The first challenge in crisis response management is the early damage and needs assessment based on all incoming information from various sources such as on field deployed sensors or human observations. Likewise, it is important for an efficient crisis response management to make sure that ambiguous terminology is clearly defined, and methodologies and indicators explained. To support the damage assessment, all the relevant items need to be formally modelled and represented in a machinereadable format. For that purpose, a formal ontology would provide the basis for the verbal description of the current situation understanding as well as the underlying semantics for any fusion related tasks and display operations.In the crisis management process, early response begins when an emergency situation has occurred or, in some cases, when warning signs indicate that an emergency is imminent. It relates to the emergency operation actions conducted during the impact of an event and the shortterm aftermath. Responding to a Disaster, an Incident, a Crisis, or an Emergency (such event is called in the sequel a DICE) in a timely and effective manner can reduce deaths and injuries, contain secondary effects, and reduce the resulting economic losses and social disruption. Such response actions include: preservation of life; care of sick, injured, and dependent people (first aid, medical, evacuation facilities, and welfare); and provision of essential services (lifeline utilities, food, shelter, public information, and media). During the post-incident first hours, the CRCT (Crisis Response Coordination Team) is confronted with uncertainties in making critical decisions. There is a real need to gather situational information (e.g., information on casualties), together with information about available resources (e.g., medical facilities, rescue and law enforcement units). Then, the early assessment process allows the CRCT team to develop a picture of the overall impact of a DICE and to establish priorities for response and early recovery efforts ( fig.1 describes the response process) . Therefore, the overall purpose of the assessment is to provide information and to make recommendations that will enable timely decisions on appropriate response to a DICE situation. analysis Crisis Response Process Model SituationUnderstanding + ContextualInformation + DecisionalInformation + SituationalInformatio n + Strategies + Stakeholders DIC E (Disaster, Incident, Crisis or Emergency) Figure 1: Crisis response process Due to the fact that some significant issues still exist, the objective of a Crisis Response Management (CRM) support system is to propose at the tactical level, some new capabilities in order to provide assistance to the CRCT during the early response phase. Such a system will provide the situation understanding picture for providing a preliminary damage and needs assessment report, analysing the matching of the means needed for victim evacuation with the available resources and proposing to the users solutions to enable the eff...
