Changes in Emergency Management Training

• Until the last decade, disaster training for first-responders was done with hands-on action exercises, complete with stretchers, mock casualties and fake blood. With the increased threat of terrorist attacks and an apparent rise in the number of natural disasters, emergency training is moving from costly and time-consuming live simulations to digital games. Using technology created for home PCs and Xboxes, these "serious games" are interactive simulations which teach security professionals, civilian administrators, and senior first-responders the trade-offs inherent in critical decision-making.
  
  

The Needs of the Many

• "Stop Disasters," a disaster-simulation game from the UN/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, puts participants in complex response situations: floods, tsunamis, fires and hurricanes. The training is computer-based action, involving participants in direct decision-making exercises that make them focus on critical strategies to save the greatest number of people. According to Peter Stuart, contributor to the International Simulation & Gaming Yearbook, at the strategic level of crisis management, "the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few." This runs counter to human emotions -- we want to save everyone, which may not be practical or even possible.
  
  

Crisis Collaboration

• One new interactive training game, called "Zero Hour," was developed through a collaboration between the Chicago Health Department, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Illinois. It simulates a mass anthrax attack, requiring participants to make critical operational decisions, respond to questions from simulated departments with competing needs, and field simulated phone calls with requests for added equipment. The game is designed to mirror real-world complexity.
  
  

Tactical Training Is Still Critical

• The Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory has developed "Ground Truth," which simulates an initial response to a chemical tanker truck leak. Future versions will include other biological emergency situations and incorporate common snafus like downed communications lines and equipment failures. Working with a time limit, players are required to make decisions which could resolve or worsen the situation, deploying responders, adjusting equipment, evacuating civilians and providing shelter. The game teaches players that integrating planning and strong communication channels can build collective effectiveness among community entities such as fire departments, police departments, ambulance services, emergency rooms, schools, and city councils.
  
  

3-D Simulation Scenarios

• The sophistication of simulation games continues to grow. "Hazmat: Hotzone," Carnegie-Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center 3-D first-person response game, was tested on New York City and Pittsburgh firefighters. Its commercial spin-off by SimOps Studios dubbed "Code 3D" uses custom-designed software that simulates first-responders' actual terrain, allowing trainers to load different scenarios using the responders' local landscapes.