A Decision Support System for Developing Evacuation Plans around Nuclear Power Stations

TLDR

We developed TEDSS, a microcomputer decision support system to aid emergency managers in planning and operating evacuations around nuclear power stations. TEDSS generates detailed evacuation master plans and real‑time routing decisions using a knowledge base of expert rules, a simulation inference engine, and user‑friendly graphics to model scenarios, estimate times, and identify bottlenecks.

Abstract

We developed a microcomputer software package for analyzing and developing evacuation plans around nuclear power stations, the transportation evacuation decision support system—TEDSS. It is designed to help emergency managers make decisions in evacuation planning and operations. The system helps the user prepare detailed evacuation master plans for different scenarios, including evacuation times, best routes, expected traffic bottlenecks, and the allocation of evacuees to different shelters. In an actual emergency, the system helps the user to make decisions as the nature of the disaster changes, such as selecting proper zones to evacuate, estimating evacuation times, and providing routing strategies for the particular emergency. TEDSS has a knowledge base that contains the evacuation expert rules, disaster-related information, and an inference engine, which is a sophisticated simulation model. TEDSS employs graphic displays and system control capabilities to keep it user-friendly, flexible, quick to maintain, and easy to expand and modify.