Command centers and emergency management support

International audienceAccording to studies of emergency command centers, working methods differ and difficulties may appear which negatively affect the response to the emergency. This paper intends to present a method, in the form of a model, which could obtain optimal efficiency in the command center. Four principles will be presented as the basis for an efficient emergency management operation. How these principles can be used in order to define an emergency management support system, and more particularly a telematics structure for decision support system will be presented. The authors discuss this model within an exemplary situation as a hypothesis, therefore idealized, in order to derive the features (human and technological) which may be adapted to a wide range of various disaster situations including both natural and man-made