Simulations for crisis management – PANDORA’s box

Abstract

Natural and human created disasters are increasingly becoming a common feature of our lives. From the recent tsunami and its aftermath in Japan to Icelandic volcanic ashes, to terrorists instigated actions such as 9/11 and the 7th July bombings in London there is a clear need for better training of strategic decision makers as well as the operational forces who need to deal with very complex and almost always multi agency operations. Quite often the difference between an emergency and a disaster is one or two critically wrong decisions in what quite often is a very tight and limited time span. PANDORA is a 3.9 Million Euro European FP7 funded project that aims to make use of emerging serious gaming concepts and technologies to develop an innovative and more effective training environment for the strategic decision makers (the Gold Commanders) so that they can cope more effectively with such difficult and challenging situations.