known as situation awareness, is of curial importance. This is more crucial especially in a situation where various emergency teams are dealing with a complex disaster that is spread over a large geographical area. By situation awareness we are referring to the acknowledgment and usage of available contextual information. Context is information that can be used to characterize situations or an entity that is considered relevant in the interaction process of a user or an application. Thus the effective use of contextual information in ad hoc environments can extensively expand the adaptation of such an application. The main focus of this paper is on utilizing diverse contextual information within such environments to improve the way various systems interact and assist in an effective crisis management. We propose a methodology that makes the sharing of contextual information between systems more efficient as well as giving users full control. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.