From Data to Action: A Graph-Based Approach for Decision Support in Civil Protection Operations Planning

Abstract

In the face of increasing frequency and severity of crises such as natural disasters, pandemics, and geopolitical conflicts, civil protection organizations are crucial for recovery and support for affected populations. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of these organizations in crisis response are often hindered by the manual generation of operation plans, characterized by cognitive overload and limited analytic overview. Existing systems focus on detecting crises or post-crisis analysis, overlooking proactive planning. We present GRETA, a graph-based operational planning approach utilizing semantic historical data for better decision support. GRETA uses Operational Scenario Patterns to model operations, mapping them onto a knowledge graph in JSON-LD format, thus creating a structured representation of past data to improve future crisis response planning. We tested GRETA with Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief, analyzing over 157,450 historic operations from 2012-2022. Results show GRETA enhances plan efficiency, accuracy, and comprehensiveness, aiding especially inexperienced planners.