Monitoring and analysis of command post communication in rescue operations

The performance of a command post staff has a decisive effect on the outcom e of a rescue operation when it comes to co-ordination and management of va rious rescue forces. Monitoring and documentation of the internal work and communication processes that take place in a command team can increase the ability to investigate and understand cause-effect relationships between in coming field reports, operational procedures, decisions, commands and the r escue response in the field. To this end we present a method and a software tool that enable an observer to monitor and record communication events in a command post staff. The method extends link analysis by introducing time stamping and classification of events. Thus, extended link analysis enable s both cumulative measures and detailed temporal analysis of staff communic ation. The software tool supports configuration, monitoring, time stamping and classification of communication events. It can export data in standard formats for statistical analysis and visualisation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd. All rights reserved.