A Human-centered Perspective on Interactive Optimization for Extreme Event Decision Making

Recent work on the topic of Interactive Optimization has explored opportunities for exploiting human perceptual and cognitive capabilities within frameworks traditionally associated with mathematical optimization. We flip this perspective in order to consider these same basic issues from a human-centered perspective: that is, we identify the opportunities (and challenges) for exploiting methods associated with mathematical optimization models within a framework of human decision making capabilities, as exemplified by complex, dynamic, and ill-structured problems.The paper examines these issues through the lens of Extreme Event (XE) decision making, where XE are defined as events that are rare and severe and create deep changes in society and are rapidly occurring and must be addressed through careful planning but also ingenuity, with little to no opportunity for revisiting prior decisions. Given this reframing, a human centered taxonomy of opportunities for supporting XE decision making is taken as a starting point. In contrast are cast three different methodological approaches to Interactive Optimization, leading to a discussion of the potential of these approaches to supporting XE decision making. The paper concludes with a discussion of prospects and challenges for future work in this area.