Software Tool for Semantic Resources Allocation in Humanitarian Crises

Abstract

Resource Allocation (RAlloc) is one of the most important tasks in organizing humanitarian response to humanitarian crises. It is not only that adequate and efficient RAlloc save lives and reduce damages caused by humanitarian crises, but RAlloc must be fast and efficient to save time and resources. Given that RAlloc is a type of a decision making process, it is expected that decision on RAlloc are based on accurate and relevant information generated at various stages of humanitarian response. In this paper we promote Semantic Resource Allocation (SemRAlloc) tool which a) collects and interprets the semantics of an environment where RAlloc is required and b) the reasons upon the semantics of that environment in order to make appropriate RAlloc. The tool is built with computations based on SWRL enabled OWL ontologies. The prototype has been implemented as a desk-top application which can also run in mobile/wireless environments, including Android smart phones.