Augmented Resource Allocation Framework for Disaster Response Coordination in Mobile Cloud Environments

Abstract

In disaster scenarios requiring real-time response to multiple incidents in a limited period of time, the importance of efficient allocation of resources such as paramedics and supplies becomes crucial. Yet, this need is often complicated by the dynamic nature of emergencies, with differing levels of patient priority and accessibility, unknown degrees of communication and computation infrastructure damage, and varying numbers of available responders all contributing to the complexity of the situation. We present Augmented Resource Allocation (ARA), a new framework for efficiently managing responders, supplies, and resources during disaster scenarios within a mobile cloud environment. Our framework leverages human knowledge of the situation, existing dynamic routing algorithms, and centralized information storage at the mobile edge network to augment disaster response coordination. Finally, we apply our ARA methodology in a real-world mobile cloud computing application viz., Panacea's Cloud, and use experiments and simulations to show how we streamline information flows for disaster response coordination.