During a disaster, emergency planners and managers need access to data from many sources as well as the ability to quickly analyze that data in order to determine the best response. Decision support tools help emergency planners and managers make decisions based on the level of risk involved. Modeling and simulation tools using real-time data provide more rapid and precise emergency response and recovery decisions.

RSD is working to improve operational decision support for multiple threats in several ways. RSD is promoting risk-based planning to help predict and manage disasters, researching ways to speed up disaster response and recovery to reduce economic loss and providing improved situational awareness to support decision making. RSD supports several projects that can improve decision support capabilities for emergency planners by reducing the impact of future disruptions, developing models and simulations to support accurate emergency response decisions and providing information that enables a better understanding of interdependent efforts during an unfolding emergency.

• More effective hurricane planning, training and operational decision support can help state and local officials reduce the number of unnecessary evacuations and make necessary evacuations more efficient. RSD’s National Hurricane Technology project will advance the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Hurricane Program by developing decision aids and best practices, and applying methods and simulation tools with new visual analytic capabilities.
• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to allocate its limited resources to the highest risks for air, rail, subway and water security transportation. Our Risk-based Resource Deployment Decision Aid project is developing a risk assessment tool that reports the highest current transportation risk for TSA operations.
• Emergency managers need to decrease the time and cost to train for, analyze and respond to incidents while improving preparedness. RSD’s Standard Unified Modeling Mapping Integrated Toolkit – Response project provides tools that help enable emergency managers access modeling tools and data sources for planning, conducting exercises and responding to incidents.