Crises from large-scale natural disasters to global health emergencies are hitting harder and more frequently. One such crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the need for effective supply chain management, with demands for essential supplies surging beyond capacity.
This is why Professor Pavel Andreev has been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant for his research project titled “Empowering Crisis Response: Integrating Decision Intelligence in Community Support Systems.”
Crisis has become the new normal, which means that robust crisis management strategies must be too. Despite various strategies implemented by governments, organizations and communities to enhance supply chain resilience, current tools fall short in addressing the unique needs of communities during times of crisis.
Information technologies have shown the potential to revolutionize crisis management by facilitating enhanced collaboration, resource sharing and data-driven decision-making. However, existing systems lack adaptability, real-time decision-making capabilities and the collaboration required to navigate rapidly changing crisis conditions, often failing to offer a community-centered crisis response.
Community-based crisis management systems
Andreev’s project will introduce a decision intelligence (DI)-enhanced community collaboration support system. Through an advanced framework of data analytics, AI, machine learning and human judgement, DI can optimize real-time decision making, resource allocation, communication and co-ordination by predicting crisis developments and recommending the best courses of action.
This will allow communities to be more informed and make effective, timely decisions during crises, enhancing preparedness and recovery.
Andreev’s research will significantly benefit several academic fields, such as information systems, crisis management, supply chain logistics and design science. Furthermore, it will contribute to the growing knowledge of application of DI in crisis management, offering more practical, scalable solutions.
